Merry Christmas!

It was a great week with many Christmas activities in 3rd grade.  Here is just a taste of what we did.

Positive Options:  We collected 121 baby items in our classroom!  Thank you for your generosity to this organization.

Games with the 7th graders:  We enjoyed our morning at the Middle School today.  They had made many fun games and it was fun playing them together.  What a great way to do life together!!  The 7th graders did give out candy as prizes but I did not let the kids eat it today.  That is your treat during Christmas Vacation!!:)

Our Christmas Party:  A huge THANK YOU to Beth Klingenberg for planning such a fun event for our class, to Cathy Potts for the delicious snack, and to Cindi Walraven, Kelsey Postema and Mandy Klingenberg for coming in to help.  We had a blast!

 During the season of advent we have spent much time in our classroom talking about how the best gift can not be bought in a store but rather is freely offered to us through Jesus.  This group gets it.  They have such a love for Jesus and our devotions were very meaningful as we talked about the gift of our Savior given to us a baby.

I wish you a blessed Christmas break.
Lynae

Gingerbread Houses

Today was an absolute favorite for me.  I love seeing the creativity that comes out with gingerbread houses.  I also love seeing the students work with their parent or volunteer as they create their house.   I love all of the smiles and excitement. What a cool experience to watch!  Thank you for all of the donations of candy and time that you gave to make this happen.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do.

We had another wonderful week in our classroom.  Here is what we have been doing!

Chapels:  A HUGE thank you to Rus Blondin for leading Pine Ridge in chapels during the season of advent.  He has done a wonderful job of reminding us to focus on Jesus during this busy time of the year and to keep our focus on what an incredible gift God has already given to us.

Reading:  We continue reading in our book clubs.  I have pushed the students in their thinking as they respond to the text each day and I am so impressed with how the class has risen to the challenge. We will be concluding our series book clubs next week.  Thank you to Miska Rynsburger for being our reading helper on Wednesday.

Writing:  We finished editing our stories this week for capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.  Most students are happy with their rough drafts and have begun to write their final copy.  This is very careful work as we write in our neatest handwriting and make sure to remember all that we have learned!

Math:  We looked this week at adding and subtracting time.  This is a tough concept so much of our work was done on a timeline.  We are carefully reading our word problems, deciding whether we need to add or subtract, and then doing so on a timeline.  We will continue to work at this next week as well.

Bible:  This week we saw God's promise fulfilled to Abraham and Sarah when He gives them their son, Isaac.  We talked about how long they waited for their son, and yet God's timing is always perfect.  We learned how God still heard Hagar and Ishmael after the birth of Isaac and we looked at how He cares for them too.  We ended the week by hearing the story of Abraham being tested by God to give his only son as a sacrifice.  The kids saw Abraham's incredible faith in God and also were able to compare this story to our Heavenly father giving His son for us.

Science:  We learned about gravity, variables, force friction, mass and so much more! The students have alternated every other day between Mrs. DeZwaan  and me for their lessons and they have enjoyed this tremendously.  We had a lot of fun experiements!  Some favorites were playing with toys in class and then watching a video to see how those same toys reacted in space without gravity.  Another favorite experiment was putting everything we learned all together on a race track and changing variables to affect the motion of the cars.  (Don't be surprised if your child added a blue track to their Christmas list!  The class loved it.)

Exploring gravity on paper airplanes

Exploring how gravity affects the game of jacks.

We looked at how gravity affects toys in motion.

Magnetic Marbles

Changing variables on the racetrack to see how motion is affected

Upcoming Events:

• No word work next week.
• Reading Minutes will continue through next week but not during Christmas Vacation.  Enjoy the break with your families and encourage your child to read for fun.
• Luke 2: 6-20 is due on December 16
• Gingerbread Houses:  Tuesday, December 15 from 12:30-2:00.  This is going to be a great event!  If you still care to volunteer simply send me an email and I will add you to the list.  A letter explaining the details came home today with your child.
• We will continue collecting for Positive Options (formally Lakeshore Pregnancy Center) until Wednesday, December 16.  As of today, our class has collected 93 items!  THANK YOU for your generosity!!  You may gladly join us for our chapel with Positive Options on Wednesday at 12:35.  
• Class Party:  Thursday, December 17 from 2:20-3:00.  We will be playing a game, making a craft, and having a few snacks.  Thank you to Beth Klingenberg for taking care of the details for our class.
• On Friday, December 18 our class has been invited to the Middle School to play games with the 7th graders.  The middle school students have designed the games themselves and we are excited to spend our morning with them.  We will be walking to the Middle School so make sure your child is dressed for the weather.

Blessings!

Lynae

Hi Parents!

It feels like it has been awhile since the last post.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and are now enjoying the season of the birth of our Savior.

We have been busy this week in 3rd grade.  Here is what we have been doing:

Reading:  Our book clubs are going great.  Each day your child completes a reading assignment that his/her reading group assigned to themselves and then prepare to meet and discuss for the following day.  I have been very impressed with the students ability to refer back to the text to prove their thoughts and explain their ideas.  It is amazing to listen to them.  Thank you to Cathy Potts for reading with us this week.

Writing:  We are busy editing our final personal narratives.  Our lessons have focused on identifying punctuation in our stories, looking to see if we are writing in complete sentences and knowing what makes a complete sentence, while locating all of the capitalization in our rough drafts.  This is detailed work and takes a lot of time and patience.  :)

Bible: We are following Abraham as he continues to follow in obedience to God.  The class discussed what a covenant is and we looked in depth at the covenant God made with Abraham.  We learned about God changing Abram's name to Abraham.  We enjoyed looking up the meaning of our own names.  We also discussed the story of Abraham and Sarah learning they would have a son and how Sarah laughs at this.  We see how God is fulfilling his promise to them.  We are also focusing on Luke 2:6-20 each day in class and illustrating the verses as we learn them.

Math:  This week we focused on time.  This can be a very difficult subject so we spent several class periods reviewing the hour and minute hand and then telling time to the minute.  We learned about half hours and quarter hours.  We concluded this week with knowing how to say a time after and before the hour.  (For example 12:33 is 33 minutes after 12:00 AND 27 minutes before 1:00).

Science:  We had a full week of experiments as we learned about changes in motion.  We focused on force (pull and push), balanced and unbalanced force, friction, and gravity.  Each day was a new experiment which thrills the 3rd graders!  Make sure to ask your child about their favorite day in Science this week!

Balanced vs. unbalanced force

Experimenting with friction

An experiment with gravity, friction, and mass

 Upcoming events:

• Thank you for all of the Kleenex donations!  We are once again stocked and ready for winter. 
• Gingerbread houses:  We will be creating these on December 15.  A signup genius has been created (in red at the top of the blog) so you can participate with your child.  I would love as many volunteers as I can get!  Any stale candy you have at home to donate would be welcomed as well.  
• The class party will be on December 17.  Beth Klingenberg is planning the details of this.  If you are willing to bring a snack or help with the games please contact me or Beth.  
• Thank you for your generosity to Positive Options!  We have had many cute baby items come in this week and our class has collected 40 items.   The collection will continue until December 16.  We will have a special chapel on December 16 where we will give these items to Positive Options.  
• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Spelling test on Friday
• Bible Memory (Luke 2: 6-20) due December 16
• No School December 21-January 1 for Christmas Break 

Have a wonderful weekend!
Lynae