Good afternoon!

In today's class the students started off the day by working on language.  The students were asked to write a letter to a friend from another school (imaginary or real) to tell them about what school is like here at SJA in grade three.  Students had a lesson on the proper format for writing letters, and a review of proper brainstorming technique prior to the letter writing activity.  This activity will be very beneficial for the Ontario Writing Assessment the students will be working on in tomorrow's class.  During language the students also worked on reviewing the proper method of turning singular words into plural in their Language books.

In our Unit of Inquiry today the students were introduced to their final assessment of this unit.  Students will be asked to write one final story that incorporates all the elements of story writing we have learned in this unit so far.  As a class we explored the final assessment package to fully understand the criteria for success with this writing assignment.  All students are now aware of the 6 elements that must be included in their story:

1. Your story must clearly represent one of the genres we have studied in class (horror, friendship, adventure, fairy tale, or western) 

2. Your story must have a clear beginning, middle and end.

3. Your story must clearly show the characters, the setting, the problem and the solution.

4. Your story must use dialogue and dialogue tags effectively.

5. Your story must have a range of sentences and sentence length.

6.  Your story must have clear paragraphs.

Please see the rubric for this assignment posted at the end of today's posting.

During mathematics today we continued on with our new geometry unit.  The students used their knowledge of describing figures from yesterday to go further and describe angles.  In today's class we explored right angles, angles that are greater than a right angle, and angles that are less than a right angle.  Students practised describing angles and creating their own angles in their Homework and Practice books.

The students also went to PE, Art and French classes today.

Homework: Read for 2o minutes and record in the reading log, practice weekly spelling words, Language pages 54 - 55 and math pages 55 - 56.

Important information:   Picture re-take day is on November 15th for those students who require re-takes.  The original school photos went home with all students tonight.  If you are interested in purchasing the original school photos, the order must be submitted by November 18th!

After-school Care Payment Request Forms went home with all students last week  Please keep an eye out for these forms if your child attends after-school care.  The payment was due today.

December lunch forms went home yesterday.   Forms and payment are due by November 22nd for any students waning to order lunch for the month of December.

We are excited to announce that St. Jude's Academy is going to be hosting an author visit for SJA students and their families!  Cecile Marie, a children's book author, will be visiting us on November 26th at 10am to share her stories, answer questions and sell her latest books.  Parents and family members are welcome and encouraged to join us for this fun event.  Cecile Marie's books will be for sale at the end of her talk for $10.  Half of the proceeds of the sale of her books on that day, will be donated to SJA for the purchase of books for our own school library.  Purchasing her books is optional and not a requirement of attending the author talk.   We look forward to seeing SJA grade 3 families out on the 26th!

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson

Category	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Knowledge & Understanding	-Identified topic, purpose, and audience with difficulty -does not include a beginning, middle, and end -characters, setting, and plot may be missing - genre unclear	-Identified topic, purpose, and audience in somewhat vague terms - beginning, middle, and end are not clear -Story contains characters, and or setting and or plot -genre vaguely identified	-Identified topic, purpose, and audience accurately - beginning, middle, and end are clear -Story contains characters, setting, and plot - genre is clear	-Identified topic, purpose, and audience precisely - beginning, middle, and end flow smoothly -Story contains well described characters, setting, and plot -genre is clearly identified without question
Thinking	-Little brainstorming of ideas in box provided -Made poor use of organiser for topic and developing sentences -Creative thinking process used with limited effectiveness -Almost no revisions made -rarely confirmed spelling -Much prompting needed	-Brainstorming of ideas in box provided to a certain extent -Made sufficient use of organiser for topic and developing sentences -Creative thinking process used with some effectiveness -Some revisions made -often confirmed spelling -Some prompting needed	-Ample brainstorming of ideas in box provided -Effective use of organiser for topic and developing sentences -Creative thinking process used with considerable effectiveness -Competently made revisions -regularly confirmed spelling -Little prompting needed	-Extensive brainstorming of ideas in box provided -Made full use of organiser for topic and developing sentences -Creative thinking process used with a high degree of effectiveness -Very efficiently made revisions -readily confirmed spelling -No prompting needed
Communication	-Story unclear -failed to use proper paragraph form and structure/organization, or provide a title -poor sentence fluency and use of dialogue	-Story satisfactory -Little use of proper paragraph form and structure/organization, as well as title creation -satisfactory sentence fluency and use of dialogue	-Story clear -Consistent use of proper paragraph form and structure/organization provided reasonable title -good sentence fluency and use of dialogue	-Well developed story -Precise use of proper paragraph form and structure/organization, provided creative title -excellent sentence fluency and use of dialogue
Application	-no story writing elements used	- most story elements used	- story elements used throughout	-superior use of the elements of story writing