Mrs. Swanson's Curious Thirds

  Playing with Poetry: Discovering Haikus In our Grade 3 classroom this week, we explored the creative and playful world of poetry . Students discovered that poets carefully choose words to paint pictures, share feelings, and express ideas in unique and imaginative ways. We focused on a special type of poem called a haiku . A haiku is a short poem with three lines that follow a pattern of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables . Even though haikus are small, they can create powerful images and feelings using just a few carefully chosen words. Students experimented with describing nature, emotions, and everyday moments. They practiced listening to the rhythm of words, counting syllables, and thinking about how specific words can make their poems more vivid and expressive. Our classroom quickly filled with beautiful ideas — quiet snowfall, bright sunshine, playful animals, and peaceful nature scenes. Students enjoyed discovering how much meaning they could share using only a few ...

What Did Students Do This Week? This week our school had a great experience working with Trickster! Students showed their understanding of their Social Studies learning through storytelling and acting. Working in their class, students used simple props to create shapes and scenes that helped them tell the stories of Alberta. They used their imaginations to come up with creative ideas and worked together to build a short show to present to different audiences. It was wonderful to see students collaborating, sharing ideas, and bringing their stories to life. They practiced teamwork, creativity, and communication while connecting their learning to performance. We are very proud of the effort and enthusiasm students showed during this activity! Curriculum Connections I can investigate natural and created features of Alberta.  I can examine natural resource use in Alberta.  Possible Questions to Ask Your Child: What was your favourite part of Trickster? What learning from Social St...

  💗 Pink Shirt Day: Choosing Kindness Every Day 💗 In our Grade 3 classroom, we are learning that kindness is not just a word — it is a powerful, positive choice we make daily, bravely, and intentionally . On Pink Shirt Day, we proudly stand together against bullying and promise to act gently, respectfully, and compassionately toward one another. Students thoughtfully reflected on the question: “What does kindness mean to me?” They shared that kindness means helping others cheerfully , speaking politely , including everyone willingly , forgiving gracefully , and caring for others deeply . They described kindness as being a supportive friend , a welcoming classmate , and a responsible citizen in our classroom community. Our bulletin board shines beautifully with a background painted in colours that represent kindness. Students carefully and creatively chose soft pinks for love , calm blues for peace , bright yellows for happiness , and gentle purples for empathy . Each colour wa...

  What Did Students Do this Week? Over the past two weeks, our Grade 3 students have been celebrating the Olympics through meaningful cross-curricular learning activities. It has been an exciting way to connect current events to students’ literacy and math skills! In Language Arts, students practiced their reading comprehension skills by reading Olympic-themed texts and answering questions that focused on identifying key details, making connections, and understanding main ideas. They worked hard to support their answers using evidence from the text. Students also completed small research projects on different countries and Olympic athletes. They practiced identifying important facts, pulling out key information, and recording their learning in an organized way.  Our writing activities focused on using adjectives and adverbs to make descriptions more detailed and engaging. Students wrote about athletes and events, working to make their sentences exciting. In Math, students ...