Big Changes in Grade 3!

We had quite a busy few months, and our poor blog has gone unloved!

Here is some of what has been happening in grade three...

We said farewell to Mrs. Harper, who is on leave until her sweet baby arrives in April, and we welcomed Mrs. Kulmatyki, who has joined us for the rest of the year! 

We had a great turn out back in January for our 'It's a Crime Not to Read' pizza party at the Thornhill Library. It was so fun to have so many families together for dinner, and we all enjoyed some hilarious stories read by our resident CPS officer, Constable McCartney!

We have kept busy during Daily5 time practicing reading and writing skills. Don't forget, every student should be reading for at least 20 minutes at home every day! Our March reading calendars are starting to get very full, and April calendars will be coming home this week so that you have them during Spring Break! 

In Math we have been learning all about measurement. We did a very fun experiment to learn a little bit about liquid masses - give it a try at home by clicking here! 

This past week we have welcomed the change of seasons by creating some beautiful spring art! We did a guided drawing exercise to create warm and cool coloured birds....

...and we used water colour, crayons, and acrylic paints to create beautiful cherry blossom trees.

Happy spring break! Just a reminder that classes will resume on Tuesday, April 7th!

Don't forget to keep up with your home reading over the break!! 

Welcome back!

Grade three has returned from Winter Break ready to do some big learning. We have been busy creating new art projects to brighten up our freshly painted walls, practicing 3 digit addition and subtraction, and we even started multiplication this week! We are focusing on four different countries in Social Studies - Peru, Ukraine, Tunisia and Peru. We will be learning about different features of each country in the coming months. In Science we created our own engineering firm - Fantastic Futures - to learn about testing materials and designs when building safe structures. 

Coming up next week is the Crime Not to Read pizza party, on Wednesday January 21st. This is an evening sponsored by the Crime Not to Read program. Families are invited to the Thornhill branch of the Calgary Public Library to enjoy a pizza dinner and stories with our police officer. There is no charge for this evening, and all families and siblings are welcome to attend. Students are encouraged to bring their library cards with them in order to check out books with their families! 

On Monday January 26th our grade three class will be attending a National Geographic Live presentation at the Arts Commons (formerly the EPCOR Centre for Performing Arts). Forms for this trip went home on Friday, and are due back to the school by Thursday January 21. If you are available to volunteer for this event please let us know as soon as possible so the appropriate forms can be sent home. Students will be departing the school via school bus at 9:15, and will return in time for lunch. We look forward to doing some good learning about the animal needs and adaptations in the Antarctic region! 

December in Grade 3

Greetings all!
With the arrival of December we are getting very excited for next weeks Christmas Concert and the other exciting events that we have going on during the month of December!

Christmas Concert - Thursday, December 11

Afternoon Performance -  2pm 
Doors at 1:45pm

• Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles & family members are welcome to attend! Tickets are NOT required for this performance! 
• Bring a donation to the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank and have your name entered into a raffle prize draw. (for the afternoon performance only!)

Evening Performance - 6:30pm
Doors open at 6:15pm

• Today we are sending home the tickets for the evening performance of Flakes. Each family will receive two tickets for the evening performance. (Students who are performing do not need a ticket.)
• If you are not going to use your tickets, please return them to the school as soon as possible.
• If you need extra tickets please check with the office. Extra tickets are limited and will be given on a first come, first serve basis.
• Food Bank donations will be welcomed! 

Food Bank

For the month of December we will be collecting food donations for the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank. Our goal as a school is to collect over 370 pounds of food! Some of the foods on the Food Bank Wish List: pasta, rice, tomato sauce, fruit juice, canned fruit & vegetables, peanut butter, baby formula, canned fish & meat, soup, stew.

Thank you in advance from all of us at CN Gunn for your support! 

Home Reading

As our November home reading calendars come in we will total up the number of reading minutes to see if we reached our goal of 12000 minutes! Right now we are at 8, 575 minutes; still some to go to get our prize of an extra gym period. Send those calendars in if you have not already. 

For the month of December we will be aiming for 10,000 minutes. Please try to encourage your child to be reading quietly to themselves or out loud for at least 20 minutes each day! 

Royal Tyrrell Museum

Unfortunately due to the nasty arrival of winter last week we were unable to make the trek to Drumheller for our Royal Tyrrell Museum field trip. Thank you so much to all of the parents who volunteered to come - trips like that would not be possible without the amazing support we have from all of you! 

Report Cards

Student's report cards will be coming home on Friday, December 12th. Just a heads up that we are using a new grading system this year, so marks are on a 1-4 scale (instead of the 1-5 scale of previous years). There will be more information sent home in the report card envelope about this change. 

PD Day - Friday, December 5

There will be no school for students this Friday, as teachers will be engaged in professional development activities. 

This Week in Grade 3

With Remembrance Day coming up next week we have been busy discussing the significance of the poppy and why we take a minute of silence on November 11th. We read a book about how poppies became the symbol for Remembrance Day and then created beautiful thumbprint poppies.

This week was also the Halloween Candy Exchange. Students were asked to bring in a handful (or more, if they wanted) of their halloween treats to donate in exchange for a healthy recess snack. The candy will be donated to The Samaritan's Purse to be used for Operation Christmas Child, a project that sends shoeboxes filled with toys, treats, toiletries and other essentials to children in other countries. This not only encouraged students to make healthy food choices, but also created an opportunity for global citizenship in our school. In Social Studies we have been learning about organizations around the world that help people in need, and we watched a video about where the candy will be going. Our grade 3 friends were very proud of their ability to participate in such a wonderful cause.

This was just some of the candy collected from the whole school!

Our grade 3 friends showing off their apples before recess!

With the ending of October came the end of our October Reading Challenge. The goal for the whole class was to read 7000 minutes during the month. Our grand total was 8785 minutes!

The winner of our book draw was Kappy - Congratulations Kappy! :)

For November we are working on a classroom reward. Our goal is 12000 minutes and if we reach that students who participate will have the opportunity to participate in an extra gym class! Students are encouraged to read 20 minutes every day, and return their reading calendars on Mondays.