A Great first week!

It was a great first week!  We are growing as a classroom community and learning what it means to respect and care for one another.  I am having so much fun teaching your children!  I have included a few photos that I took this week but you will always be able to find more pictures on the smugmug site.  (There is a link at the top of this blog that will take you directly to my smugmug page.)

Decorating our Writing notebooks

Getting into our good fit books

Choosing Good fit books!  Fun!

Learning how to work together as a team

Here is a look at what we did this week!

Math:  This week we began multiplication with 5's.  To teach this concept, your child learned that multiplication is really one long addition problem.  For instance, your child should be able to tell you that 4x5 is the same is 5+5+5+5.  All students learned how to draw a picture to show each multiplication problem that they are working on.  We call these drawings equal share drawings as multiplication can be used to represent equal groups.  This can be a tough concept to start 3rd grade with and I am so proud of how hard the class has worked this week!

Science:  We have begun our first Science unit called "Earth and Me".  In this unit your child will learn about rocks and minerals, different earth materials, land and resource use, erosion, landslides, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  We began our unit by having every child choose a rock and then write a descriptive paragraph about the rock they had chosen.  We then sat in a circle and placed our rocks in the center.  The kids took turns reading their descriptions of their rocks and having their friends guess which rock was theirs.  This was a very fun activity and all of the students were very brave in reading their writing to their classmates.  

Bible:  Our first unit in Bible is focused on the book of Ephesians.  We learned that the author of this book is Paul and that the book of Ephesians was actually a letter sent to the church in Ephesus.  (The kids thought it was really cool that a book of the bible was actually a letter instead!).  I was completely amazed this week at the amount of knowledge your children had about Paul.  What an amazing thing to witness the sheer joy that comes from your kids as they recount so many wonderful facts from the bible!!  We focused specifically this week on the gift of salvation.  We made salvation hearts (hanging up in the hallway) and as we did we talked about how we can not save ourselves; but God has made a way for us!  We had a wonderful class discussion about salvation, Jesus' death and resurrection, and the promise of forgiveness.  

Reading:  This week we have talked about what reading is going to look like in 3rd grade and what we each need to be successful readers.  We also set goals for what we each want to accomplish this year as readers. On Thursday the children went book shopping and picked out their first "good fit" book they will be reading.  We also learned about a "FIVE FINGER TEST" to see if our book is just right for us.  The class has begun reading from their good fit books in class, but I will not send these home until the week of September 14 as I simply want to get your children comfortable to the workshop routine. 

Writing:  The class did a writing sample for me this week on a personal narrative of something that they did this summer so I could see where the class was as writers.  I was amazed at how many of them just wanted to keep on writing when I told them to stop!  We also had a lot of fun decorating our Writing notebooks on Friday morning.  Next week we will begin our first writing unit on personal narratives and continue to work on writing procedures in the classroom.  

Upcoming dates:

• No School on Friday, September 4 or Monday, September 7 for Labor Day recess. 
• If you have not returned your child's HC baton, please do so by September 2.
• Swimming forms need to be signed and returned in order for your child to participate in swimming lessons.  Our class is scheduled to receive lessons on September 14-25.  We will be at the Holland Aquatic Center from 12:30-1:30 each day.  
• Wednesday, September 2, we will be having Convocation at the High School Gymnasium.  You are welcoming to join us as we celebrate the beginning of another school year as a collective student body.  Our class will be walking to the High School that morning for this event.
• Interested in covering Writing notebooks next week for the class?  If so, send me an email.  I would love any extra help.  :)
• September 18- Picture Day (Life Touch)
• September 23- Walk-a-thon in the afternoon

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

First Day!

We had a great first day at Pine Ridge!  Isn't this a great looking group?!?  There was a lot of excitement in the air as we met new friends and also reconnected with ones from last year.  Our first few weeks are going to involve a lot of procedures and getting comfortable in a new building.  I am so humbled to be able to walk along side of each of you as we teach these precious children more about Jesus and HIS love for them. It is going to be a wonderful year.

Our first day was full of activity.  In the morning the students experienced their first chapel at Pine Ridge, met new friends in a scavenger hunt, learned a lot of new procedures and went to Art.  We had a taste of a Reading and Bible lesson in the afternoon.  The students are settling in nicely and are doing a fabulous job!

A few reminders for this week:

• This Wednesday, September 2, is Parent Night at Pine Ridge.  I will be going over classroom information from 7:00-7:30 in the classroom.  If you are not able to attend simply send me an email and I will be sure to send the information home with your child in their Friday folder.  Mr. Howell will also go over general Pine Ridge information from 7:35-8:00 followed by the 5th and 6th grade teachers presenting classroom information from 8:00-8:30.  This is a great opportunity to learn more about your child's school day and get involved at Pine Ridge.  I hope you can make it!
• We will be decorating our writers notebooks on Friday morning.  Please send in any photos, stickers, paper, etc. that your child may want to make their notebook special for them. 
• Any donations to our classroom of Kleenex or hand sanitizer is always greatly appreciated.  We go through these items very quickly!  

Thank you for your prayers this year.  I can't wait for tomorrow!

Lynae Stielstra