May 26

Last Week Details:

• All library books are due back to Pine Ridge.  Please keep your eyes open for books that belong to my personal school library as well.  My books are leveled and have my name in the front cover.  I will stop sending books home this coming week.
• All homework is done for the year.  Your child is coming home with his/her geometry test today.  This was a tough unit and everyone hung on to the end.  We are enjoying the reward of making tetrahedron kites to finish up math in 3rd grade.
• Monday (May 29)- No school for Memorial Day
• Tuesday (May 30)- Field day in the afternoon at South Side.  We are going rain or shine so dress your child for the weather.  Please be sure to send a water bottle as well.
• Wednesday (May 31)- Our All Star Reading baseball game against the varsity baseball team.
• Thursday (June 2)- Finishing assembly of our tetrahedron kites.
• Thursday (June 2)- Bring a bag to school to carry all of the items from your child's desk and locker home.  
• Friday (June 3)- Our final day in 3rd grade.  We will dismiss at 11:30.  Your child will be coming home with his her report card, baton, and a big piece of my heart.  :)

Curriculum photos:

This week we were busy making our biography posters.  We have spent a lot of time learning about our subjects and we will be presenting these next week.

We also completed our personal essays and are now working on publishing them.  We will also be sharing these next week with our class.

In Bible we had several Reader's Theatre's on the Israelites sending spies into the land of Canaan.  This class LOVES to act!

We are having fun with our kite project.  This will continue all next week.  Thank you to all of the great volunteers who are making this possible for the kids!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

May 19

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• All library materials are due back to Pine Ridge.  Books from my school library may continue to come home this week for reading minutes.  Please be on the lookout for any books with my name in them so they can be returned by the end of the year.  
• Our geometry math unit review came home this week.  This is a tough unit so I am moving very slow.  Our test will be on Wednesday, May 24.  The review is due back to school on Tuesday, May 23.  
• Due to testing reading and spelling levels I have decided to stop reading minutes and word work for the last two weeks.  However, you child will still be coming home with their reading book next week for extra credit reading minutes.  
• Thursday, May 25- I have "Moving Up Day" with the incoming 3rd grade class for one hour.  Your child will enjoy some fun games on the playground at Pine Ridge with the 2nd grade teachers during this time.
• Friday, May 26- We will be making Pods for our tetrahedron kites.  Thank you to all of the volunteers!  I am all set with volunteers.
• Friday, May 26- I will be taking the class to the High School to have a sound demonstration by Scott Vandenberg to finish our Light and Sound unit.  We will be out of the building from 12:40-2:00 or so.
• Monday, May 29 No School due to Memorial day
• May 26-June 1- Working on building/assembling our kites from 8:30-10:30.  
• Tuesday, May 30- Field Day at South Side in the afternoon.  There is no rain date so we plan on going rain or shine!
• Wednesday, May 31- On this day we will have our final POD group as well as our baseball game against the varsity baseball team.
• Friday, June 2- Our last day.  We will dismiss at 11:30.   Your child will be coming home with his/her report card and baton.  

A few pictures of our week:

In Science we worked with tuning forks as we learned about high and low pitch

We created harps and listened to the pitch with different lengths of string as well as different thicknesses.

In Reading we are busy working on our biography unit and creating timelines, character trait charts, and
writing what we have learned about our subject.

Closing convocation

Covering Area and Perimeter in Math

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

May 12

 Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Thank you to everyone who volunteered this year in the library.  We had our last library time this week.  I am so grateful to all of you who took time out of your schedules to come help us as we checked out books.  You are appreciated!  Library materials are due back to the library next week. The exception is if your child is reading a book for all star reading.  
• This coming week looks fairly "routine".  We will have reading minutes, math homework, and word work.  This will be our final work work for the year.  
• May 16 (Tuesday)- Closing Convocation at the High School gym.  Please come join us at 9:00 as we wrap up the school year as a collective student body.  
• May 19 (Friday)- Our final Bible memory, Galatians 5:22-26 is due.  
• May 23 (Tuesday)- Mr. Haig's 8th grade Bible class will come and perform the book of Acts to our classroom.  
• May 29 (Monday)- No School for Memorial Day
• May 30 (Tuesday)- Field Day in the afternoon at South Side.  
• Tetrahedron Kite Volunteers:  Friday (May 26) and June 1 (Thursday).  Thank you to all of you whom have offered to come and help with the kites!  I am set with volunteers on May 26 but could use one or two more helpers on June 1.  We will be assembling the kites that day from 8:30-10:00 or so.  This is such a fun way to conclude our geometry unit in math!
• All-Star Reading:  We have almost everyone with five innings (book genres) complete which means they are going to be playing ball against the Varsity baseball team!  This reading incentive will continue through the month of May.
• June 2 (Friday)- Our last day of 3rd grade
• Yearbooks:  The South Side/Pine Ridge Yearbook will be arriving soon! If you did not order one with your child's photos, you can still go online and order one now for $8.00 at www.geskusphoto.com. You will then select "Order Yearbook" and follow the prompts after you select our school's name. If you are not sure if you've already ordered one, you may contact the school secretary to check. 

Curriculum Highlights 

We kicked off the week with the 6th grade band marching through the hall to get us ready for Tulip Time!

Bible:  We continued learning about the tabernacle this week and the importance of worshiping God.  Mr. Blystra came to give us a very visual reminder about the importance of this.  

Math:  We continue to learn about polygons, perimeter, area, quadrilaterals, trapezoids, and so much more!  This week we really began to focus on perimeter and area.  Next week we will begin story problems with all of this information.

Literacy:  In Reading we are finishing up our biography reading and looking at the character traits of the person we chose to study.  In writing we began giving evidence from our own life for the opinion essay we chose to focus on.  

Social Studies:  We wrapped up our "History of Michigan" unit this week by learning about the Pioneers and their struggles as they traveled West toward Michigan.  Next week we will begin our final science unit on light and sound.

Mr. Blystra came and gave the 3rd grade class an excellent lesson on the tabernacle.

                                           

All of the 3rd graders with Mr. Blystra

Working on our Journey to Canaan journal entries

Reading Folklores

Everyone working hard!

Reading folklore books with friends

Matching Dutch costumes!

May 5

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• The parent team is hosting a luncheon for the staff on Monday, May 15 and I would love to attend.  Is there someone who would be willing to come in and cover the class during lunch?  I would need you from 11:55-12:15.  Please send me an email if this works for you.
• Next week I will send home reading minutes and math homework but we will not be doing spelling due to lack of time with the Tulip Time parades.  
• Tulip Time: (Wednesday, May 10 and Thursday, May 11)  Both days we will dismiss at 11:30.  On Wednesday your child will need a way home from school.  On Thursday your child will stay at school after dismissal and we will take a bus to the parade route for the Kinderparade.  Your child will need a bag lunch and drink.  All backpacks and school supplies will be left at school on that day.  A blue paper came home in your child's homework folder giving the line-up of our class for the Thursday parade.
• May 16 (Tuesday):  Closing convocation will occur at the High School gym at 9:00.  Please come join us as we wrap up the school year as a whole student body.  
• May 29 (Monday):  No school for Memorial day.
• May 30 (Tuesday):  Field Day at South Side in the afternoon.
• Tetrahedron Kites:  May 26 (Friday) and June 1 (Thursday).  To conclude our final math unit dealing with geometry, we will be making tetrahedron kites.  I am in need of several volunteers to pull this off (especially on that Friday).  If you are able to volunteer from 8:45- 10:30 (or so) please let me know.  A yellow letter came home today explaining the details of these kites.  
• All-Star Reading:  We will continue this reading incentive through the end of May.  Our baseball game against the varsity team will be held during the last week of school.  
• June 2 (Friday):  Our last day of 3rd grade. We will dismiss at 11:30.  Oh, how I am going to miss this group of kids!
• Yearbooks:  The South Side/Pine Ridge Yearbook will be arriving soon! If you did not order one with your child's photos, you can still go online and order one now for $8.00 at www.geskusphoto.com. You will then select "Order Yearbook" and follow the prompts after you select our school's name. If you are not sure if you've already ordered one, you may contact the school secretary to check. 

Curriculum Highlights:

Reading:  We have begun our Biography unit.  This week each child chose a subject to study and began to look at the decisions their subject made and how this shows the character traits of that person.  We are busy taking notes and discovering why our subjects have biographies written about them.

Writing:  We are busy working on our personal opinion essays.  This week we continued to read articles and determine the big idea and supportive evidence.  We would then think on a big idea and come up with situations in our own lives that pertained to that idea.  Each child is getting ready to settle on the big idea he/she wants to write about for the opinion paper.  

Bible:  This week we began studying the tabernacle.  We talked about the importance of the Israelites having a place to go to worship God.  We looked at different sections of the tabernacle and what the furnishings meant to God's people.  We staked the tabernacle out on the side lawn of school and had a lot of fun pretending to be an Israelite moving the tabernacle through the wilderness.    

Math:  We have begun our final unit of Geometry.  This week we learned about polygons, angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, parallelograms, rhombus', squares, and rectangles.  There is a lot of terminology with this unit and everyone is off to a great start learning it!  

Social Studies:  We continue to learn about the French and their relationship with the Native Americans.  This week we did a bit of "voyageur math" as we looked at the trading between the two different groups.  

Music Note from Mrs. Boer - Your child was told these past few weeks about Recorder Performances that will begin next week. Your child is to choose one of the songs we have been learning this year. It should include the three notes that we have learned (ABG). The students will be graded on their knowledge of notes, their tone, and keeping a steady rhythm.

Blessings!

Lynae