October 27

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• I enjoyed meeting with many of you for conferences this week and look forward to meeting with everyone else on November 2.  It is such a joy to partner with your during your child's 3rd grade year.  
• Thank you to those of you who have so willingly covered books for me!  The kids and I appreciate you so and the kids are very happy readers!
• The Holland Sentinel ran an article about the FARM Lab that we were able to partcipate in last week.  You can check it out here.   Thank you to Steve Koeman to help make this all possible for the kids!  
• November 8 (Wednesday)- The Children's Advocacy Center will be coming to our classroom to talk to the kids about safe and unsafe touch.  A letter came home today explaining the details.  You are more than welcome to attend if you would like.  Our classroom presentation will be at 9:45.
• I sent home another book order set today.  If you are interested in ordering just click at the link at the top of the blog and it will direct you to my scholastic site.  If you are ordering for a gift send me an email and let me know so I can get the books to you.
• Swimming Lessons are November 15-December 1.  We will be at the pool from 1:40-2:15.  

Curriculum Highlights:

Literacy:  We concluded our unit on following characters into meaning this week with finishing the book Because of Winn-Dixie.  What a fun unit this was for the class and I know every student just loves reading right now!  Next week we will begin our series book clubs!  In writing we brainstormed first moment ideas, times when we felt strong emotions in order to start thinking our our topic for the second personal narrative.  We have also chosen what we want to improve on in our writing (some want better punctuation, dialogue, more detail, etc).  We are pushing ourselves as writers!

Bible:  We have gotten into the habit of bringing our Bibles to the rug first thing in the morning and reading our lesson from the Word.  This is such a nice start to our day.  This week we learned about the flood, God's faithfulness to Noah, and His sign of the covenant with the rainbow.

Math: In Math we have been busy practicing all of our multiplication and division facts from 0-10 to help us with our story problems.  Our word problems now involve all four operations in math and we need to read very carefully.  Next week we will begin two step story problems with the four operations.

Social Studies:  We have begun our study of the geography of Michigan.  This week we became geographers and learned what it means to be in a state.  We focused on location and learned about absolute and relative location when talking about Michigan.  We had a lot of fun exploring these concepts on Google Earth.

Have a great weekend!
Lynae

MUSIC NOTE FROM MRS. BOER - About once a quarter information about what we have been learning in music will appear in this blog. 

This quarter we learned....
*Two Songs of the Month - Salaam and Lord, Make Us Servants
*Our Theme Song - God of This City
*To keep a steady beat, even while we played different rhythms on Boomwhackers

*How many beats a quarter note, half note, and eighth note get

*Tempo

October 13

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• A swim form came home today that needs to be returned next week in order for your child to participate in swim lessons.  We will be at the pool from November 15-24 from 1:40-2:25.  
• Conferences will be held on October 24 and November 2.  I look forward to meeting with all of you to share your child's growth in 3rd grade.
• Today marks the end of the first quarter. Report cards will be coming home next week Wednesday.
• October 16-18 (Monday-Wednesday)  The FARM science lab will be at Pine Ridge for us to participate in some agricultural experiments.  We are so excited to participate in this!
• October 19 and 20 (Thursday and Friday)  No School for the CEA Convention

Homework Folder:

• Due to the short school week, I will not be sending home any math or word work for the upcoming week.  Only reading minutes will be required.  125 minutes is still needed for the week.

Curriculum Highlights:

Bible:  This week we began reading from the book of Genesis.  We have covered the creation story and created a poster to remind us of the days of creation.  We spent a lot of time talking about what it means to be made in God's image as well as our responsibility for caring for God's creation.

Math:  We learned about area this week (length x width) and did a lot of word problems dealing with this.  We also learned how to multiply and divide by 6's and 8's.  These are much harder to count by and we are practicing them daily.

Literacy: This week we continued reading Because of Winn Dixie as a class and followed characters in our own personal books.  In Writing we have finished editing our personal narratives and we are starting to publish our final copies.  These will be given to you at conferences.

Science:  We have wrapped up our "Earth and Me" unit by creating a keynote on surface changes.  The students did a lot of research and organizing of information for this project.  A final copy will be sent home to you by email from your child. 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  It is my joy to partner with you this year.
Lynae

Grandparents day Pictures

October 6, 2017

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• You should have received an email this week explaining how to sign up for conferences.  I am looking forward to meeting with all of you on either October 24 or November 2 and sharing the growth your child is making in 3rd grade.
• 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 for us to participate in agricultural experiments.  
• October 18- Report cards go home
• October 20-21 (Thursday and Friday)  No School for CEA convention
• Advanced Date:  We will be taking swimming lessons from November 15-December 1.  Our class will be at the pool from 12:40-1:15.  
• We are starting to get low on Clorox Wipes.  If you are willing to donate any, I would greatly appreciate it.

Homework Folder:

• The kids are getting really good at their homework folders and bag books!  Thank you for helping with this responsibility.  I am sure you noticed that the routine does not change.  :)
• Reading minutes are due on Monday.  Please sign the form for your child.  125 minutes is expected at the 3rd grade level.
• New word work will be sent home on Monday with a test on Friday.
• Math homework came home today and is due back next week Friday.
• We are working on Psalm 23 in class but since almost everyone knows it well, we are concentrating a lot on looking up favorite scripture verses and committing them to memory.

Curriculum Highlights in photos:

Literacy:  We are editing our personal narratives and should be ready to start publishing next week.  In reading we are getting really good at responding to our teaching points and understanding our characters.

Math:  We wrapped up our first math unit this week.  I will send the tests home next week with the kids.

Science:  All students have been assigned a research topic on either earthquakes, landslides, erosion, or volcanoes.  We will be creating a keynote next week to present everything we have learned.

Bible:  We have wrapped up our "Exploring the Bible" unit.  Everyone is getting very good at looking up verses, using the concordance and footnotes in the Bible, and reading directly from God's word.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Lynae

Koeman Farms

All of the 3rd graders with Steve Koeman

Steve explaining how the equipment works