September 29-October 3, 2025

                        

Friendly Reminders: 

* Please send your child a pair of headphones to school to use with our technology. This enables students to fully take advantage of hearing the sound on interactive activities and using speech to text features. Having their own headphones helps to keep each student from sharing germs, head lice, etc.

St. Isabel will collect items for the Kanata Food Cupboard from September 29 - October 9. 

      

• Canned tomatoes

• Canned green beans

• Dried kidney beans 

• Dried red lentils

• Soda crackers

• Miscellaneous crackers

• Rice

• Juice boxes

• Lunch snacks (granola/cereal bars)

• Cooking oil, flour, sugar

• Toilet paper

• Feminine hygiene

• Dish and laundry soap

• Toiletry items (shampoo, toothpaste, soap)

• Canned Fruit

In Language, specifically in writing, we will continue working on our paragraph writing. In reading, we continue to work on answering questions about a text we have read in full sentences, using examples from what we have read to support our thinking.

New WWW: pretty, prettier, prettiest, schools, city

In Math, we are learning how to find the mode and mean in a set of numbers or on a graph. 

In Science we are continuing to learn about soil. Ask your child to share what they have learned so far (the different layers of soil, what the 3 types of soil are, what makes loam).

This Week:

Tuesday, September 30th: Orange Shirt Day (Nation Day for Truth & Reconciliation) is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come. Wear an orange shirt.

Friday, October 3rd: Terry Fox Run at St. Isabel. Please send your child dressed appropriately for the weather and with a water bottle. 

Looking Ahead:
September 29th - October 9th: Canned food drive
October 10th: PD Day (no school for students)
October 13th: Thanksgiving Day (no school for everyone)

Homework:

Language: Read for 30 minutes every night. Remember to ask your child questions about what they are reading. Practice writing the word wall words five times each night.

Math: Practise adding/subtracting numbers to 20 (15+2=17, 18-3=15, etc.)

September 22-26, 2025

                                            

We can’t believe that we are about to finish our first month of school! The month of September went by in the blink of an eye. The Grade 3 students have had a great few weeks together and we look forward to seeing what October holds in store.

***Parents - please check the school-cash on-line site as you are now able to order pizza and subway****

*** The Terry Fox run for St. Isabel will take place on October 3rd. We won't be using cash online this year, instead we have a link already set up with our school. All money collected will go directly to the foundation!  

Please click the link below to add your donation to fight cancer today!***

https://schools.terryfox.ca/107375

This coming Friday., Sept 26th is Franco-Ontarien Day. This day officially recognizes the Francophone community's contributions to the cultural, historical, social, economic and political landscape of our province. Please wear green and white on Friday!

Tuesday, September 30th is Orange Shirt Day and National Truth and Reconciliation Day. We shall commemorate it here at St. Isabel by learning what we can about the past and how we can make the future better for those who have suffered unjustly. It is a day created by Phyllis Webstad in recognition of the effects of residential schools and as part of Truth and Reconciliation. You can check out her story here:
                               

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3vUqr01kAk

On Tuesday Sept. 30th, please wear an Orange shirt to show solidarity with Phyllis and all Indigenous people.

What we’ve been up to & where we are going:

In Math we continue to work on data management - we have learned about vertical and horizontal bar graphs, how to ask a survey question, collect data and graph the results. Pictographs will be next on our learning adventure. Students are encouraged to practise their counting (forward and backwards) by 2's, 5's, 10's and 100's to 1000. They also must be able to count by the same numbers starting with a different number on the 100 chart (i.e. start at 27 and count up by 2's: 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, etc.).

In Language we have been working on paragraph writing, determining important ideas to share orally with others and writing in complete sentences (starting sentences with uppercase letters and ending with proper punctuation). This week, we will begin working on answering questions using full sentences and developing our reading strategies to help decode unknown words. Please review our weekly WWW (word wall words) that are written in our Hapara workspace slide deck (each Monday) every day. These are words that students should be able to spell and read independently in grade 3!

New Grade 3 WWW: into, off, very, want, who

In Gr. 3 Science, we are continuing our unit on Soil. Towards the end of the week, ask your child about the different layers that make up soil and what three types of soil, along with humus create loam (the best soil for many plants to grow in).

Last week we discussed how each child got their name (please return the name sheets that was sent home on Tues.) in Family Life.

Upcoming important dates:

September 25th: Photo Day

September 26th: Franco Ontarien Day - wear white and green!

September 30th: Orange Shirt Day (Nation Day for Truth & Reconciliation) is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come.

September 30th: School Council Meeting: 7 p.m. in the Learning Commons

October 3rd: Terry Fox Run at St. Isabel
October 10th: PD Day (no school for students
October 13th: Thanksgiving Day (no school for everyone)

Responsible Use of Technology form - please complete today and fill out the permission to post as well as it needs to be done every year.

HOMEWORK 

Language:

Read for 30 minutes out loud every night. Ask your child a question about what has been read that cannot be answered with a yes/no statement. All answers should include the word because ("I know this because....).

Daily review of WWW in preparation for our Friday S.W.Y.K.

Math: 

Practise reviewing double sums - ie. 2+2=, 4+4=, 5+5=, all the way to 10+10! Nightly practise of counting by 2s, 5s, 10s to 1000.

September 15-19, 2025

                        

Welcome to our third week of September! It was so wonderful to see many of our families at Meet the Educator Night this past Wednesday. Here is a link to the slide deck that was shared with parents: Meet the Teacher Night You can also access this slide deck on the right hand side of this blog at any time. Students have been shown how to login to the student portal and access their Hapara Workspace.

By following us on Twitter, you will see pictures of what we are doing in class. Each class has their own twitter account, please follow your child's teacher's account to see what we are doing each day! *N.B. Mrs. Brennen's class twitter is private for the parents of her students only (parents must request to follow her class account).

We had our first WWW Show What You Know (S.W.Y.K.) on Friday. Please sign and return your child's sheet on Monday (they are in the mailbag in their backpacks). We will have a  SWYK every Friday and will send it home to be signed & returned each week. The list for the entire year's Word Wall Words can be found as a link on the right hand side of the blog.

Scholastic book orders were sent home on Friday. Orders must be made online by Wednesday, September 17th.

In order to login from home, students must use their email account (firstname.lastname@stu.ocsb.ca). A copy of your child's log-in information was sent home last week in your child's mailbag. 

***Please access the Student Technology Agreement Form via the Parent Portal.*** Technology Form Instructions

In Math, we are continuing to work on data management. We are learning about bar graphs and pictographs.

In Language, we are continuing to work on paragraph writing, with particular attention to developing interesting opening and closing statements and detailed sentences in between. We will be adding descriptive (juicy) words to our writing.

New Gr. 3 WWW - people, they, could, favourite, until

In Gr. 3 Science, we are digging deeper into the layers of the soil.

In family life, we are learning about how everyone is unique in their own way.

**Reminder to please send in indoor shoes to be kept at school - as the weather changes, it is easier to keep students safe from slips and falls if they have shoes designated for indoor use only! Also, please send an email to your child's teacher or call the school to let us know of any changes to your child's usual routine (picking up early for an appointment, picking up in person rather than taking the bus, etc.). This will help ensure smoother transitions and allow us to keep your child safe.

Homework:
Students should be reading 30 minutes every night. Practising our weekly WWW (word wall words) nightly is highly encouraged to be ready for our SWYK (Show What You Know) each Friday! Also, please remember to review math facts to 20 every night.

Looking ahead:

Last Day to Order Papa Jack Popcorn: Thurs. Sept. 18

Thursday, September 25: Photo Day

Tuesday, September 30: Orange Shirt Day (Nation Day for Truth & Reconciliation) is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come.

Friday, October 3 - Terry Fox Run at St. Isabel

October 10: PD Day (no school for students)

October 13: Thanksgiving Day (no school for everyone)

September 8-12, 2025

 

Our Grade 3 students had a busy first week together at St. Isabel! We are working on getting to know one another and developing wonderful classroom communities.

In order for students to use technology in the schools (chromebooks, etc) we ask that you fill in a Responsible Use of Technology agreement Form with your child. You can do this easily by following these steps: Responsible Use of Technology Form

Here is a quick snapshot of the flow of our day:

 

We are working on our Digital Citizenship lessons and are beginning to have a very good sense of how to stay and be safe when using technology. If something inappropriate pops up on our screen, we know to click the X and tell an adult. Ask your child what other safety tips they can share with you!

Our focus in Math for the next few weeks will be on Data Management (specifically, collecting & organizing data and creating graphs to show the information. Students must also be able to make conclusions from the information depicted on a graph).

Determining important questions, developing interview skills, along with learning to write a paragraph, are our foci in Language Arts for the next few weeks. Our new Gr. 3 WWW (Word Wall Words) are: have, said, again, because, about. We write sentences using each word and learn about our new WWW throughout the week and then have a little WWW Show What You Know (SWYK) on Friday. Please help your child prepare for this by reviewing the words nightly. If your child does not finish writing their sentences on Monday at school, we ask that you allow them time at home to finish their work (sentences are written in the class Workspace).

In Science, we are beginning our inquiry on soils.  We look forward to sharing our “wonders” and brainstorming ways to meet our learning goals for this unit.  

**Please follow your child's teacher on twitter (X). We post most days about the learning that has happened and include pictures of the fun we have while doing it! We like to track, as a class, how many likes our tweets get so please make sure you 💓each tweet!

Important Dates:

Wednesday. Sept 10 - Meet The Teacher Night 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

Passport To Learning Night

Friday. Sept. 13 - International Dot Day - please wear dotted (polka dots) attire to school today. We will be celebrating this special day with many Dot Day activities! Dot Day Website

Homework:

1. We encourage nightly reading out loud (either your child reading out loud to an adult or an adult reading out loud to their child). Please ask questions as you read together - focus on questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no answer. Ask why your child thinks the way they do. Can they use proof from the text to support their thinking?

2. Nightly review of weekly Word Wall Words (see above).

3. Math Facts to 20 - i.e. doubles (8+8=16), addition (3+12=15), subtraction (18-3=15) 

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Mr. Spearin and Mrs. Brennen

(Your Gr. 3 Team)

Welcome to our 2025/2026 Learning Year!

             

Hello and a very warm welcome to Grade Three!

It is a new school year for our St. Isabel Eagles and we are so happy to have you in our classes. Mrs. Brennen, Mr. Spearin and Mme Ingrid will be your grade 3 team and we look forward to an exciting year! This blog will be updated weekly (every Sunday evening) and will include all the news, learning goals and updates for this school year. Please check it every week so you are aware of what will be happening in your child's learning environment here at school!

Over the next few weeks we will be creating various learning workspaces for students in their student Hapara website so we can learn both on paper and digitally. Please be patient while we become organized and learn together with your children!

We are aware that student's keyboarding skills are just developing and this can cause frustration for some students and their families. It is recommended that children use the following typing program on their device  Typing Club to help develop these skills.

French

All information this year will be sent home from your child's french teacher through a welcome letter that will be sent to families directly via email (through School Messenger).

Please refer to the links in the sidebar to access the French St. Isabel Website.

All parents should have received our beginning of the year newsletter via email, but here is a little reminder of some things to send in with your child! 

"All items brought from home, for classroom use, will be stored in your child’s individual bin on a classroom shelf. If possible, please send the following items with your child: pair of gym appropriate shoes, 2 boxes of tissue, box of large ziplock bags, pencil case, 2 white erasers, 2 glue sticks (Lepage/Elmer’s brand), 10 pre sharpened pencils, box of sharpened pencil crayons, 5 black whiteboard markers, scissors, ruler (30cm), pencil sharpener with shaving case and personal headphones (over the head style).

Feel free to also pack a labelled Ziplock bag with extra socks, underwear, pants and a shirt for emergencies in your child’s backpack.

That is all for this blog post. Please look for a few letters, etc. coming home in the mailbag this week and next. We will create a new post each Sunday evening so please check here regularly to see all of the exciting learning we will be doing each week!

Thank you for your support and we look forward to working together with you as a home and school team,

The St. Isabel Grade 3 Team