Connaught School's Grade 3/4 Classroom Blog

Hi families! The Grade 3/4 classes are continuing to learn about the 4 countries in Social Studies (India, Peru, Ukraine, and Tunisia). Ms. Sarah's class is now learning about Peru. We began by looking at Peru on a world map and making predictions about the country's climate and geography based on it's physical location. We are now researching animals that live in Peru. There are thousands of animals and insects to have chosen from, as the Amazonian Rainforest covers some of Peru! Also, Ms. Sarah's class has begun a new novel study. We are now reading Matilda , by Roald Dahl. The students are loving it! Ask your child to share about the book using the following prompts: Describe Matilda. What is she like? What is Matilda's family like? Does Matilda fit in with her family? Why/why not? What is your favourite part in the book so far? In math, students have continued to practice and build upon their understanding of multiplication (up to 5x5 for grade 3

Last week most of the grade 3/4 classes had a visit from a guide dog in training! A puppy learning how to be a guide dog for blind people came to our classes, along with the volunteer training her. Students learned about the importance of volunteers in our community, about some of the important commands the dogs need to learn to help keep their person safe, and about ways our community can accommodate the needs of blind people. My favourite was watching Ria play tug of war, but then stop instantly at a single command! The dogs were so smart, and not even one year old! We are continuing our exploration of multiplication, with a focus on arrays. Students are learning how to represent multiplication visually. You can find out more about arrays  HERE  - try practicing at home! Set up arrays of canned food or shoes or other household items, and have your child practice figuring out how many there are using a strategy like skip counting, doubling, or repeated addition. It is important f

This past month in Social Studies, and for the next three months, each class has been focussed on exploring one country. Each class will delve into either Ukraine, Tunisia, India, or Peru for one month before moving onto the next. (Ask your child what country they studied in February and what unique things they learned about that culture.) Throughout February, Ms. Sinclair's class was researching Ukraine. We looked at landforms, animal life, agriculture, language, and many aspects of Ukrainian culture. To end the month we created Pysanky Eggs, which is a traditional art project involving decorating and dying eggs. Students each explained the process of Pysanky, looked at the significance of the traditional symbols, and designed their own egg.  Things then got messy and fun as we decorated, dyed, and blew out our eggs so that only the colourful shell remained!  Have a look at some of our beautiful creations! 

Spaghetti Tower Marshmallow Challenge In science students have been learning about the 4 main types of bridges, beam, arch, truss, and suspension bridges. We began with our own building spaghetti tower marshmallow challenge, this was a team building activity that encouraged students to use their design mindset and team work skills! Students were challenged with attempting to build the tallest possible tower that could support a marshmallow.  Each group was given  s paghetti, tape, string  and 18 minutes to complete the task!   Students please share what was difficult about this challenge? What shapes did you discover were the strongest? What might you do differently next time? In math students have been using a variety of strategies to aid in our understanding of multiplication. We have been learning the following strategies: array  equal groups repeated addition  number lines  Students please share how we use each strategy to solve multiplication problem

Growth Mindset in Learning Everyday, in Grade 3/4, students take risks in their learning.  This is integral to growth mindset and building up resilience muscles.  Students have worked hard on self talk strategies such as,  "I can be brave and strong," and "It's okay to make mistakes because that is how I can learn."Through our building centers, literacy centers, math learning and entry into our study of Four Countries, students practice their self regulation, self - talk, citizenship and personal development.  

Bridge Challenge! This week in Ms. Sarah's class, we have been building bridges! We began by learning about the 4 main types of bridges: beam, truss, arch, and suspension bridges. We then learned about strong shapes (triangles) and what materials bridges can be made out of. We also looked at some famous bridges from around the world! Using their understanding of bridges, students built bridges using popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and plasticine (some groups requested additional supplies). The bridge had to span a river with a width of 30cm! We learned that it is very difficult to build a bridge using spaghetti and marshmallows! In the future, we are hoping to build a bridge strong enough and wide enough to drive a school robot across! Here's a look at our bridges: Reflection: - What type of bridge did your group build? - What worked well for your group? - What didn't work well for your group? - What would your group do differently if presented with