January 27

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Report cards came home today.  Please keep the report card but send the envelope back to school so we can reuse it next quarter.  If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!  It is my pleasure to partner with you this year. 
• Reading Minutes due Monday.
• New word work on Monday with a test given on Friday.
• Math homework will come home Monday and is due on Friday
• Psalm 1 is due February 1.  Most students have already turned in their slip from home, but if your child still needs to recite it, I will have them say it to me on Wednesday, February 1.  
• Wacky Wednesday's are here!  February 1 is Crazy Hair Day and February 8 is Pajama day
• Valentine's Day- I plan to have a small party with the kids on Feb. 14 at the end of the day.  We do exchange valentine's in 3rd grade however this is not required. I sent home a class list today on pink paper of the names of the students in our classroom. I have a few small activities planned. If someone is willing to make a small snack, please email me at lstielstra@hollandchristian.org.  Thanks!

Curriculum Highlights:

Devotions:  This week Evie and Stella did a beautiful job leading devotions.  Both girls had prepared wonderful devotions that reminded us how much God cares for us and that we are so incredibly valuable to Him.

Literacy:  We moved into reading "boxes and bullets" this week with our nonfiction unit.  As we read an article we find the main idea (the box) and then locate all of the supporting details to go along with the main idea (the bullets).  Students then place this information in their own words.  This is detailed and time-consuming work, but everyone is doing a beautiful job. We also learned strategies to try when we come across unfamiliar vocabulary words in our reading.

Math:  We have been practicing rounding to the nearest hundred and nearest ten.  We also started addition with regrouping this week.  Students need to create a "proof drawing" to show why their answer is correct when they add.  We spent a lot of time learning several different ways to show how to create our proof drawings and students have chosen a method that works best for them.

Science:  This week we focused on habitats, physical characteristics, behaviors, and defenses of our beetles and crayfish.  We have been busy organizing all of the post-it notes that we took last week into these categories and placing them on a web.  Sometimes learning is messy...but oh so much fun!

Our crayfish molted this week.  The kids thought is was so cool!

Bible:  We continued to follow the story of Joseph.  We saw how Joseph's dreams were fulfilled when his brother's came to Egypt and bowed down to Joseph.  We talked about how Joseph tested his brothers with the silver cup.  We also talked about how Joseph cared for his family for the remainder of the famine.  Much of our discussion centered around Joseph's forgiveness of how his brothers treated him and how he didn't hold a grudge.  What an incredible example for us to follow too.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Lynae Stielstra

January 20

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Reading Minutes are due Monday.
• New Word work will be coming home Monday with a test given on Friday.
• Wednesday is Market day for 4th grade.  Each 4th grader has made a product that they are trying to sell.  Your child is welcome to bring five to seven dollars to go shopping if they would like.  Your child will also want a bag to carry their purchases in.
• Wacky Wednesday's are back.  This coming Wednesday is backward day, February 1 is Crazy Hair day, and February 8 is pajama day.
• The end of the 2nd quarter is today.  Report cards will be coming home next week Friday, January, 27.
• Many students are getting low on erasers.  Please check with your child to see if they are in need of more.  We learn by making mistakes!  The erasers that slide on the top of the pencil are a favorite. :) 

Curriculum Highlights:

Devotions: The students have begun leading devotions two times a week and it is a huge hit.  Thanks to Efeson and Lily for leading us this week and doing a beautiful job!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day:  On Monday we had several different activities that focused on Martin Luther King Jr. and the question he asked "What are you doing for others?"  We decided to create themed placemats for the residents at Resthaven.  The kids loved serving in this way.

Bible:  We learned about the many different dreams that Joseph interpreted for the baker, the cupbearer, and for Pharaoh.  We saw how God used the events in Joseph's life so that he would be a blessing to so many.  We saw God's faithfulness to his people and God's salvation plan unfolding.  The kids enjoyed acting out a reader's theatre for some of our Bible stories as well.

Math:  We have been busy drawing pictures dealing with place value and rounding to the nearest hundred.  Lots of time has been spent playing Math games to understand these concepts.

Literacy:  We had a full week reading articles and locating the main idea sentence and all of the supporting details.  Often we would create our own main idea sentence.  This is challenging work, but the kids are doing great with it!

Science:  We have begun a new unit called Organisms Have Character.  This week we created a forest habitat and a freshwater habitat.  We observed the different plants in each habitat and then added bess beetles to our forest and crayfish to our freshwater habitats.  We have been busy watching short video clips, reading informational books, and observing the organisms to take notes on what we are learning.

What a great week!  As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  It is my pleasure to partner with you.

Blessings,

Lynae

January 12

Our P.O.D. groups reminded us this week how special and loved we are to God.
He has made us to be unique and we are so precious to Him.

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Spelling test will be given on Friday.  New word sorts sent home next week Monday.
• January 20-End of 2nd Quarter
• January 27- Report cards come out
• February 17- No School for Staff Development
• February 20- No School for Winter Break
• Wacky Wednesday's are back!  January 18-Sport team or sport pride day, January 25- Backward Day, February 1- Crazy hair day, February 8- Pajama Day

Curriculum Highlights:
Devotions:  On Monday your child brought home a letter talking about our class devotions.  Most of the students want a turn to lead devotions so a schedule came home giving each of them a day.  If your child's date does not work for you, let me know and we can make a change.  We are excited to start this next week!

Bible:  We began studying the stories of Joseph this week.  We saw how his brothers were jealous of him and sold him into slavery.  We see how God is with Joseph as he works for Potiphar, is throw in jail, interprets dreams, and eventually comes before Pharaoh.  We talked about how Joseph had to trust God even when long periods of time had past.  We see God's faithfulness to Joseph through our Bible readings and our class discussions have been rich.
Our new Bible memory is Psalm 1.  I will send a copy of this home tomorrow with your child.

Math:  Our new Math unit deals with place value, addition, and subtraction.  We began making place value drawings this week dealing with the ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands.  Our work this week has been very hands-on as we get used to saying these large numbers and understanding the importance of place value in word problems.  We are also continuing to practice our multiplication and division facts to ensure comprehension of these skills.

Literacy:  We have begun our nonfiction unit.  The students enjoyed getting nonfiction books in their book boxes and have learned how to hunt for text features before we read these books.  We learned how to tap into our prior knowledge about a topic before we begin reading as well as how to paraphrase a paragraph.  Paraphrasing is a new concept that we will practice again on Friday before we move on to finding main ideas and details in our reading.  Our writing will be tied directly to this unit after we learn the skills needed to read and comprehend nonfiction text.

Science:  This week we focused on our Changes in Motion unit and worked with the concepts of gravity, variables, friction, force, and Newton's laws.  We had a lot of fun experiments with this!

As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns!  It is such a privilege for me to teach your child each day.

Blessings,
Lynae