A Day at the Zoo

Last Friday we were so lucky to spend the day at the Calgary Zoo! For some of us it was our first time visiting the zoo, and we all learned so much about animal habitats, behaviours and life cycles! 

We went on an African EcoTrek, which is really just a fancy way of saying that we had our own personal tour guides through the African Savannah and the Rainforest areas of the zoo! Sarah and Brandee did an awesome job of telling us all about the different animals and helping us to understand why they behave the way they do. 

Here are some of our favourite memories...

We saw the tigers walking around and we went to the very end of the zoo. ~Cheyenne

We got to see the butterfly part of the zoo and it was so pretty. It was also very hot in there! ~Noor

I liked when the bat girl came out. She knew a lot about bats and she told us lots about bats. Fruit bats don’t have to be fast or good flyers because it’s not like prey. ~Aidan

When we were walking on the sidewalk the peacock was there and he was really close to my legs and then his touched my hand. ~Bailey

When I was at the butterfly and plant area, I showed Cheyenne where the chocolate tree and the coffee tree was. ~Kairei

I learned that camels bumps are made out of food and water. ~Emily G.

I learned about how the hippos have big teeth. ~Kendra

The fruit bats, whenever they eat their fruit, they poop out the seeds and that helps make new plants. ~Arsalan

The hippos, they hold their breath in the water six minutes and sometimes you see half of the head and they breathe or they sleep.~Heala

A butterfly, in the butterfly place, landed on my finger. ~Asher

We went to the owl enclosure and we saw a bunch of owls and when we turned the corner there was an owl sleeping on the branch right in front of us. ~Brooke

When me and Amelia and our group, we went with the other class to see the lions, there was two girl lions and two boy lions and the girls were turning 20. They had babies when they were 4 and then now they are done having babies. ~Christina

We saw a penguin make a loud noise. ~Lily F.

I found out that the gorillas eat their own poop. ~Amelia

I got to see a tortoise. ~Billy

Janet and I were sitting in on a fake rhino! ~Marie

The meerkat on the top of the castle thing, he watches for predators and he makes a funny noise. ~Jordyn

I saw a butterfly hatching from its chrysalis.~Jarrick

I learned that komodo dragons are almost the size of a real dragon. ~Tristan M. 

We got to see the zoo keeper feed the grizzly bear. ~Chase

We got to see the hippo eat an apple as a special treat.~Beth

We got to see the snow leopard. They were sleeping. And the next time they were walking around. ~Hailey

I saw the whooping crane.~Sarah Y

I enjoyed when we went to go see the mountain goats there was a whole bunch of plants in the water. ~Charissa

I liked when the sun bear was walking back and forth. ~Emily Rose

A huge thank you to all of the parents who were able to join us.
We had a WONDERFUL day and are so excited for our next adventure! :) 

A New Week in Grade Three - Swimming Pictures

We had an exciting time at the pool last week - here are some pictures of our lessons!

This week on Friday we are heading to the zoo to go on a Safari EduTrek! It will be great to wrap up all of the learning we have done about animal life cycles and we are very excited to see all of the different animals at the zoo. We still need a few more parent volunteers to come with us. If you have security clearance with the office and are able to come, please let Mrs. Harper and Mrs. McIntyre know as soon as possible. Just a reminder, we are not allowed to bring money with us to the zoo, but we do need to bring a cold lunch to enjoy while we are there. 

Monday is the first day that some of the grade three students will be joining Ms. Raude in the grade 2/3 classroom. The classroom activities of those friends will be on Ms. Raude's blog soon! 

A reminder that there is a Parent Council meeting on Thursday at 7pm in the school library. We hope lots of parents are able to attend. 

Let's Start Blogging

Hello Parents and Students of Grade 3,

We are starting a blog, which we will do our best to update every week.  If you would like to sign up for an email copy every time we post, please add your email to the right of the page.  We will use this page to give you information about upcoming field trips, what we are doing in class, and photo's of all the fun we are having in Grade 3.

This week we welcome Mrs. McIntyre to our class, from her maternity leave.  She will now be with us and Mrs. Harper for the rest of the year!

We've had fun at swimming and it will continue for the rest of the week at Thornhill Pool.  We do not have enough volunteers for Wednesday or Thursday this week, so if you have your security clearance at the office please let us know and we'd love to have you for the walk!

Next Friday we will be heading to the Calgary Zoo for an Edu-Trek through the African Safari.  Please return all forms by Thursday of this week, and if you have clearance and can volunteer please let us know, as we need at least 6 adult volunteers.

We have also been using Raz-Kids.com to read books at our level.  This can be accessed at home.  If your child's first name begins with A-J their teacher username is harper3.  If their name begins with K-Z their teacher name is kochkr.  Then they click on their name and they should know their password.

We are very excited for all of the fun things coming up this year, and look forward to updating our blog and keep you in the loop!