Grade 3 Musicians!

May02
2012 Leave a Comment

Written by lcameron

In our Hearing and Sound unit, students completed a home project with a parent where they needed to construct a musical instrument. The criteria were:

- My instrument is securely put together.
- I can make 2 or more different sounds with my instrument.
- I used materials found from home.
- I can demonstrate how my instrument works and show understanding of pitch.
- I completed my reflection with detail.

Check out our instruments below:

Making Musical Instruments! on PhotoPeach

I was very impressed with the instruments that were created and presented to our class! We had everything from guitars to panpipes to drums to maracas! Great job, Grade 3′s. What was the most difficult thing about constructing your instrument? Was anything really easy?

I’m very proud of you!
~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Collaboration, Science

We Can Multiply!

Apr20
2012 1 Comment

Written by lcameron

My grade 3 mathematicians have a few new strategies and skills in their tool kit… they are learning all about multiplication! This year, we look critically about what multiplication actually means and different strategies to represent it in order to solve and create story problems up to 5 x 5.

I absolutely LOVE teaching this unit because it’s a brand-new concept for students in their grade 3 year. It has been my experience that they feel so empowered and excited when we learn how to multiply numbers! We started with looking at equal groups, which is what multiplying really means, repeated addition, arrays, and related multiplication sentences.

Grade 3′s, which strategies do you like to use when you’re multiplying? Can you tell me about the x 1 rule? How about the x 0 rule?

Happy Multiplying! I look forward to the next half of this unit, as we move into division next week.

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Math

Pysanky Experience!

Apr12
2012 1 Comment

Written by lcameron

On Tuesday, April 4, our class engaged in a traditional art form to celebrate Easter called Pysanky. We learned all about the tools needed to decorate a raw egg, including a kistka, wax, lit candle, and the coloured dyes. The class learned about the symbols used in pysanky and their traditional meanings. We planned the design and colour of the eggs well, which made the actual art project much easier.

Check out some pictures from our morning!
Pysanky Morning! on PhotoPeach

Thank you again to our fabulous parent volunteers who made this project a huge success! It was important to have small groups and an adult with each group, helping the students. So thank you for your time and commitment to our educational experiences!

Grade 3′s, what was the hardest thing about your pysanka egg? What did you find easy? Did you enjoy this experience? Why or why not?

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Art, Connections

Story Sharing

Apr04
2012 Leave a Comment

Written by lcameron

Once again, we are diving into the exciting world of narrative writing in Language Arts. Today, I had the students work in small groups of three to create one story. Hmm, this could be quite the challenge with many different ideas, but only one story. The students had the following criteria for the activity:

- Each member contributes to the story
- Each member can only write 3 words at a time
- The person writing decides if the sentence is complete
- The person writing is responsible to add in required punctuation and capital letters

It worked out great!! Students were engaged and excited to participate equally with group members. Good job, Grade 3′s!

Grade 3′s, did you enjoy this writing activity? Why or why not? Was there anything you found challenging about it?

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Collaboration, Language Arts

More Help Needed for Pysanky…

Mar31
2012 1 Comment

Written by lcameron

I hope everyone has had an AMAZING Spring Break!!

With Easter right around the corner next weekend, I am very excited to do Pysanky with the class on Tuesday morning. With our study of communities around the world (and Ukraine being one of them!), we will be decorating Easter eggs in the traditional Ukrainian style.

This is an art project that requires a great deal of care, small groups, and parent help. It is important to have small group ratios, as we use candles, beeswax, dyes, etc. I still require about 3 more helpers, so if you’re able to help on Tuesday morning from 9-12, please let me know. If we don’t have enough assistance, we won’t be able to engage in Pysanky. Also, I have asked the students to bring in newspaper to cover the desks if you have some extra around the house. Please leave me a comment or send me an email

Thank you in advance for anyone able to make it! I’m looking forward to this special experience with the kids!

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Art, Classroom Information

Blogger of the Week: “The Trees, The Trees, The Truffula Trees!”

Mar19
2012 3 Comments

Written by lcameron

Mrs. Cameron read us a book and it was called The Lorax. After she read us the book we had to do a reader response to the book and it asked questions like What does it say about the environment? and What the book is about. We had to answer another question and the question was Why do the colors change troughout the book? After we did our reader response, we made truffula trees and we each got to make two trees. We also made one with a grade 4/5 student. They taught us how to do the finger knitting. There were three colors and they are purple, blue and rainbow. I made my first tree purple and rainbow and I made second tree blue and rainbow I also made one at home and it was pink and purple. After we made our trees Mrs Cameron took a picture of us and our truffula trees. I liked the activity because I like Dr. Seuss and I learned about a new form of art and working with fabric!

Here is a picture of me with my truffula tree:

This is a picture of my entire class holding their truffula trees!

By Kaylyn

Posted in Art, Blogger of the Week, Language Arts

Stony Plain Councillor Guest Speaker!

Mar15
2012 3 Comments

Written by lcameron

On Tuesday, March 13, Mrs. Judy Bennett, a member of the Town of Stony Plain’s Council, came to the grade three classes Forest Green School. Mrs. Bennett spent half an hour in Miss Heward’s classroom and then came to our classroom to share her thoughts and answer some questions about our current topic in Social Studies. Mrs. Bennett holds a very special place in my heart, as I have known her for many years. She was MY grade three teacher and an amazing teacher!

We were learning about how communities work together. This topic included what makes a good leader, how leaders are chosen, how councils work, and the importance of communities working together. Mrs. Bennett brought great insight and examples into the classroom about how our own Town Council works and makes important decisions as a group that affect the residents of our Town. She spoke about her roles and responsibilities as a Council Member, how the Council supports the Mayor (or Deputy Mayor) and also explained our connection with our twinned town of Shikaoi, Japan.

The students generated some powerful questions to ask Mrs. Bennett at the conclusion of her presentation. They came up with some great questions and I think it’s safe to say we all enjoyed her visit and truly learned a lot! Thank you very much, Mrs. Bennett!!

Grade 3′s, did you enjoy Mrs. Bennett’s classroom visit? What did you learn?

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Connections, Social Studies

I wish…

Mar08
2012 2 Comments

Written by lcameron

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner next week. As we’re discussing what good writing looks like and the features of a well-crafted, great grade three sentence as we move into writing more paragraphs, I had my students reflect on one wish that they would hope could be granted after I modeled my “I wish…” clover. Each student wrote their wish (which had to include a “because phrase”) on a clover for our bulletin board display.

I was absolutely blown away by some of the responses. Many students reflected on some global issues and write a wish that would impact many around the globe. Here are some examples:

- I wish that there could be a way to cure bad cases of cancer because I know that some people have it and when I put myself in their shoes it would not feel good at all.
~great class discussion about empathy!

- I wish that every kid never got to be bullied because kids do not have to be mean in the world at all.

- I wish that every child in the world had a home because there are kids that don’t have a home in the world.

- I wish that the war would end because of all the people who went to war and died.

- I wish everyone had one person to love because everyone needs someone to love.

These wishes (along with the rest of them!) melted my heart. I truly have some amazing children in my class who I am blessed to teach!

How would you complete the sentence “I wish…”?

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Connections, Language Arts

Alphabetize Me!

Mar08
2012 3 Comments

Written by lcameron

Yesterday we learned about alphabetical order and have been working with an important tool in Social Studies… the dictionary! After some practice with a set of words, students worked in partners to alphabetize a set of our Word Wall Words. Check it out!

Our “Alphabetize Me!” activity has now become part of our Literacy Centers during Guided Reading time. It will be quite the task with one GIANT list of words when they’re all in alphabetical order! Cooperation will be key in center groups

Grade 3′s, how do you alphabetize words that have the same beginning letter?

~Mrs. Cameron

Posted in Collaboration, Language Arts

Mrs. Cameron’s Little Builders at Work

Mar08
2012 3 Comments

Written by lcameron

Our Science units, Testing a Variety of Materials and Designs and Building with a Variety of Materials have now come a to a close. Our building company, Mrs. Cameron’s Little Builders, were very busy constructing a variety of structures for various purposes. Students applied what they had learned from the Testing unit to several construction tasks using a wide variety of different materials. Some highlights were building the three houses of the Three Little Pigs, bridges, vases, stools. Our focus were structures that:

- contain objects

- support weight

- serve as a model

- span a gap

Some projects were individual, partner, or small-group, where collaboration and cooperation were key! I’m very proud of all of the builders in our company!

Check out some photos of a few building projects!
Mrs. Cameron’s Little Builders on PhotoPeach

Grade 3′s, which was your favourite building task(s)? Why? What did you observe and conclude for your learning from the task?

Posted in Collaboration, Science