Thursday, Nov. 30th, 2017

Highlights 

This week the students worked on a writing activity based on The Best Day Ever! They are very focused on their work with sentences and remembering that sentences have 2 parts (subject/predicate). They are also becoming more aware of proper capitalization and punctuation. This work will continue and we will begin working on using commas next week. We began our new unit in math. The students will be learning about collecting data and graphing the results from now until the winter break. 

Important Information:

• The school is collecting non-perishable food items for the Mayor's Food Drive. If you would like to donate the student's can bring in the items in the morning and put them in the boxes at the front of the school. The food will be going to the Calgary Food Bank. Deadline to bring in food donations is TOMORROW: Friday, Dec. 1st. 
• Science test on Rocks and Minerals is TOMORROW! Please study your lap books that were sent home on Tuesday. 
• Math tests will be sent home for your review next week! 

Reminders:

• School Activity fees and Lunchroom Incidental Activity fees were due on November 16th. 
• Wear crazy socks tomorrow to support The Alex! There will be an assembly in the morning to learn about filling socks. 
• The students are asked to bring in any Rupees (Indian currency) to share with the class during social studies. 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 
~ Science: Study for the test on Rocks and Minerals! 

Ask Me About:

~ Fossils! 

Monday November 27th 2017

Highlights 

We started the day with morning challenge. The students were given a picture and a list of unfinished sentences that only included the subject. They had to finish the sentences by adding the predicate. We then had math. We're working on a wrap up activity for the unit on numbers to 1000. We had music and gym today. After gym, we had spelling and daily 5. We all did work on writing for daily 5 today. The students are working on a piece of writing called, "The Best Day Ever!' After lunch, we worked on language arts. We discussed capitalization of proper nouns. We then wrote sentences about those landmarks using descriptive language. We also continued our work on the different genre's or writing. Today's lesson focused on persuasive writing/opinion writing. At the end of the day we had social studies. We continued to learn about India. We had a lot of questions about the Taj Mahal today. 
Important Information:

The school is collecting non-perishable food items for the Mayor's Food Drive. If you would like to donate the student's can bring in the items in the morning and put them in the boxes at the front of the school. The food will be going to the Calgary Food Bank. Deadline to bring in food donations is Friday, Dec. 1st. 

Reminders:

• School Activity fees and Lunchroom Incidental Activity fees were due on November 16th. 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Spelling: Monday: creepy, bright, lonely, cheerful, calm

                       Tuesday: kind, wonderful, warm, fancy, icy

                       Wednesday: ugly, ripe, little, tiny, child

Ask Me About:

~ Tell me some interesting facts about the Taj Mahal

Thursday, Nov. 23rd, 2017

Highlights

This morning we started the math test. The students are doing very well on it so far. They will finish writing their tests tomorrow and we will mark them and send them home sometime next week. 

We have been working on narrative and expository writing over the past week. The students have really come along and are able to define both types of writing. We have also continued editing different writing for correct capitals and punctuation. Today we also extended our writing to include a description of a beach setting using the 5 senses. Here are a couple examples:

1. "On a quiet, peaceful beach with birds chirping and the water splashing, they see the sun rising down. They felt the soft sand." ~ Avizheh

2. "I see dark clouds with fiery sparks flying down to the ground. I hear very loud sounds, which look like sticks of dynamite, bursting with sound. There is a smokey scent like a building on fire. I was startled and I feel like I'm everywhere looking at the wonderful show." ~ Ethan

3. "It is dark at the beach. People are talking. The crowd is cheering. Fireworks are popping. The water is warm. It smells like sand. Sea shells are lying around. There are lots of umbrellas and beach towels. I see the moon shining." ~ Priya

4. "I could hear firework wows. I can see lights, sand, and water. I can smell saltwater and smoke. I could feel warm water, warm air and sand." ~ Japneet

Important Information:

The school is collecting non-perishable food items for the Mayor's Food Drive. If you would like to donate the student's can bring in the items in the morning and put them in the boxes at the front of the school. The food will be going to the Calgary Food Bank. Deadline to bring in food donations is Friday, Dec. 1st. 

Reminders:

• School Activity fees and Lunchroom Incidental Activity fees were due on November 16th. 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

Ask Me About:

~ My rocks and minerals lap-book! 

Monday November 20th 2017

Highlights

Today was another busy day in grade 3! We started the day with morning challenge (If you could have 3 wishes what would you wish for?). There were some very creative answers! In math today, we played a game called race to zero. We used calculators, number cards and place value cards. It was a great game! We had music and gym this morning. After gym, we had spelling. The new list is in their green folders. Please practice these words at home. There will be a quiz on Thursday. We had Daily 5 before lunch. After lunch, we had writing and language arts. Today in writing, we talked about the three different genre's of writing (narrative, expository and persuasive). We read some paragraphs and decided which genre of writing it was. We also did some work on proper nouns. At the end of the day we had social studies. We looked at the map of India today. We labeled the different countries that surround India. We also watched short video that shows a bird's eye view of India. We discovered that there are a lot of ranges mountain in India. 

Important Information:

The school is collecting non-perishable food items for the Mayor's Food Drive. If you would like to donate the student's can bring in the items in the morning and put them in the boxes at the front of the school. The food will be going to the Calgary Food Bank.

Reminders:

• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Spelling: Monday: suddenly, slowly, loudest, never, often

                       Tuesday: seldom, playfully, carefully, beautiful, funny

                       Wednesday: clever, fearless, lucky, luckily, angry

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Math: Test on Thursday for numbers to 1000

Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.
• Lesson 8: Representing numbers in more than one way using coins. 
• Lesson 9: Skip count by 3s and 4s. 
• Lesson 10: Estimating to 1000.
• Lesson 11: Represent 1000 using Base-Ten materials. 

Ask Me About:

~  The 3 different types of writing genres (narrative, expository and persuasive)

Thursday, Nov. 16th, 2017

Highlights

Today we finished lesson 11 in math. The students are slowly beginning to understand how large (or small) the number 1000 is. Please work on the homework sheet over the weekend. 

We had a movie afternoon. The students voted on Zootopia (which many have seen already), but it was a lot of fun having a stuffy and blanket to watch a show for having excellent behaviour. 

We hope to see you all tonight or tomorrow for your parent-teacher conference! 

Important Information:

Book Fair Information - 

Thursday November 16th

8:30-11:30am

12:30-3pm

4pm-8pm

Friday November 17th

8:30am-12pm

Reminders:

• Parent-Teacher Interviews - Thursday November 16th (PM) and Friday November 17th (during the day)
• No school on Friday November 17th because of interviews. 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Math: Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.
• Lesson 8: Representing numbers in more than one way using coins. 
• Lesson 9: Skip count by 3s and 4s. 
• Lesson 10: Estimating to 1000.
• Lesson 11: Represent 1000 using Base-Ten materials. 

Ask Me About:

~  Movie Day! 

Monday November 13th 2017

Highlights

Today was a busy day. We started our day with Math. We're learning about estimation. Today's lesson focused on estimating to 1000. Students were given a bag or jar of objects and asked to make a reasonable guess about the amount in the bag or jar. We then counted the objects to see if we were close. They were introduced to a new math term: Reverent. It means, when you take a known amount (i.e. 10) and compare it to the rest of your objects you have. It provides you with a way to measure or compare. We had music today and gym. After gym, we had spelling. There's a new list in their folders. We also had daily 5. After lunch, we continued working on proper sentence structure. We had art at the end of the day. We finished our Banyan Tree art. It looks amazing! It will be on the bulletin board outside of the classroom. You will be able to see the finish product when you come for parent/teacher interviews this week.

Don't forget to book a time for Parent/Teacher conferences!

Important Information:

Panorama Hills School Society still collecting gently used children's book donations for our 2^nd annual Used Book Sale!! 

We are primarily in need of leveled readers & chapter books for grade 1-6 readers. 

Books can be dropped off in the boxes outside of the PHS library, beside the grand hall up until Monday November 13th.

The Book sale will be held on Thursday November 16^th and Friday November 17^th in the Grand Hall during Parent/ Teacher Interviews.

Proceeds from the used book sale go towards prizes given to the students for the Read-A-Thon, which runs through the month of December.

This is a great opportunity for the students to get some "new to them" reading materials to kick off their Read-A-thon success!!

If any parents would like to volunteer for book sorting on Tuesday November 14th or Wednesday November 15th or to help out during the book sale on the 

16th & 17th, please contact Council at phschoolcouncil@gmail.com

Reminders:

• Parent-Teacher Interviews - Thursday November 16th (PM) and Friday November 17th (during the day)
• No school on Friday November 17th because of interviews. 
• Picture Re-takes: November 14th - Proofs were sent home today! 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Spelling 
Monday - napping, stopped, stopping, quickly, quietly
Tuesday - swiftly, gladly, bravely, eagerly, calmly
Wednesday - sweetly, brightly, shortly, softly, happily 
Thursday - Quiz 

~ Math: Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.
• Lesson 8: Representing numbers in more than one way using coins. 
• Lesson 9: Skip count by 3s and 4s. 
• Lesson 10: Estimating to 1000 (homework will go home on Tuesday) 

Ask Me About:

~ What is a reverent? (a term we use for estimating) 

Thursday, Nov. 9th, 2017

Highlights

This morning's science presentation was AMAZING! The kids had so much fun moving around to 5 different stations that had activities for minerals, soil, igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks. This afternoon we practiced a lock-down in school. The students did a great job! There was a letter sent home about it today. We continue to work on writing complete sentences and have started working on capitalization and punctuation rules. Math homework for Lesson 9 will be sent home tomorrow. Please work on skip counting. This lesson was challenging for most of the students. On Monday we will move on to estimation. 

We also want to say a BIG thank you to our volunteers today!!! Scroll down to see pictures from today's fun! 

Important Information:

Panorama Hills School Society still collecting gently used children's book donations for our 2^nd annual Used Book Sale!! 

We are primarily in need of leveled readers & chapter books for grade 1-6 readers. 

Books can be dropped off in the boxes outside of the PHS library, beside the grand hall up until Monday November 13th.

The Book sale will be held on Thursday November 16^th and Friday November 17^th in the Grand Hall during Parent/ Teacher Interviews.

Proceeds from the used book sale go towards prizes given to the students for the Read-A-Thon, which runs through the month of December.

This is a great opportunity for the students to get some "new to them" reading materials to kick off their Read-A-thon success!!

If any parents would like to volunteer for book sorting on Tuesday November 14th or Wednesday November 15th or to help out during the book sale on the 

16th & 17th, please contact Council at phschoolcouncil@gmail.com

Reminders:

• Parent-Teacher Interviews - Thursday November 16th (PM) and Friday November 17th (during the day)
• No school on Friday November 17th because of interviews. 
• Picture Re-takes: November 14th - Proofs were sent home today! 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 
• BOOK ORDERS - Due on Wednesday November 15th. You can pay by cheque, cash or online (follow the directions on the book order form). 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Math: Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.
• Lesson 8: Representing numbers in more than one way using coins. 
• Lesson 9: Skip count by 3s and 4s. 

Ask Me About:

~ the science presentation!  What did you do at each station? There were 5 stations total: 
1. Minerals with Scientist Amanda
2. Soil with Ronan's Mom
3. Metamorphic Rocks with William's Mom
4. Sedimentary Rocks with Grace's Mom
5. Igneous Rocks with Ramleen's Mom. 

Monday November 6th 2017

Highlights

In math today, we completed lesson 8. In this lesson, we worked on representing numbers in more than one way using coins. For example, how many ways can you show $3.42 using loonies, dimes and pennies. Lesson 8 went home today. We had music and gym today. A new list of spelling words went home today. We had daily 5 before lunch. The students did go outside for lunch recess. Please dress for the weather. Students only stay inside if it's below -20'c with the windchill. After lunch we had writing. We're working on understand different types of nouns. We spent time talking simple sentences and how some sentences don't have a proper noun (person, place, object) but sometimes have gerund nouns (activity words, i.e. writing, sledding, drawing etc.) and abstract nouns (ideas or feelings, i.e. happiness, love, bravery, dream). We had art this afternoon. We're working on a project about banyan trees. It will be on display for parent teacher interviews next week. 

Important Information:

We have a Rocks and Minerals presentation from Scientists in School on Nov. 9th from 8:00am-11:45am. We are in need of 1-2 more parent volunteers. Please refer to the email you received from Sign-Up Genius regarding this opportunity. Only parents who have an updated/approved police security clearance received an email at this time. If you have any questions about volunteering, please email amlodhar@cbe.ab.ca. 

Reminders:

• Parent-Teacher Interviews - Thursday November 16th (PM) and Friday November 17th (during the day)
• No school on Friday November 17th because of interviews
• Picture Re-takes: November 14th - Proofs were sent home today! 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 
• BOOK ORDERS - Due on Wednesday November 15th. You can pay by cheque, cash or online (follow the directions on the book order form). 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Math: Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.
• Lesson 8: Representing numbers in more than one way using coins. 

Ask Me About:

~ What is a Banyan tree and where can you find it in the world?

Important Updates Sent this week via School Messenger from the PHS Office (Please Read):

·       Morning routine – We would like to remind you of our morning entry protocol to school. 

Teachers will stand beside school doors until 8:07AM to transition students into school. A sign will be posted in the door window at 8:07AM to inform you the doors have been secured. After this time teachers need to be assisting students in the classroom and instruction begins at 8:10AM. If a student arrives and doors have already been secured please take them to the front school doors. Students will receive a late slip after 8:10AM. Thank you for ensuring your child is present and ready to learn each morning. 

·       Item drop offs – Students will not receive any items dropped off to the school after 8:10AM before a suitable break in programming. This is to minimize interruptions to student learning. 

·       Road Safety update – AMA has visited our school and completed a Traffic Safety assessment outside the school. They have not approved school student patrols due to the traffic intensity in the area at this time. They will be joining us on Friday to deliver a presentation around safely crossing roads. In the meantime, as a convenience to the community we will continue to assist with turn taking at the North crosswalk intersection in the mornings only. At no time will we be directing traffic, and ask that you continue to take responsibility in safely crossing the road with your child.

·       Kindercare – We would like to share that Pleasant Heights Before and After School will be expanding their program to Kindercare as of December 4, 2017. Staff from Pleasant Heights will be at the school for parent/teacher interviews November 16th (evening 4:30 – 8:00PM) and 17th (morning 8:00 – 12:00PM) to answer any questions you may have. Registration will begin October 31st. Please contact Pleasant Heights at the email below to register or to ask questions you may have.

brendaj.phas@telus.net

·       Dog By-laws – I would like to thank everyone for working with us to improve the issue we were experiencing with dogs around the school grounds. We appreciate your cooperation in ensuring dogs are kept on pathways and away from students. To clarify the by law, pathways separate the city land from CBE school grounds and as such belong to the city. 

·       Photo retakes – Photo retakes will be completed on Tuesday November 14^th. You will be receiving your proofs shortly.

·       School Council – Next School Council meeting will be November 23^rd 7PM, we would love to see you there!

Thursday, Nov. 2nd, 2017

Highlights

This morning we finished lesson 7 in math. The students were learning to skip count using coins (penny=1 cent, nickel=5 cents, dime=10 cents, quarter=25 cents). We want them to be able to skip count by 5s, 10s, and 25s. Please see the homework page that was sent home today and work through it with your child.

We worked on helping verbs for our writing lesson today. The students should understand that every sentence has 2 parts (subject=WHO/WHAT and predicate=DOING/DESCRIBING). Often the link between the subject and predicate is the helping verb. Examples include: will, am, is, has, might, can, was, do, had, does, etc.

I / will play in the snow after school. ('I' is the subject. 'will play in the snow after school' is the predicate. 'play' is the verb. 'will' is the helping verb.

We had so much fun in science today! We learned about which materials were used to make toys long ago and why our great-grandparents may have only had 1 or 2 toys growing up. We learned about who invented plastic and how it is now used to produce a mass amount of toys. Our experiment answered the question: Why are so many toys made of plastic? We put to use that extra Halloween candy and learned about melting and the solid and liquid states of matter. The students tested the meltable property of candy.

 

 

 

 

Important Information:

We have a Rocks and Minerals presentation from Scientists in School on Nov. 9th from 8:00am-11:45am. We are in need of 1-2 more parent volunteers. Please refer to the email you received from Sign-Up Genius regarding this opportunity. Only parents who have an updated/approved police security clearance received an email at this time. If you have any questions about volunteering, please email amlodhar@cbe.ab.ca. 

Reminders:

• Picture Re-takes: November 14th - Proofs were sent home today! 
• Healthy Hunger: To register your child for Fun Lunch, please visit www.healthyhunger.ca 
• Our class Library checkout day is every Thursday. Please return library books each week! 
• BOOK ORDERS - Due on Wednesday November 15th. You can pay by cheque, cash or online (follow the directions on the book order form). 

Homework:

~ Reading: Read daily for 15-20 minutes. 

~ Math: Work on homework pages that have been sent home from Unit 2: Numbers to 1000. 

• Lesson 1: Read and represent numbers to 1000
• Lesson 2: Explore place value with 3-digit numbers using base 10 blocks.
• Lesson 3: Represent numbers in more than one way using base 10 blocks. 
• Lesson 4: No homework
• Lesson 5: Use place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.
• Lesson 6: Skip count by 5s, 10s, 25s, and 100s.
• Lesson 7: Use skip counting to find the value of a collection of coins.

Ask Me About:

~ skip counting using coins
~ subject/predicate and helping verbs
~ melting candy

Important Updates Sent this week via School Messenger from the PHS Office (Please Read):

·       Morning routine – We would like to remind you of our morning entry protocol to school.

Teachers will stand beside school doors until 8:07AM to transition students into school. A sign will be posted in the door window at 8:07AM to inform you the doors have been secured. After this time teachers need to be assisting students in the classroom and instruction begins at 8:10AM. If a student arrives and doors have already been secured please take them to the front school doors. Students will receive a late slip after 8:10AM. Thank you for ensuring your child is present and ready to learn each morning.

·       Item drop offs – Students will not receive any items dropped off to the school after 8:10AM before a suitable break in programming. This is to minimize interruptions to student learning.

·       Road Safety update – AMA has visited our school and completed a Traffic Safety assessment outside the school. They have not approved school student patrols due to the traffic intensity in the area at this time. They will be joining us on Friday to deliver a presentation around safely crossing roads. In the meantime, as a convenience to the community we will continue to assist with turn taking at the North crosswalk intersection in the mornings only. At no time will we be directing traffic, and ask that you continue to take responsibility in safely crossing the road with your child.

·       Kindercare – We would like to share that Pleasant Heights Before and After School will be expanding their program to Kindercare as of December 4, 2017. Staff from Pleasant Heights will be at the school for parent/teacher interviews November 16th (evening 4:30 – 8:00PM) and 17th (morning 8:00 – 12:00PM) to answer any questions you may have. Registration will begin October 31st. Please contact Pleasant Heights at the email below to register or to ask questions you may have.

brendaj.phas@telus.net

·       Dog By-laws – I would like to thank everyone for working with us to improve the issue we were experiencing with dogs around the school grounds. We appreciate your cooperation in ensuring dogs are kept on pathways and away from students. To clarify the by law, pathways separate the city land from CBE school grounds and as such belong to the city.

·       Photo retakes – Photo retakes will be completed on Tuesday November 14^th. You will be receiving your proofs shortly.

·       School Council – Next School Council meeting will be November 23^rd 7PM, we would love to see you there!