Harris- Grade 3 Ramsay

This week we started your Rocks and Minerals unit in Science. In this unit we will be learning about materials found on Earth’s surface—rocks, minerals and soil. We will be examining sample rocks, and discovering the similarities and differences using simple tests and tools. As we discover more about rocks we will learn that each kind of rock has a set of characteristics and that these characteristics can be used in classifying and identifying them. Our unit will also include the study of soil, as we learn that the materials in soil include include rock fragments and remains of living things. As we continue to enjoy the outdoors on our community walk, we focused our attention this week on the beautiful cityscape that we get from the top of Scottman's Hill. We used this as an opportunity to review our knowledge of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes. Further along on our walk, we were also thrilled to discover another pair of mating osprey and their nest at the top of a new structure.   

 This week in literacy, we continued with our poetry unit and created a Diamanté poem for Mother's Day. We also continued to develop our research skills by choosing and representing an invertebrate of our choice. We also looked closely at the rules required to learn how to add "ed" and "ing" endings correctly. We discovered that when adding "ed," there are three rules to follow. Rule 1: If two consonants follow a vowel, just add -ed. Rule 2: If you have a v-c-e pattern, drop the silent e and add -ed. Rule 3: If a vowel is followed by one consonant, double the last letter and add -ed. When adding "ing" we learned that if we have a short vowel sound with one consonant, we double the consonant and add "-ing" as in putting. If we have a short vowel sound with two consonants we just add "ing" as in jumping. Finally, if a word ends in "e" we drop the "e" and then add the "ing as in joking.  In math, we b

In class this week, we began to understand the art of persuasion and the art of persuasive writing. We looked at several stories that helped us see characters trying to persuade someone for something important to them. "I Wanna Iguana" by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow is a great example. This story is a series of letters between a mother and son. In his letters, the son tries to convince his mom to let him get a pet iguana. In her letters, she makes counter-arguments against his reasons for getting an iguana. Some arguments are good, and some aren't as good. But, in the end, Alex's reasons prevail, and he gets his iguana. We discussed what the word "persuade" means, and as a class, we brainstormed topics that we could write a persuasive argument. Here are some examples:  -Being allowed to get a puppy - Extending our recess time -Staying up 15 minutes later in the evening -Getting a new set of golf clubs -Having a swimming pool built in your backyar

 This week in Math, we have started our money unit. In this unit we will learn how to count money, including coins and bills. We will learn the relationships among coins, including the penny. Although the penny is no longer used in Canada, the value of the penny as one cent is still important as the base value of all the other coins. We will count money amounts involving coins starting with the larger value, and we will learn to represent money amounts using the least number of coins. Once we have familiarized ourselves with coins we will learn how to make change by counting to the nearest multiple of ten and then counting up to the nearest dollar.  Our money unit has a great connection to our Social Studies topic regarding the difference between needs and wants as well discussing and identifying the difference between goods and services. We learned that a good is something you buy and consume. Goods are things that you can keep, eat or use. A service is something that someone does for