River of Nations continues....

Continuing to unravel the story of "River of Nations"

Check out the song here....

https://www.facebook.com/CanadaC3/videos/438270319904474/?v=438270319904474

Students continue to investigate the meaning of the phrases in the story "River of Nations".

We are currently working on the translation of La Ceinture Flechee. Stay tuned for more of the story as we continue to understand it. Above students are working on a collaborative piece of Metis beadwork art.

Sage Hill!

Along our journey towards reconciliACTION, which we are learning a lot about from our song "River of Nations", students came across a sacred Indigenous plant growing right in our backyard! Mrs.Ruben joined our class last week and taught us the traditional protocal to harvesting sacred plants. Students each picked a piece of Sage to add to our classroom bundle, which is now hanging in our classroom to dry. To celebrate this beautiful day students sketched their experience, smudged with Sage in class, and collaborated on a piece of found poetry (posted on previous blog post).

Students offering the sacred Indigenous plant of Tobacco to Mother Earth for the Sage we each harvested. Learning the important lessons the land has to offer us and the reverence that comes with such actions.

#sacred #gratitude #reverance #lessons #humility #indigenouswaysofknowing

Roll a Core

Here is an example of what this game sounds like and looks like...

Oct. 25th

Math Games Duotang

Our Math Game duotang came home this weekend. You will find a collection of games we have been playing to practice the math skills we have been learning.

Please find a time where you can sit down and play a game with your child over the weekend. The materials needed for most games are a pencil, paper, dice or cards.

Please return the math games duotang to school every Monday as games are played almost every day and new games are put into our duotang periodically.

Thanks for helping to grow our brains!

Center Time

Students have been working around the room at center time, engaging in puzzle making, map making, rock investigating, nature investigations, collages, lego making, tower building, marble track making, Indigenous craft making, story writing and listening to stories.

Sage Hill

As we were sitting on the east facing hillside behind our school, listening and learning from Mrs. Ashley about how to harvest an Indigenous sacred plant, Colin acknowledged the land and named the space “Sage Hill”. As he did, his friends Amen, Eri and Declan overheard his acknowledgment and agreed with him wholeheartedly. Declan proclaimed the name of the space to the rest of the group and that is how the space came to be known as Sage Hill.

Please enjoy this piece of “found poetry” in the words of grade 3 children when reflecting on the experience…

Sage hill….

Made me feel joyful!

I felt sticky plants in my gloves, it felt kind of weird.

I felt a smooth, fluffy, silky Sage petal.

I felt a plant that felt like wood, but it wasn’t wood.

I felt crunchy leaves on the ground, with my gloves.

I saw Sage, flowers, trees and more!

I saw the beautiful hill filled with Sage plants.

I heard lots of birds chirping and leaves crunching😊

I wonder why the boys called this place Sage hill?

I wonder what type of animal has crossed Sage hill?

I wonder if the Sage on the hill is fully grown?

I wonder how the Sage got there in the first place?

By grade 3

LITTER-LESS LUNCH

Just a reminder that it is Letter-less lunch tomorrow!

Please try to pack a lunch with ZERO waste:)

Thanks!

Oct. 15 - 18th

 Last week we started to learn the "story" of lyrics to a song we have been singing in our classroom.

"River of Nations"

Students have really enjoyed singing along to this song as they work and gather together at carpet. We will be working to translate French, Spanish and Blackfoot! Stay tuned as the story unravels...

Grade 3 was on playground clean-up last week so off they went! 

Enthusiastic and helpful we reverted over 40 pieces of garbage into their appropriate bins! In the end we had less than half actually go into the garbage 💚💚

We even managed to tie in some math curriculum! We skip counted by 5's, we added up 2 digit numbers in our heads and took what we collected and created graphs outside and inside!

St.Rita School was fortunate to have JKA Karate come in to teach our students a few little master Karate tips! The students had so much fun!

New school altar!!

Not sure if the kids told you, but St.Sylvester donated an altar to us. Not just any altar but a beautiful, handmade, wooden altar.

Check out the students sketches of what they noticed when we visited our new altar.

Be sure to come out and see our new altar at our next liturgy! Watch for dates coming soon in the agenda.

Week of Oct.7th - 10th

Students have been busy talking about giving thanks and preparing for their weekend with family and friends. Writing poetry, practicing sketching techniques and engaging in watercolour art work.

As we continue to prepare for Stampede School students practiced Indigenous Ways of Knowing through a journal technique "I See, I Think, I Wonder", focusing on the bird that was up for consideration as Canada's National Symbol back in 2016.

In Science we have been learning about asking questions and different types of questions; puddle questions, lake questions and ocean questions.
We have been working on asking ocean questions. Questions that are very hard to answer, take a lot of hard work to answer and sometimes don't even have answers!!
To practice digging deep and thinking outside the box students participate in a weekly activity called "Think Outside the Box Thursday".
See below.....students were given an picture of lines and were asked to turn it into an image. It could NOT be a snowman.

Feelings, Virtual Field Trips and Indigenous Teachings

Last week we were very busy!
Here are a few highlights.....

In Religion and Health we discussed feelings; that all feelings are okay, that everyone has feelings, that there are different ways to deal with feelings and that certain things/people make us feel certain ways.

We thought about how we are feeling about school so far. Students used different colours of paint to depict different feelings. Feathers were used to support us on our journey in connecting with the natural world.

Black: nervous

Blue: calm

Yellow: joyful

Red: brave

During our discussions around Orange Shirt Day students were drawn to an idea from one of the story books that was read; Shi-Shi-Etko

"A little girl and boy watch the river for the Salmon Run. When they see the Salmon they know it is time for them to return home."

We covered many different ideas through these discussions; seasonal cycles, life cycles, patterns, animal environments, animal habits, animal needs and climate.

Due to the interest of the students we participated in a LIVE Salmon Run virtually, from the Sooke River off Vancouver Island. 

We were accompanied by over 100 classrooms across Canada!

Students sketched Spawning Salmon, took note of observations and completed a reflection of their learning (including many fantastic questions!)

One students' question even got answered, LIVE during the broadcast, through the Twitter platform.

On Friday we were fortunate to have one of the District's Indigenous Education Teachers visit our classroom. Mrs.Ashley Ruben brought her medicine pouch and discussed with us in circle, the 4 Indigenous plants that are used traditionally in different ways by Indigenous People across the nation. Students were attentive, keen and had wonderful questions. Mrs.Ruben may be back soon to teach us how and where to harvest our very own traditional plants!

Writing and Math Games!

Today in grade 3 we completed our Fall writing prompt. This story writing will allow me to know where your child needs to focus in their writing. Check out the picture prompt below and ask your child about their story!! I can't wait to read the stories!!!

                

We have also been learning how to play math games using our Math Games Etiquette chart.....

1. Whisper voices

2. Gentle hands

3. Proper dice rolling

4. Good sportsmanship

This list of expectations will/may continue to grow as we continue to learn more about how to play math games.

Please watch for our Math Games duotangs to come home on the weekends starting this week. Please find some time over the weekend to play a math game or two with your child. These games will reinforce the skills we are working on in math. The current game we are practicing is.....

A Game for 2

This is part of our grade 3 Mathematics curriculum. By the end of grade 3 students must be able to:

demonstrate an understanding of decreasing patterns by describing, extending, comparing and creating numerical patterns (numbers to 1000)

Orange Shirt Day

Yesterday was Orange Shirt Day at St.Rita School. Students participated in various different activities throughout the grades, focusing on what it means to acknowledge land and what home looks like, smells like, sounds like, feels like and tastes like.