Harris- Grade 3 Ramsay

  Since our first week of school, we have enjoyed the hands-on experiences that our Buoyancy and Boat unit has provided. Supporting each other and learning how to work together while fulfilling a science challenge has been a great way to build new friendships and make a meaningful connection. Our unit is not over, but we have drawn conclusions that help us understand the concepts of buoyancy and water displacement to design a watercraft that will support a given amount of weight. We are excited to continue to build on our learning so that we may create a self-propelled boat as our final project.  In closing, I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to join me for our Parent-Teacher conferences. It was such a pleasure learning more about your child and understanding what they are like outside of the classroom. I look forward to connecting with you again in November to share your child's academic progress and what learning goals we will be addressing based on their achievem

This week our grade 2/3 class started story workshop. Story workshop supports the student's literacy and social-emotional development. They are invited to find and tell stories from their real or imaginary lives using various mediums. Storytelling plays an integral role in language development and strongly supports children to see themselves as storytellers and authors of their ideas. As the children gain confidence in their roles as storytellers and authors, they begin to express their ideas through written symbols and alphabet letters using inventive spelling. Story workshop supports this writing process by immersing children in an environment rich with print and meaningful language while giving them daily opportunities to try out their new skills. Support and encouragement are assigned to each student's progress with feedback from both teacher and peers while recognizing and celebrating their continued growth. Story workshop is only one of several ways to address the writing

This week we went on our first weekly community walks. Our intention this year is to head outside for a community walk every Wednesday afternoon weather permitting. Research shows that learning in an outdoor environment has wonderful benefits for our mental health, it helps to improve understanding for our more active learners and can help our students to develop environmental awareness and a connection to the land.  While outside and throughout the year we will discover what the land means to us and recognize the deep, physical, mental, and spiritual connection to the land that is part of indigenous cultures.  Our focus this week on our community walk was to look for patterns in nature. Natural patterns include  symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks, and stripes . -I can investigate and show examples of patterns and repeating patterns in nature. -I can identify which natural pattern an object looks like.  -I can observe, sketch and label my natural

 Dear Parents I am so pleased to be able to have the opportunity to create a blog every week and provide a small glimpse into our classroom. I am happy to be teaching your child this year and excited about all of the wonderful things we get to learn and explore together.  To help establish our classroom as a safe and caring learning environment, it is important to take the time to establish what a peaceful classroom is. To do this we used the terminology of being a "Peacemaker" and a "Peacebreaker". We made an anchor chart about "Peacemakers" and "Peacebreakers" and we decided that we all are peacemakers. No one wants to be the "Peacebreaker" so we used the wonderful books No, David, David Goes to School and David gets in Trouble, by David Shannon to discover how this character is challenged to make the choices required to create a peaceful environment for himself and others.  We discussed that "Peacemakers" are better able to