Maker's Week

This week was a highlight for so many students!  There was so much joy and excitement in creating, making, and discovering new things.  As a teacher I loved seeing the creativity and enthusiasm that this week brought.  Make sure to ask your child about the special activities they took part in each day!

Upcoming events:

• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Word work test on Friday
• Seusville Fun Night- March 18- To help keep costs down, third grade students are asked to bring in regular size candy bars to use with some of the games.  Please contribute if you are able.  
• Conferences will be March 28-30.  Sign-up information will be coming soon.
• Spring Break- March 31-April 8

Here is brief look what we have been doing in 3rd grade!  Our class time this week was short due to Maker's activities and the snow day.  :)

Literacy:  We worked through our chapter this week on survival skills for our animals.  For most students this was a 2-4 paragraph chapter and took a lot of work to organize.  We spent a lot of time this week editing our work with a partner and making sure that we are writing in complete sentences and also starting with a strong main idea sentence for each paragraph.  

Bible:  We read through and discussed the 10 plagues this week.  What an powerful God we serve and we see this as the plagues are sent to Egypt.  We talked a lot about Pharaoh's hard heart.  As a class we prayed that our hearts remain soft so that we can share Jesus' love and His incredible story with others.  

Social Studies:  We have become historians and are busy studying the history of Michigan.  This week we learned about primary and secondary clues as well as studying the Hopewell tribe.  

Math:  We will begin our new unit on fractions next week. 

Blessings!

Lynae

February 19

Maker's week is next week!  Your child will be participating each afternoon in a Maker's activity at Pine Ridge.  I presented all of the different options to your children today and they chose their top choices to participate in.  The class is excited to do something new, creative, and hands-on!

Upcoming dates:

• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Word work returns on Monday.  Our test will be on Friday.
• Psalm 121 due on Monday
• Seussville Fun Night- March 18 A pink sheet came home today explaining the details.
• Conferences will be March 28-30.  Sign up information will come home soon.
• Spring Break March 31-April 8

Literacy:  We wrote our habitat chapters this week.  It took us several days to organize all of our information into boxes and bullets, create main idea sentences, and then to create paragraphs for our habitat chapter.  We then edited with our writing partners and created our final copy.  Whew!  The nonfiction books are time consuming and very detailed, but everyone is focused and on-task!

Bible:  We have begun the book of Exodus.  We have read about the birth of Moses and we see God's hand in his life as he is brought from the Nile river by Pharoah's daughter, flees from Egypt, and then is called by God to return and talk to Pharaoh.  We see God reminding us that he is the I AM and that he always comes though on his word.

Math:  We completed our unit on multi-digit addition and subtraction on Friday.  Due to Maker's week next week I will not begin our new Math unit.  Rather we will have a few short review math lessons.

Social Studies:  We completed our unit on the Economy of Michigan this week.  We learned about public goods and services and how these are paid for through fines, fees, and taxes.  The boys and girls have a whole new appreciation for the taxes that you pay!  :)  We began our new unit on the History of Michigan and are enjoying the book Traders in Time  for our read aloud which takes place in Michigan and focuses on Michigan history.

Blessing to you!
Lynae

February 5, 2016

We had a full week of learning!  Here is what we have been doing.

Hat Day! I love this group.

Bible:  We concluded our unit this week on Joseph and saw how God reunited his family.  We talked about how God often tells us to wait and trust in Him.  We see this throughout the stories of Joseph and Jacob.  Isn't it amazing how God has the perfect plan for us?  Sometimes we can't see it or understand why, but He knows the big picture and we need to trust.

Math:  We are busy adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers with regrouping.  We have worked our way to story problems and are reading carefully to figure out what operation we need to use.  We played a math game with regrouping this week with Mrs. DeZwaan's class and had a lot of fun with our friends.

Social Studies:  We learned about many goods and services that are produced and provided in Michigan.  We then learned how we are interdependent on many other states and countries for goods we do not produce.  We had a lot of fun using our map skills as well this week.

Literacy: Each child began researching the animal he or she chose to learn more about.  We decided as a class what we want our chapters to be in our nonfiction books and completed our table of contents.  We have begun to read books, magazine articles, and internet sites about our animals.  As the students read they write down what they are learning and we will organize all of this information into our books.  This is intense work and the students LOVE it!

Valentine's Party:  On Thursday, February 11, I will hold a Valentine party with the kids.  I sent home a class list of names today so your child can address a valentine for everyone in our room.  Thank you go Laura Petroelje for bring in drinks for the class.  If anyone cares to bring in a snack, please let me know. :)

Upcoming Dates:

• Reading minutes due on Monday.
• No word work next week due to four days of school.  I will be reassessing your child in spelling during this time to see the growth he/she has made on high frequency words.
• Valentine Party, February 11.
• No School, February 12.  Staff Development
• No School, February 15.  Winter Break
• Maker's week February 22-26

Fondly,

Lynae