3A Class Blog: December 2011 Newslettter

Dear Parents:

December is upon us and here is some news and reminders for the month. It is a short month but still packed with activity. As the 2011 year comes to an end, I wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a very Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Allison

December Curriculum

Language

Students will continue to respond to texts using the 3 R model (retell, relate, reflect). This month the main focus will be making connections and relating what students read to other texts, events in their own lives or world experiences. Students are expected to:

1. describe an event that occurs in their reading,

2. relate it to another event and describe the second event

3. give an opinion about the two events

Word Work continues to be sent home each Monday and returned each Thursday.

Students are writing daily in their writer's notebooks. We have been focusing on Procedural texts where students have to explain how to do something using the transition words first, after, then, next and finally.

In media, students will be practising typing skills and creating advertisements on the computer.

Math

We will finish our Measurement Unit (mass, volume, capacity and temperature)

Start our Number Sense Unit (Patterns in Addition and Subtraction)

Our school focus this year is Math. Students in 3A will have many opportunities to work collaboratively with their peers to problem solve this year. The pictures below show the students creating their own learning and discussing strategies in teams. Students are then given a chance to present their solutions to the class. During this time, the "audience" has to keep track of the strategies that were used by the presenting team. At the end, students do a gallery walk to see the different strategies used and the solutions are organized from least to most efficient. It's a great day for learning at Talbot Trail!