September 29

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• You should receive an email from Holland Christian explaining the times you are able to register for conferences.  Pine Ridge conferences will be held on Tuesday, October 24 and Thursday November 2 from 4-8 p.m.
• October 3-(Tuesday morning) Our Ruff Readers (Fanny, Si, and Myrtle) will be coming to read with us.  We met the dogs and their owners this week and we are excited!
• October 4 (Wednesday) Our POD groups will be heading out to do a service project in the community.  Each POD group will be going to a different location and we will be out of the building all afternoon.  You will be receiving an email from Pine Ridge listing the different organizations where we will be serving.
• October 12 (Thursday)- Grandparents day at Pine Ridge from 12:45-2:00.
• October 13 (Friday)- End of the 1st quarter
• October 16-18 (Monday-Wednesday) The FARM Science Lab will be at Pine Ridge.   Thank you to Steve Koeman for helping to make this possible!
• October 19-20- No school for the CEA Convention
• Is anyone willing to cover some chapter books for me in contact paper?  I would send the books home with your child and you can do this at your convenience.  Send me an email if this interests you. 
• I have sent home a couple of flyers for book orders.  If you are interested in ordering click on the red "Scholastic" link at the top of the blog and you will be brought to my webpage.

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  Prayer at the Pole

  
  
  
  

  

  Meeting our Ruff Readers

Homework Folder:

• Reading Minutes are due Monday.  125 minutes is expected each week and your child should get a parent signature on their reading slip.
• Math homework came home today and is due next week Friday.
• Word work will be given on Monday with a test on Friday.
• Psalm 23 is our next Bible Memory.  We will practice Psalm 23 in class during the month of October but the kids really know this already, so we are busy working on finding verses that are meaningful to us and adding them to our Bible rings.  Some of our favorites we will also try to commit to memory.

Curriculum Highlights:

All About Me:  We wrapped up celebrating our friends this week as Payton A, Payton M, and Olivia shared some of their favorite things.  What a fun way this was for us to celebrate each other.

Math:  This week we added our 4's, 0's, and 1's to our multiplication and division facts.  We also learned about the associate property ex: (4x3)x2=4x(3x2).  We are so busy solving word problems.  Our first math test will be next week.  I will spread it out over two days as it is a longer test.  You will notice that your child receives a letter grade in Math in 3rd grade.  

Literacy:  We are diving into our new reading unit of following characters into meaning.  This group of kids loves to read and loves their books!  We are so busy responding to teaching points and expanding our thoughts on characters.  In writing we finished our leads, added precise adjectives, and worked at our dialogue in our personal narratives.

Bible:  We focused on the footnotes, concordance, and the importance of spending time in the word this week.  The kids LOVE finding verses in the Bible that speak to them.  Our Bible rings are going to be thick by the end of the year!

Science:  Did you hear that our rocks came off the tumbler?!?  We took time to feel the smoothness of them and be reminded that God is also making us new.  He is cleaning us and polishing us into something beautiful each day.  We placed the rocks in a platter and then each child chose one that he or she loved.  We offered up prayers of thanksgiving to God as we placed our rocks in the center container and we watched these prayers of thanksgiving overflow.  What an incredible reminder of God's love for us. 

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions of concerns.  It is my pleasure to partner with you!

Lynae

September 21

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• October 2 (Monday)- Conference sign-ups begin.  Conferences will be on October 24 and November 2 from 4-8 p.m. on both evenings.  
• October 12 (Thursday)- Grandparents Day at Pine Ridge from 12:45-2L00
• October 13 (Friday)- End of the 1st Quarter
• October 16-18- The Science Farm Lab will be at Pine Ridge.  We will be having hands-on science experiments each day dealing with agriculture.  
• October 18 (Wednesday)- Report cards come home
• October 19-20 (Thursday and Friday)- No School for the CEA Convention

Homework folder:
Thank you for helping your child gain responsibility with the homework folder.  These need to go back and forth to school each day along with your child's book for reading minutes.  I keep reminding the kids that this is their responsibility and not yours.  :)

• Reading minutes are due on Monday.  125 minutes is expected in 3rd grade.  Students need a parent signature at the end of the week.  
• Word Work will come home on Monday with a test on Friday.  Each day your child should be able to show you how to study the sort.  If you have any questions please let me know and I will be sure to explain it to you.
• Math homework will come home tomorrow and is due back to school by next week Friday.
• Bible memory is Psalm 8.

Curriculum Highlights:
All about me:  This week we celebrated our friends Miles, Aaron, Leila, and Charlotte.  I think this may be a favorite time of the day for many kids.

Bible:  We learned about books of the Bible, chapters and verses this week.  We are starting to get better at finding books in the Bible and we began creating our Bible rings where we will add favorite verses that are special to us.  We also learned how to work the concordance in our Bibles.

Literacy:  This week we finished our first reading unit of launching reading workshop.  The students are getting good at "stopping and jotting" as they read.  We wrote our first book review which we will be recording next week.  In writing we drafted our personal narratives, shared them with our writing partners, and also crafted our leads.

Math:  This week we learned how to multiply and divide by 3's and built fluency with our 2's, 5's, 9's, and 10's.  We also learned about the distributive property.  For example 5x8= (5x3)+(5x5).  This is a tough concept so we will continue to practice next week.

Science:  We learned about the importance of farmland this week and our role as Christians to care for God's creation.  We also talked about runoff water and how it impacts and changes the earth's materials.

Blessings, 

Lynae Stielstra

September 15

 Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• I will give the MAP math test on Tuesday.  Make sure your child has had a good breakfast and is ready to go.  This is our last MAP test for awhile.  
• Thank you for all of the Clorox wipes and tissues that came this week!

Homework Folder:

• We have created story mountains with our personal narrative.  I have sent your child's story mountain home.  Please have your child tell the story to you verbally a couple times this weekend so he/she can recall details and feelings to add to his/her writing.  
• Reading minutes are due on Monday.  Students should have read 125 minutes and have a signature from you.
• New word work will begin on Monday.  You will notice that there are three sight words listed at the bottom.  Three sight words will be given each week and will be on the final test on Friday.  
• Math homework went home today and will be due next week Friday.
• Psalm 8 is our Bible memory.  If your child can say this with one or two helps return the form or send me an email and I will mark your child down.  We review these verses each day in class and talk about what the verses mean to us.

Curriculum Highlights:

Ready for the Walk-a-thon

All of the 3rd graders at Pine Ridge

All About Me: This week we celebrated our friends Cameron, Alyssa, Davina, Ezra, and Michael.  We loved learning more about our friends and their interests.

Literacy:  In Reading we have been busy learning how to "stop and jot" our thoughts as we read.  We are increasing our reading stamina.  In Writing we have been working on the heart of our personal narratives and placing our thoughts and ideas on a story mountain.  We have also been busy practicing our grammar and word work each day at school.  

Telling our stories with as much detail as we can remember!

Math:  We have now learned how to multiply and divide by 2's, 5's, 9's and 10's.  This is a lot of information for the students to learn so we practice our facts each day on our ipads.  We work daily at story problems and we are getting good at figuring out if we need to divide or multiply.

Bible:  We began looking at how the Bible is organized.  We had some fun singing some songs about the books of the Bible and looking at the table of contents.  We also began to search for some favorite bible verses and learned about chapters and verses.  

Science:  We looked about how earth materials interact with water.  We also learned about renewable resources and our role in caring for these.  We also looked at the importance of farmland and how little of it we actually have.  It makes the students see how we are called to be God's creation keepers and we had excellent conversation about this.

Blessings,

Lynae

September 8

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• September 13 (Wednesday)- Walk-a-thon in the afternoon at the High School track.  All fundraising envelopes should be back to school on Monday, September 11.  Thank you for supporting our school.  Come and cheer us on!
• September 14 (Thursday)- Picture day.  A form for this came home today.
• Next week we will be starting MAP testing throughout the HC district.  I plan on giving the language assessment on Tuesday morning and the reading assessment on Thursday morning.  
• Any donations of Clorox wipes or kleenex are always greatly appreciated.  

Homework Folder:  

• Bible Memory- We are working on Psalm 8 in class and talking about what these verses mean.  Please have your child say it to you once each evening even if they need to read it from the page.  If they can say Psalm 8 fairly confidently, sign and form and send it back to school.  This is due on September 29.  I do not worry so much about the number of helps but rather that the words mean something to your child.
• Math homework- This came home for the first time today and will be due back to school next week Friday.  
• Word work-  Your child will come home with his/her first spelling list on Monday.  I sent a letter home in your child's Friday folder explaining this program in more detail.  On Monday your child will need to cut out their spelling words and show you how they sorted them in class.
• Reading Minutes- These will begin Monday as well.  Your child will carry a book back and forth from school to home each day.  This should be a "good fit" book that your child can read independently.  (I have not leveled all of my students yet so if your child is reading a book that is too difficult, please let me know.)  Most of these books are from my classroom library so I ask that the kids carry them in a bag that I provide.  Your child needs to read 125 minutes a week.  I will explain the reading form to the kids in class.  Place this form wherever it is easiest for your child to remember to fill it out (nightstand, refrigerator, homework folder, etc.)  Please sign and have your child return the form the following Monday.

Curriculum Highlights:

We learned about being word rooted in our POD groups this week.

Wearing yellow in loving memory of Carter Brink

Convocation

Convocation

All About Me:  This week we celebrated our friends Gavin, Gabe, and Charlie.

Science: This week was a lot of experimenting with different earth materials and how they react with water.

 Math:  We can now multiply and divide by 2's, 5's, and 10's.  We are getting really good at word problems as well!

Literacy:  We are working at diving deeper into our books as we read and jotting notes in our response journal to increase our comprehension.  In writing we have "tried on" several different personal narrative stories and today we settled on one that we want to work into a true story.

Bible:  We have wrapped up our Ephesians study and made a book to highlight what we have learned.  This was such a cool unit to start 3rd grade.  Learning how our Bible is organized is next on our list!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae