December 22

Enjoy the photos of everything we did this week in 3rd grade.  I look forward to seeing your children again on January 8.

Creating Michigan Geography Books

Hunting for places in Michigan

Starting our day in prayer for a friend

Crafts at the Christmas Party

So many fun games to play at the Christmas party!

Playing games at the middle school

December 15

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• Next week we will not have word work due to the many Christmas activities.  I will be spending time next week reassessing your children in spelling.  
• We will still complete Math homework (due Friday). 
• I will send reading minutes this coming week but only 75 minutes are due.  I will have the kids turn this in on Friday (Dec. 22) so that you do not need to keep track of any papers over Christmas break.  
• December 20 (Wednesday)- Positive options will come for our chapel (10:20-10:45) and receive the baby items that we have gathered for them.  Our class has collected 71 items so far.  Thank you for your generosity!
• December 20 (Wednesday)- Our class will be reading Christmas stories with the 6th graders.  Please have your child bring in his/her favorite Christmas book to partner read with a friend!
• December 21 (Thursday)- We will have our class Christmas party in the afternoon from 2:15-3:00.  Thank you to Peggy Gorno, Kerri DeVries, Sara Knoester, and Sue Stock for planning this event for the kids.  We could use two more volunteers for the games, so if you would like to attend please send me an email and let me know.  
• December 22 (Friday)- We will be at the middle school from 8:45-10:30 or so to play math games that the 7th graders have created!  
• December 23-January 7- Christmas Break
• January 8 (Monday)- Class resumes
• Gingerbread house board- If your child is done with their gingerbread house, will you please return the board to school?  We will reuse these again next year.

Curriculum Highlights:

Bible:  Luke 2:6-20 is due on Friday, December 22.  We have been practicing in class each day and many students have this memorized.  I will have students say it to me by Friday if they have not turned in their slip from home.  In class we continue to study Jacob and his marriages to Leah and Rachel.  This week we talked about how Jacob deceived others but we also saw how he was deceived by Laban.  Through it all we talk about how God uses those we least expect to bring forth His salvation plan.

Math:  We have wrapped up studying elapsed time and taken this portion of our math test.  We have now begun reading and creating pictographs and bar graphs with multi-digit numbers.  My goal is to wrap up this unit next week.  

Literacy:  We are reading Caleb's Story in class and enjoying a whole group book discussion.  Each student has also written the "evidence" of his/her personal essay by creating two examples to support the big idea.  We also crafted an introduction and conclusion this week.  This is a tough concept but everyone is doing a really nice job!  Next week we will edit our work and then begin our final copies. 

Social Studies:  We have wrapped up our geography of Michigan unit by studying different regions in Michigan.  Next week we will put the final touches on our Michigan books that we created on our ipads.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae

Gingerbread houses

Today is an absolute favorite for me.  I love seeing the creativity that comes out with gingerbread houses.  I also love seeing the students work with their parent or volunteer as they create their house.  I love all of the smiles and excitement. What a cool experience to be part of!  Thank you for all of the donations of candy and time that you gave to make this happen.  I hope you enjoy the pictures that I managed to get as much as I do.

Blessings!

Lynae

December 8

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• December 13 (Wednesday)- Gingerbread Houses!  Meet me at 8:30 in the gym to receive your instructions.  The kids are so excited for this!  You won't want to miss it!  If you haven't signed up yet, please do so at the top of the blog.
• December 14 (Thursday)- Coffee Connections for 3rd grade.  Come mingle with some other parents in the teacher's lounge and enjoy a cup of coffee!
• December 20- Positive Options will be coming for chapel to receive all of the baby items that have been collected for their organization.  Our class has collected 44 items.  These items will be collected instead of a student gift exchange.
• December 21- A HUGE thank you to Peggy Gorno, Sara Knoester, Kerri DeVries, and Sue Stock for planning the class Christmas party!  If you care to be part of this event simply let me know!  The party will be from 2:15-3:00.
• December 22- 3rd grade has been invited by the 7th graders to come to the middle school in the morning and play some math games that the 7th graders have created.  This is a super fun event. We will be out of the building from 9:00-10:45 or so.  
• December 23-January 7- Christmas Break
• Did your child share his/her personal narrative with you this week?  It came home on Tuesday for you and your family to celebrate with your 3rd grader.   
• We have been staying fairly healthy in our room!  Thank you for the Clorox wipes so we can clean our desks/chairs each day.  We are starting to run a bit low again so if you are willing to send more, I would greatly appreciate it.  

Curriculum Highlights in Pictures:

We had a FABULOUS writing celebration!  Check out some of these great groups.  Each child had such a great narrative and I am so proud of them. 

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  We have been doing a lot of partner work with writing and word work this week.   We also wrapped up our book clubs!  In writing we chose the big idea we want to write our personal essay about and began our introduction. 

In Social studies we have covered natural resources as well as our responsibility to care for the resources that God has given us.  We are almost done with our geography of Michigan book!

We are still telling time in Math.  Currently we are working on elapsed time as well as adding and subtracting time.  This is a tough concept so any additional time practice at home is greatly appreciated! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Lynae

December 1

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• December 5 (Monday)- We will be having a writing celebration from 2:15-3:00.  If you would like to volunteer to come and help with this, please sign up via the link at the top of the blog.
• December 13 (Wednesday)- Gingerbread houses.  You don't want to miss this!  There is a link for volunteering and a link for candy donations at the top of the blog
• December 21 (Thursday) from 2:15-3:00- Class Christmas Party.  Is anyone (or a small group of you) willing to plan a small Christmas party for our class?  It would involve a simple game or craft and a light snack.  I would greatly appreciate the help!  Let me know if you are interested.  
• Christmas Giving- Instead of a student gift exchange, Pine Ridge collects baby items for Positive Options.  These items will be collected during the month of December and then given to the organization at a special chapel on December 20 at 10:00.  A purple paper came home with the needs that positive options has requested.
• December 25-January 7- No School for winter break.

Curriculum Highlights:

Bible: This week we began looking at the stories of Isaac and Rebekah as well as the birth of their twin sons, Jacob and Esau.  We see how God continues to be faithful to the promises He has made to His people and how his covenant plan is being carried out.  We are also busy memorizing Luke 2:6-20.  

Praying over a friend as we start our day

Math:  We have wrapped up learning about measurement and liquid volume and are moving on to elapsed time.  I have started at the very beginning with telling time to the hour, half hour, quarter hours, and 5 minute interval.  Students now need to tell time to the minute and we will begin elapsed time in story problems next week.

Literacy:  We are busy reading our second or third books in our book club series.  Everyone loves meeting with their small group and has excellent discussion.  We have wrapped up our personal narratives and we are excited about our writing celebration on Monday afternoon!  We are beginning a personal essay.  This week we looked at different essays and determined the big idea and supporting evidence in these writings. 

Finding the big idea and supporting evidence in an essay

Social Studies:  We had very little time for this subject this week due to swimming lessons but we did continue to create a book to review the different natural and human characteristics in Michigan.  We also talked about natural resources in Michigan and looked several of them up on Google Earth.  

MUSIC NOTE FROM MRS. BOER - Third Graders begin learning recorders second semester (January 22) in music class. The cost of a new recorder is $5. You can pick one up in the office for a Christmas stocking stuffer or you can wait until the New Year to purchase one. Some of you may have a hand-me-down somewhere in your home that you can seek out in preparation for second semester.

Have a great weekend!

Lynae