February 23, 2018

Upcoming Dates/ Reminders:

• Reading minutes are due Monday. 
• Psalm 121 is due next week Friday.  
• Math homework and word work will start back up again.  Math is due Friday and our work work test will be given then too.
• February 28- Field trip to Hemlock Crossings.  We will be leaving school around 8:30 and returning around 1:30.  Make sure your child has a sack lunch that day and is dressed for the weather.  We are hoping to snow shoe while we are there so a bit of snow this weekend would be nice, but I don't think we are going to get it!  We will become skull detectives as we look at different animal skeletons and we will also cover a bit of the life of the Native Americans which deals with our upcoming Social Studies unit.  Thank you to Kerri deVries, Casey Achterhof, and Sara Knoester who have all offered to come along.
• March 9 (Friday)- Fun Night at Pine Ridge.  A green form went home last week explaining the different needs for this night.  It truly does take everyone to make this night be successful for the kids.  Here is the link if you are able to help: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090848abad2ea31-funnight1   Third graders are asked to contribute full size candy bars for prizes for the games if possible. 
• March 16- End of the 3rd Quarter
• March 23- Report Cards will go home

Curriculum Highlights:

Devotions:  Thomas, Miles, Payton A., and Cameron and led us this week in our devotions.  It is so much fun to see what the kids come up with and everyone is enjoying this time of the day.

Literacy:  We have all chosen our research animal and now we are busy finding information to place into our writing.  This week we researched our animal habitat, physical characteristics, and behaviors and defenses.  We paraphrase our findings and we began our rough draft of our habitat chapter today.  

Bible:  This week we looked at the passover.  We talked about how the passover is a reminder of what Jesus has also done for us with .  We also talked a lot about adding yeast to bread (and unleavened bread) and asked ourselves what we are putting in our own lives each day that causes us to live for Jesus.

Math and Science:  These were just touched on a bit this week due to Maker's week.  Our schedule was certainly different!  I hope you enjoyed hearing all about the fun activities your child participated in.  We will be back at these subjects full time again next week.

Maker's Week:  I taught bridges this week so that is obviously where I have the most pictures. However, here are a few to enjoy!

Balloon Powered Cars

Ziplines

Winter Olympics

Lego Mazes

Bridges

Bridges

Bridges

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

February 15, 2018

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Reading Minutes are due on Tuesday.  I will send another form home with your child today to start for next week as well.  
• Homework next week will consist just of reading minutes.  Enjoy the small break!
• February 16-19- No school for winter break
• February 20-23- Makers week in the afternoon at Pine Ridge.  The kids have chosen their activities and are ready to go!
• February 22 (Thursday)- Skating party from 6-8.
• February 28 (Wednesday)- Field trip to Hemlock Crossings.  We will be leaving school around 8:30 and returning at 1:00.  This unit ties in well with our Science unit on animals as well as Social Studies and our studies of the Native Americans.  We will become skull detectives and we will be snowshoeing.  I am still able to take three more parent volunteers if you are interested.  Due to limited space on the bus, parents will need to drive themselves.  All students will also need a sack lunch that day.  
• March 9 (Friday)- Fun Night from 5:30-8:00.  A green form went home today with different ways you can help on this evening.  Any help given is greatly appreciated to make this a successful evening for the kids.  Here is the sign up genius link:  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090848abad2ea31-funnight1   Third grade families are asked to contribute regular size candy bars for prizes if you are able to help.  

Curriculum Highlights:

Devotions:  Olivia was our first friend to lead us in student lead devotions and she did a great job!

Ash Wednesday:  We spent a lot of time talking about the meaning of this day.  We wrote a sin we needed to ask forgiveness for down on paper and then burned them away.  Later we used the ash to remind the class that they are a child of God and they are loved as they had a cross placed on their foreheads. 

Literacy:  This week we became proficient at reading nonfiction text and deciding which text structure would best help us organize the information.  This is tough stuff and the kids did a wonderful job with it!  We then chose our animal we are going to research and began to look through our books to see what types of chapters we want to create for our nonfiction writing. 

Bible:  We made it through the plagues this week in Bible!  We have had some incredible discussions about our hearts, whys  Pharaoh's heart remained so hard, and how God gives us choice in our lives.  These kids and their hearts....they are just shining for Him!

Science:  We did several experiments on friction this week!

Math:  We have finished our math unit on multi digit addition and subtraction.  I sent these tests home today.  Due to maker's week next week we will have limited math instruction, so I am choosing to use next week to work on some concepts that need a bit more review with small groups. 

Have a great weekend!
Lynae

February 9

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• February 14 (Wednesday):  Valentines Day.  We will be having a small party in the afternoon.  Is anyone willing to provide a small snack or drink?  If so, send me an email.  I sent home a list of names so that your child can provide a valentine for everyone in the classroom.  
• February 16 (Friday):  No school for staff development
• February 19 (Monday):  No school for winter break
• February 20-23- Makers week at Pine Ridge in the afternoon
• February 22 (Thursday):  Skating Party from 6-8p.m.
• February 28 (Wednesday)- Field trip to Hemlock Crossings.  We will be leaving school at 8:45 and returning around 1:00.  This field trip ties in well with our Science unit on animals as well as our Social Studies unit with Native Americans.  We will become skull detectives as we observe different animal skeletons and we will be snow shoeing as well!  I am able to take 4 volunteer parents along.  Please send me an email if this is of interest to you.  You will need to have your own transportation to Hemlock Crossings and bring a lunch.  
• Anyone want a pet crayfish??  We are done with our Science unit and four of these little creatures are looking for a new home.  If you are interested, send me an email and let me know!
• Reading minutes are due Monday.  We will not have math or word work next week due to the short week.  

Curriculum Highlights:

Bible:  We are reading about Moses and the plagues sent to Egypt.  We have talked a lot this week about Pharaoh and his hard heart.  Most of our devotions have revolved around the state of our own hearts and the importance of keeping them soft for Jesus.  We have begun illustrating our new Bible memory of Psalm 121.  I also sent home a letter this week explaining student led devotions.  I hope your child loves doing this!

Math:  Due to the snow day, I will spend next week Monday reviewing for our multi digit addition and subtraction test which we will take on Tuesday.  This week we got really good at reading carefully with reading multi step word problems.  We underline important information and make sure our answer makes sense and answers what the question is asking.

Literacy:  We focused on comparison charts (Venn Diagrams) and cause and effect text structure this week.  The concept of cause and effect is a bit tricky yet so we will spend a few more days looking for this in the nonfiction texts that we are reading in class.  We do so much writing with the nonfiction unit as we work.  I will be giving the word work assessment on Monday due to the snow day today.  

Science:  This week we finished up our popplets on the beetles and crayfish.  Your child should be coming home with a copy of this in his/her homework folder.  We have gone back to our Changes in Motion unit and focused this week on physical force of motion with several different experiments.  We are having a lot of fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

February 2, 2018

Upcoming Events/Reminders:

• February 2- Report Cards went home today.  
• February 7 (Wednesday)- Neon day for the final wacky Wednesday
• February 14 (Wednesday)- Valentine's Day.  We will be having a Valentine party in the afternoon and exchanging valentine cards.  I sent home a class list of names last week.
• February 16 (Friday)- No school for staff development
• February 19 (Monday)- No school for winter break
• February 20-23- Makers week in the afternoons at Pine Ridge
• February 22 (Thursday)- Skating Party from 6-8 p.m.
• Cold and Flu Season- THANK YOU for your donations of Clorox wipes and Kleenex.  Our class has been very healthy and I appreciate all of you who help me in this area.  

Curriculum Highlights:

Literacy:  This week we worked on main ideas with supporting details and placing this information into boxes and bullets.  We also worked with the text structure of timelines and flow charts.  We are reading a lot of nonfiction text and determining the best way to organize the information we are learning from that text into an organizer.  This requires a lot of reading and writing and takes our entire literacy time.

Math:  We focused on subtraction across zeros this week (ex. 1, 000-548=452).  We have done a lot of "proof drawings" to show our thinking and understanding of this concept.  At this point we are getting very good at multidigit addition and subtraction.  Next week we will move into story problems and I will give the test for this unit on Friday.

Bible:  We moved into the book of Exodus this week and the life of Moses.  Once again we see how God uses people we least expect when Moses is called by God to go to Egypt and free the Israelites from slavery.  We have talked a lot about having open hearts so God can use us too.  We wrapped up Psalm 1 this week and will begin Psalm 121 next week.  

Science: We have completed our research on beetles and crayfish and we are now busy placing all of this information into a web on our ipads.  This is a lot of organization and putting our thoughts into complete sentences and correct categories of habitats, physical characteristics, behaviors, defenses and interesting facts.  This has been a lot of fun!

Pajama Day:  Well, this was just a lot of fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae