May, 2008

May has arrived! Summer is quickly approaching now. April seemed to fly by and was a great month at Dufferin. The class was very diligent during Pause to Play when tracking the amount of time students spent in front of the t.v. or computer screen. Thank you for your support at home with this challenge.

May will be busy with Education Week Open House (May 1^st), MLAT testing (May 7^th) a field trip to Westfield Heritage Village (May 13^th), a field trip to Brantford’s Water Treatment Plant( May 14^th), our Jump Rope for Heart Event (May 16^th)and E.Q.A.O. testing (May 26^th - 29^th). If you would like to join us on either field trip (and have submitted your police check and green volunteer package) please let me know. We will be walking to the Water Treatment Plant so there will be no cost for this trip. Our cost to Westfield Heritage Village will be subsidized with our earnings from popcorn sales.

We will be selling popcorn at the Open House this Thursday, May 1^st. Come and try some new flavours! Caramel, Cheesy Dill, Jalapeno Jack, Nacho, BBQ, ButterSalt, Salt & Vinegar, Dill, Ranch, and Ketchup ($2 for Caramel and $1.50 for other flavours)

Merci,

Mlle Tanaszczuk

May book orders went home recently, they are due back on Thursday, May 8^th. Please remember that payments must be made using cheques made payable to Scholastic Canada Ltd. Happy Reading!

Don't forget to put in your order for the 2007-2008 Yearbook. Order forms went home on Monday April 28th. Yearbooks are $12.00, and orders will be accepted until Friday May 9^th.

The class practised their spelling and dictée words frequently throughout April and were much more successful on our weekly tests. Bravo to all members of the class on a job well done! Our French words for May will be a review of key terminology for mathematics. Our English words will focus on homophones as well as key words found in reading comprehension questions. The word list went home on April 28^th.

Our unit on fractions was a success. We are now studying length, perimeter and area. Some key words from this unit are: la longeur (length), la largeur (width), la hauteur (height), mètre, un centimètre, un kilomètre, un périmètre (perimeter), des unités (units), l’aire (area) and des unités carrées (units squared). We will also be working through a unit on number and geometric patterns. Key words from this unit are : une régularité (pattern), une suite croissante (growing pattern), une suite répétitive (repeating pattern) and une partie répétitive (repeating part). Our final unit will be on probability. Key words from this unit are: impossible, possible, certain, probable, improbable, également probable (equally probable), un expérience (an experiment), une probabilité (probability), équitable, and un résultat.

March was a very short month but our class managed to accomplish a lot at school. I hope that you enjoyed all of the family time together during our long weekends and March Break. We will be able to settle back into our daily routine during the month of April. We have new units starting in Math and Science. We will be participating in Backwards Day on April 1^st to recognize April Fools’ Day. As well, I have signed our class up to participate in the Turn Off the T.V. Week Challenge from April 21^st -27^th. Other classes will also be facing this challenge during this time. Participation is voluntary and I hope that all families who are able to participate will seriously consider entering this challenge to turn of the T.V. and Computer (except for work related reasons) for the week. We will brainstorm various activities in class that can help to pass the time and to enjoy the spring during this week. The calendar sent home with this newsletter will highlight other important dates and events in our classroom and at École Dufferin in general.

There are quite a few people that I would like to thank for their help this past month. Firstly, merci à la famille Gracey. The Gracey family sent in wonderful information cards that helped to deepen our understanding and appreciation of 5,10,20, 50 and 100 dollar bills and the security features of our currency. Secondly, merci à M Merson who joined us and helped out on our skating trip. Thank you as well to Mme DeBoer who has been volunteering in our classroom on a weekly basis and accompanied us on our skating trip as well. Mme Aniol is another parent volunteer who helps out on a weekly basis in our classroom with both our literacy and math programs. And last, but certainly not least, merci à Erica. Erica is a co-op student from B.C.I. who is a wonderful addition to our classroom every afternoon as she works with the students during math, science, social studies and reading time. Both the students and I appreciate her helpfulness and abilities in our classroom.

April book orders went home on Thursday, they are due back on Friday, April 11^th. Please remember that payments must be made using cheques made payable to Scholastic Canada Ltd. Happy Reading!

Our unit on money went very well as everyone really worked hard to understand and practice finding total prices and making change. We will be working through two short units in math this month. The first unit begins this week and is Transformational Geometry. The key vocabulary that you can review at home is as follows: un quadrillage, une translation, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, une rotation, un centre de rotation, un quart de tour, un demi-tour, trois quarts de tour, une réflexion, un axe de réflexion, une image, un axe de symétrie, le sens des aiguilles d’une montre and le sens inverse des aiguilles d’une montre. It will be helpful to practice rotating shapes on grid paper in quarter turns (one quarter, two quarters, three quarters and a full rotation) as well as to review the concept of clock-wise and counter clock-wise.

We will start a unit on Fractions as well during April. You can practice fractions and mixed fractions while following a recipe together and then dividing your delicious creations into equal parts for the whole family. The key French words and terms for this unit are as follows: des parties égales, des fractions, des demies, des sixièmes, des quarts, des tiers, des huitièmes and un nombre fractionnaire.

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s March already! We’ve been really busy this past month with classroom projects and assignments. The magnetic boats were a great success as everyone made a boat that could hold at least 15 pennies and be pulled by a magnet. Thank you for your support at home with this assignment. Bravo troisième année on a job well done!

The Grade Three classes have started a delicious fundraiser throughout the school to help offset the cost of our field trips. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be selling flavoured (Kernels) popcorn to all classes during the first Nutrition Break and delivering the popcorn at the second Nutrition Break. The cost of a bag of popcorn is $1.50/bag. Our class is responsible for taking orders and delivering popcorn on Wednesdays. We will eat before orders are taken and after deliveries are made. We started this past week and it was great success. Everyone did well taking the orders, counting up the money owed and money received and delivering the popcorn. This project is really going to help our counting skills and give the Gr. 3 students an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and responsibility. We will continue with this fundraiser during the next few months. Merci à Mme Gasparotto who thought of this fundraiser and worked hard to bring it to Dufferin.

We will be going skating on March 20^th. If you can join us for this trip (and have submitted your police check and green volunteer package) please let me know by March 13^th so that I can add you to our list. It should be an enjoyable time.

I hope that you all have a wonderful month and enjoy the many holidays ahead. Please see below for additional information and important dates.

Merci,

Mlle Tanaszczuk

March book orders went home on Wednesday, they are due back on Friday, March 20^th. Please remember that payments must be made using cheques made payable to Scholastic Canada Ltd. Happy Reading!

Our weekly dictées and spelling tests will be a repeat of our February words as snow days and illnesses affected our schedule of tests and our practise in class.

We have worked on measuring time, capacity and mass. Please continue to work on telling time at home. In particular, ask your son or daughter to tell you what time it will be in 10 or 15 minutes or what time it was a few minutes ago. Remind them to count backwards or forwards by 5 when appropriate. This is a challenging skill and a great 10 minute activity for the evenings when there is no homework.

Félicitations à tout le monde! The boats were a success and the presentations were wonderful. The question and answer period was full of great questions and very clear answers. Our class record so far is a boat that can hold 938 pennies and still float. Congratulations to Samantha for such a strong and stable boat! We will begin our next unit on Stability at the beginning of April.

Wow, January flew by and we’re already into the month of February! January went well as everyone started off the new school year working harder than ever. I have been very impressed with our class overall this year and this month in particular. Everyone is showing determination and perseverance with daily tasks. Students have been cooperating very well in all subject areas and group activities.

In addition, this group has joined together in a common interest to protect the environment. As a class, we have come up with many practical ideas for conservation that can be implemented in the school and at home. As well, students have been busy researching environmental issues and writing letters to express their concern. I imagine that you have had some enlightening dinner conversations at home and are as impressed as I am with each student’s interest in and commitment to the environment.

February will be an exciting month as we hope to start an Environment Club at Dufferin with the help of any interested students, Mme Gibbon and Mlle Spicer. This club will be starting shortly as a result and exciting projects will start to take place around the school. Be sure to ask your child about his or her ideas to help the environment. They have some very creative and practical ideas.

I hope that you all have a wonderful month and enjoy February 18^th, Family Day. Please see below for additional information and important dates.

Merci,

Mlle Tanaszczuk

Congratulations are also in order for certain students who have excelled in various areas. At the beginning of January, Dillin and London were recognized for their hard work and perseverance in Math class. Patricia once again earned a certificate for her consistent efforts to speak and improve her French in class. During the month of January, Kyla has shown a great and consistent effort in speaking French on a daily basis, in all subject areas and has therefore earned a certificate for her oral French. Brooke has persevered both at school and at home to write many wonderful stories and to see them through to publication. Liam has persevered with his daily math assignments and improved the quality of his answers and rational. Bravo to Brooke, Liam, Dillin, London and Kyla for their determination, success and certificates this month.

January book orders went home on Monday, they are due back on Friday, February 15th. Please remember that payments must be made using cheques made payable to Scholastic Canada Ltd. Happy Reading!

We’ve just finished a novel study of Stone Fox, a book which everyone really enjoyed. We will complete a short but fun unit on fractured fairy tales before beginning our study of Sarah Plain and Tall. We have been working with words in both languages and have been looking at small changes in words that make a big difference in meaning and pronunciation during our French classes.

Our weekly dictées and spelling tests will begin this Thursday. The list of words will be sent home with this newsletter.

The class really enjoyed our unit on multiplication and division. Please continue to work on the multiplication tables at home. We will continue our daily drills until we have studies all of the multiplication facts up to 12 times 12. We will be moving on to another hands-on and interactive unit; measurement. In order to reinforce our classroom learning, please challenge your child with measurement projects at home. The tasks can be as simple as asking your child to tell the time on the clock (analog not digital) or making a batch of cookies using a recipe and measuring out ingredients carefully. If you would like more ideas that can be used at home to practice measurement, please let me know. I’d be happy to provide you with some simple projects.

The class has been working very hard on a daily basis and as a result most work is being completed in class or finished at recess. Bravo to everyone for persevering with class assignments. As always, if work does come home, please remind your child to use a ruler, pencil and eraser. Encourage them to focus on neatness and completion.

Report cards will go home today, Monday December 3^rd. Inside the envelope there will be a page with an interview time for the student conferences to be held Thursday evening and Friday morning. I have scheduled a time for every student, even if an interview was not requested. Please let me know if you cannot attend or need to change the time or date as soon as possible.

Also, page three of the report card is very important. It is a time for the students to reflect on their efforts and results. Please help them to brainstorm strategies that they can implement or continue to further their success at school. Take the time to acknowledge the work and effort that they have already demonstrated this year as well. Every student has accomplished a lot this year. Page Three needs to be returned to the school in the report card envelope. The interview this week will be a great time to return the third page and to review the goals together. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday or Friday and discussing the your child’s progress, successes and goals.

Our virtue for the month of November was tolerance. Each nutrition break, many of the students in our class show great patience and acceptance towards their kindergarten buddies. At our assembly Friday Gabrielle, Kalista and Patricia were recognized for their daily efforts to help and to befriend the kindergarten students. Patricia was also recognized for her excellent efforts in both oral and written French. Hayden and Hunter are to be congratulated for their daily efforts during our daily Writers’ Workshop. In addition, the whole class deserves a round of applause as they earned another BINGO and a special treat.

I hope that I will see everyone Thursday, December 20^th at Dufferin Open House. Our classroom will be open to family and guests who would like to see some original books and to hear them read aloud by the authors. The students have been working hard as authors, editors and publishers to create these literary works. There will be both live performances and tape recordings that can be heard while students are visiting other rooms and exhibits. Some students may also choose to present one or more of the group plays that we have practised and performed during our literacy block. Room 17 is the place to be between 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m!

We are wrapping up our unit on Canada in the next few weeks. We have started our Canadian Symbols Project. Students are choosing and researching symbols that they believe represent Canada.

We have been focussing on our reading fluency while performing Reader’s Theatre. We have been conferencing and applying feedback from other students during Writers’ Workshops. Ask your child what he or she is writing about at school. Encourage him or her to share the plot, setting and characters.

We have also been working hard while making words in class. The competition can be fierce when we end our week with a ‘Mlle versus the class’ competition to see who can make the most words in a short amount of time. The score is the class 2, Mlle 1. You can play a similar game at home by writing and cutting out letters on scrap paper and drawing 13 letters out of a bag. Set the timer for 5 minutes and see who can come up with the most words. To challenge everyone in the family, allow French words to be played and have a French/English dictionary on hand in case a word is challenged. You’ll be surprised with how many words your child can think of and spell correctly. Words spelled phonetically are acknowledged but do not count for points!

We have started our unit on Data Management. There will be some surveys coming home for family input as well as graphs (pictographs, bar graphs, etc.). Please remind your child to use a ruler, pencil and eraser when finishing math work. Encourage them to focus on neatness and completion. We will be moving on to multiplication and division soon. To get a head start you can practice multiplying numbers and creating equal groups with various items around the house.

December will be a month of reflection on time management. Students who do not reach the day’s goal in mathematics will be staying in to achieve the goal and to write short reflections on why they were not productive in class. Hopefully this will help to improve daily work habits and overall success. The goal is set based on the overall time given for the day’s work and the ability of the students to do the work (i.e. whether it is the start of a unit and the knowledge is new or the end of unit and the concepts have been practised and applied many times). At the beginning of a unit more time and less questions are given. There are always examples available for students and, of course, a primary resource as well (the teacher).

We are wrapping up our classroom science experiment on plants. We will be moving on to a fun unit on magnetism near the end of December.

Sincerely,

Mlle Tanaszczuk

It is with sadness that we say good-bye to Courtney this week. She will be leaving our classroom to enroll at a school closer to her new home. She has been an enthusiastic, friendly and hardworking member of our class and I know that we will all miss her. We wish her all the best at her new school. She will be a wonderful addition to their Gr. 3 classroom.

Our virtue of the month for October was thankfulness yet I’d like to recognize two students who continue to show September’s virtue of respect to their peers and the staff here at Dufferin School. Congratulations and thank you for your great efforts Patricia and Hayden! This Friday, Courtney will be recognized for her excellent efforts in French and Rachael for her diligence in mathematics.

Please continue with the nightly reading at home. Most students will have brought home a levelled book by now. While you are waiting for a book, please make a point of reading aloud together each night. I know that many of you are already reading together daily. As an extension of this routine, encourage your child to read various forms of text other than picture or chapter books. You could also read an article from the newspaper, our classroom newsletter, an old yearbook, magazines or even a story written at home.

Thank you so much once again for your cooperation and support with nightly reading. It is already making a difference for many students.

We are continuing our unit on mapping skills, looking at Canada in particular. We are also studying Canadian symbols and landmarks.

We continue to work with words on a daily basis. Our focus in French will be the verbs avoir and être (both conjugating the verbs and using them in the proper context). We will also be focussing on parts of speech in both our French and English language classes. We are at the editing and publishing stage of our Writing Workshops as each student will choose one piece of writing to complete. Their final pieces will be presented to the class this month. We will have an author’s corner at our Christmas Open House where each student will have a chance to present their writing to peers, friends and family.

We are wrapping up our unit on addition and subtraction this week. Next week we will begin a unit on geometry. Encourage your child to identify shapes in his or her surroundings. We will have some fun with this unit as we study different shapes. Keep an eye out for a geometry project that will be coming home in two weeks. The due date and a rubric will be sent home with the project. In order to have materials for the project, please start saving recyclable items that are also geometric shapes (i.e. a rectangular cereal box, a round cream cheese container, etc.).

We will be finishing our unit on plant life this month. Our trip to Brantwood Farms in October was a lot of fun and it also allowed us to study three plants up close. Everyone enjoyed choosing a pumpkin, corn and apples. The candy apples we made afterwards were a big hit! We will be studying bulbs, seeds and the germination process this month and practising our observation and sketching skills.