KTS- Straiton- Grade 3: Dec. 11

December 11

The spirit of the holidays is around Ken Taylor School. Our classroom have been filled with Santas, Grinches, Cindy Lou-Whos, and elves. We have been celebrating each day with different themes, dressing up and special activities. We know this school year has been very different than previous years. Despite that fact these holiday times always seem to bring out cheerful joy, and celebration for staff and students.

Highlights of the Week:

Spirit Days: Each day this week we have celebrated the holidays by dressing up in special colours, costumes, characters or dressing up our classroom. As part of the celebrations we have had different staff in the school read some of their favourite Christmas stories over Google Meet for our classes to enjoy. We have also decorated our class, which the students have declared "The Winter Wonderland!"

Countdown To Christmas: In our class we have a countdown to Christmas. Each Day we pop a balloon that has a special activity or surprise in it. So far we have had reader's theatre, free computer time, have played classroom games and received a Christmas pencil. We will see what awaits in the days ahead.

Sedimentary Rocks: We learned about where and how sedimentary rocks are formed. Using different colours of plasticine we made sedimentary rocks using time and pressure. Our experiment showed us how these rocks can have layers, and how they are made up of other broken down rocks, shells, soil and other organic material. Students took their rocks home to tell you all about them.

Gingerbread Glyphs: Students are learning how a you can learn information about someone without using words or text. Glyphs are shapes or designs that can be used in place of written language. Students have answered questions about gingerbread through the way the decorated their gingerbread baby. They then had to be silent elves to find people who had different preferences about gingerbread just by using the decorated illustrations. We will then graph our findings to determine the most and least popular preferences.

Creative Movement: Students have been practicing, and practicing some more for their creative dance in gym. They should be proud of what they have accomplished. Well done Grade 3's and Thank you to Mrs. Schrattner for teaching them this dance. You can have a look at their video below.

Reader's Theatre: As a whole class we we preformed a "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" on Tuesday morning. That same afternoon their Countdown to Christmas surprise was to do their own stories. They practiced over two days and performed them on Wednesday afternoon. Have a look at their creative side in the videos below.

Writing: Students are exploring through story writing what they would do if they stayed up late on Christmas Eve. They did so while keeping warm by the Smartboard fireplace.

Important Information:

- Monday Dec. 14: 8th Spirit Day of Xmas - Wear your ugly or seasonal sweater

- Tuesday Dec. 15: 9th Spirit Day of Xmas - Dress in western wear, plaid or flannel

- Tuesday Dec 15: Animal LifeCycles Movie Premiere: (Info will be sent out in email)