May 28, 2016

What a beautiful week!  The 3rd graders and I have been a bit spoiled as we ran the air conditioning in the classroom all week long.  The excitement of summer break is building but I am still impressed at how focused this group has remained (maybe the AC helps!).  We had a busy week of learning and we are going to finish strong.

Upcoming Dates:

• Kites-Thank you to everyone who has signed up to help me with kites this coming week!  I have 5 volunteers on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday.  
• Field day-Tuesday, May 31- Make sure to send your child in comfortable clothing and with a water bottle.
• HC Varsity Baseball Team vs. 3rd Grade- June 1.  We have excited all-star readers who are ready to play ball!!
• Resthaven- We will be walking to Resthaven on June 2 to sing to the residence.  We will be out of the building from 1:30-2:00.
• Last day- June 3.  We will dismiss at 11:30.  Be sure to look for your child's report card and HC baton.  

What we have been doing in 3rd grade:

Reading: This week we wrapped up our reading of our bibliography books and went to work creating a poster to display what we have learned.  This is a ton of fun!

Writing: We wrapped up our How I Know God is Real writing and created our final draft.  These will be placed in your child's report card folder for you.

Bible:  We continued to read in the book of Joshua this week.  We read about the victory at Jericho and also talked about the defeat and victory at Ai.  We talked about what type of a leader Joshua is for the Israelites and we see how God continues to be faithful to his people.

Math: We took our final geometry assessment this week!  Your child's test came home today in their Friday folders.

Blessings!

Lynae

May 20, 2016

It was an absolute joy to worship on Wednesday as a collective student body at the High School.  I feel so blessed to be part of this incredible community of believers.  We also had a great afternoon serving in our community with our POD groups.

Worshipping at the High School

A POD group serving at Positive Options

Planting flowers at Positive Options

Upcoming Dates:

• Sound Presentaion- Tuesday May 24.  We will be walking to the High school for a sound demonstration from Scott VanDen Berg to wrap up our Science unit.  
• Field Day- May 31 in the afternoon at Southside
• Singing at Rest Haven- June 2 from 1:30-2:00. 
• 3rd Grade vs. HC Varsity Baseball game- June 1.  Almost everyone is an all-star and ready to play ball!
• Tetrahedron kites- May 31-June 3-I am still in need of volunteers on Tuesday, May 31 to make our Tetrahedron Kites.  If you are able to help me, please send me an email or note.  I would love three or four people to assist if at all possible.  The time is from 8:45-10:45.  I have two volunteers for Thursday, June 2 so I should be set there.  

Here is what we have been doing in 3rd grade:

Homework Note:  Your child completed the last word work test of the school year today.  We are also going to wrap up Math homework (although we have yet to take our last test.  Read on in the Math section to catch more on that).  Only Reading minutes and Bible memory are coming home next week.

Library materials:  All checked out library books are due back to Pine Ridge library.  Students are allowed to continue using books out of my personal classroom library until the final week of school. Please start looking for those misplaced books around your home.

Math:  After a tough review on Thursday the students asked for one more day of practice before we took our test.  I am pleased to see them taking ownership for their learning, so I gladly gave it to them.  We reviewed again today in the form of many games and activities and I can tell the confidence is increasing.  We will practice one last time on Monday and then I will give the class their final assessment.

Bible:  We started reading in the book of Joshua this week.  God shows his power and protection to the Israelites as he leads them across the Jordan River.  We did a reader's theatre of Rahab and the spies and see how God keeps his promises to his people.
We continue to practice Galations 5:22-26 each day and I will have the class say it to me on Friday, May 27 if they have not turned in their slip.

Reading:  We are busy reading our biographies about a person from history.  Each child is collecting as much information on their subject as they can.  This will be complied into a poster next week.

Writing: This week we focused on a faith based writing called "How I know God is Real".  We created lists of how we see God in nature, the Bible, and our lives and have written our rough drafts.  We will edit and create our final copy next week.

Science:  We wrapped out our light and sound unit.  This was a lot of fun as we made harps to explore how tension, length, and thickness of string affects the pitch of sound.

Blessings!
Lynae

Dates.....

We are nearing the finish line of 3rd grade!  At this point in the year I feel like everyone's schedules are getting pretty crazy and we are simply trying to keep up.  In an effort to help you stay on top of your 3rd graders school schedule, the blog this week is a list of events that we have to finish up the year.  I have added each little detail, so grab your calendars and get some of these highlights written in.  :)

1.  End of the Year Celebration- Wednesday, May 18.  We will be walking to the High School and worshipping as an entire HC community!  Come join us!  The time is from 9-10 am.

2.  POD Service Day- Wednesday afternoon, May 18.  We will be doing a service project with our PODS this afternoon.  Mr. Howell sent home a letter about this today.  We will be participating in a service project for local organizations around Holland.

3.  Discovery Testing- I will give the Reading portion of the Discovery test on Tuesday, May 17 and the Math portion on Thursday, May 19.

4.  Final Math test- Friday May 20.  I sent home a review for this today.  The review is due on Thursday, May 19 so we can go over any areas that may still be confusing for your child.

5.  Final Bible Memory- Galatians 5:22-26 is our final memorization passage.  I sent home a copy today.  For many of the kids, this one is new to learn.  We are practicing everyday at school but any help at home is appreciated.  I will have the students say it to me on May 27 if they have not turned their slip in by that point.

6.  Sound Presentation- Tuesday, May 24.  To end our final unit in Science we will be walking over to the High School in the morning for a sound demonstration from Mr. Scott VanDenBerg.

7.  Singing at Resthaven- Thursday, June 2 from 1:30-2:00 pm.  We will go for one final visit to Resthaven on 40th Street and sing as a 3rd grade group.

8.  Field day- Tuesday, May 31 in the afternoon at Southside.

9.  Tetrahedron Kites-  May 31-June 3 in the mornings.  This is a really fun way to wrap up Math and our geometry unit.  A letter came home today on purple paper explaining the details!

Whew!  I think that is it!  If there are any questions please don't hesitate to ask.  Your children are still going strong in class and putting forth great effort.  I am so proud of these kids!

Blessings!
Lynae

May 6, 2016

This week Pine Ridge gathered on Thursday for the National Day of Prayer.  What a blessing to be able to do this with our school community!

Upcoming Events:

• May 11 (Wednesday): Half day for Tulip Time
• May 12 (Thursday):  Half day for Tulip Time.  March in the parade!  I sent a BLUE sheet home today with our class line-up and important details.  Please send me you cell phone number (lstielstra@hollandchristian.org) in case I would have need to contact you while at the parade.
• May 18 (Wednesday):  End of the Year Celebration.  We will be walking to the high school to celebrate "Life together" as a whole HC community. The time is from 9-10 am and you are welcome to attend.
• June 3 (Friday):  Final Chapel at Pine Ridge from 10:45-11:20.  You are always welcome to attend.  We will be praying over our pod groups and over our sixth graders.

Here is what we have been up to in 3rd Grade:

Reading:  We finished our mystery book clubs today!  Next week we will be moving on to biographies.  Most of the class has also become MVP's and will be playing baseball against the HC Varsity baseball team the last week of school.  

Writing:  This week we finished our rough drafts of our personal essays and spent a lot of time rereading our work, editing, and proofing with a partner.  We will publishing these on our ipads next week.

Math:  We continued in our geometry unit this week with area and perimeter.  It is tricky to keep these two straight, so we are taking some extra time to practice these concepts!

Bible:  This week we read about the death of Miriam and Aaron before entering the promised land as well as the story of the bronze snake.  To review our unit we played a game of Jeopardy on Thursday which everyone loved.  Our new Bible memory will be Galatians 5: 22-26.

Science:  We continued our light and sound unit this week by studying shadows and how the length can change by moving the light source.  We also began learning about sound vibrations, how sound moves in waves, and played with pitch with tuning forks and water.  Science is full of experiments right now and the kids love it!

We measured our shadows at three different times during the day

Happy Mothers day to all of you wonderful moms!

Lynae

Outdoor Discovery Center

We had a great day at the Outdoor Discovery Center.  The kids had a great day learning and having fun.  We learned how the Native Americans lived in Michigan, how they built their homes, and the importance of trade.  We also shot darts like the Native Americans would have used for hunting, learned about the French voyagers, and practiced being a voyager in a canoe.  We even tried to make fire!

Upcoming Events:

• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Word work test on Friday
• May 11 (Wednesday) Half day for Tulip time.  Dismissal at 11:30
• May 12 (Thursday) Half day for Tulip Time.  Students remain at school for lunch (brown bag sent from home) and then head to the parade route by bus.  We will be marching in the Kinderparade in the afternoon.  All students will need a dutch costume to wear.   Many students choose to wear them to school already in the morning.   I will send a parade line-up of the kids as the date approaches.

What we have been doing in 3rd Grade:

Bible:  This week we learned how the Israelites did not trust that God would help them defeat the Canaanites and take the promised land as their own.  We see them doubt God once again and for each day that the spies explored the land of Canaan, the Israelites now need to wander in the desert for a year.  40 Years!  Yet we continue to see how God cares for his people.  We talked about how God wants us to rely fully on Him.   We also continued memorizing Acts 2:1-4.

Reading:  Our mystery book clubs continue!  The students are busy reading several chapters each day and jotting down discussion topics that they then take with them to their book clubs.  Each day a new student is in charge of leading this discussion.  This will continue through next week.

Writing:  We focused on our introductions and life event details for our personal essays this week.  The students are doing a nice job of sticking to the big idea that they have chosen to write about and finding experiences from their own lives to back up their opinion.

Science:  We continued our study of light this week.  We experimented how light interacts differently with different materials.  We studied how shadows are made and how to change the length of a shadow by moving the light source.  We also did an experiment to demonstrate that light is refracted when it travels through air and then water.

Math: This anchor chart is just a taste of what we covered in Math this week.  We are busy learning geometry terms and doing a lot of practice with these on our ipads.  Next week we will continue to work with these polygons as we start finding area and perimeter.

Blessings!

Lynae

April 22, 2015

Upcoming dates:

• Reading Minutes due Monday
• Word Work Test on Friday
• Wednesday- Outdoor Discovery Center.  We will be out of the school from 9-2:30 that day.  Please send your child with a brown bag lunch with their name on it, good walking shoes, and appropriate dress for the weather.
• May 11 (Wednesday)- Dismissal at 11:30 for Tulip Time
• May 12 (Thursday)- Half day of class.  Students remain at school for lunch (brown bag sent from home)  and then head to the parade route by bus.  We will be marching in the tulip time parade in the afternoon.  I will send home a line-up of the kids for the parade as the date approaches.

What we have been up to in 3rd Grade:

Bible:  We focused on the tabernacle this week.  To make it real to the kids, Mrs. DeZwaan and I set up the dimensions out on the school yard and then assigned each child to a tribe.  We talked about why the organization of the tabernacle was important and then we read the verses on how the Israelites packed up the tabernacle and traveled to a new location.  As a class, we practiced marching in our tribes as well.  I am sorry that I didn't have my camera on me for photos of this, but I was busy measuring the tabernacle and blowing the trumpet to get kids marching.  :)
We also had Keith Blystra come from the High School and explain more about the tabernacle to the kids.  He did a wonderful job of explaining how God was like a neighbor moving into the Israelite neighborhood.  God's door is always open and the light is always on....just waiting for us to come and spend time with Him.

Math:  We wrapped up our unit on two step story problems this week.  This was a tough unit for many and I was proud of how hard the kids worked.  We took Thursday and Friday to do some logic problems, play some math review games, and do a few fun challenge activities with small groups.  On Monday we will start polygons, perimeter, and area.

Reading: We have finished our first book (or two for some groups) in our mystery book club and will be moving on to the next one in the series.  Continue encouraging your child to read for our upcoming all-star game as well.

Writing:  This week we chose a big idea that we feel strongly about (ex: reach to do the impossible) and created our opinion statements as well as ideas from our own lives to support these statements.

Science:  We have had a fun week doing experiments with light.  This week we learned that light travels in a straight line.  We also played with mirrors and flash lights and learned that we are able to change the direction of light.

Blessings,
Lynae

Spring is in the air!  We were not able to stay inside with this beautiful weather so we moved outside for a Bible lesson, Science experiment, and a read aloud this week.  It puts the entire class in a great mood.  :)  Bring on the sunshine!

A few odds and ends:
Book Orders:  I will place another book order on Friday, April 22.  If you are interested in ordering any books, click on the red scholastic tab on the side of this blog and you will be directed to my scholastic page.  You are free to order from any grade level on this site.

Field trip:  We will be going to the Outdoor Discovery Center on Wednesday, April 27.  We will be out of the building from 9:00-2:30 that day.  Please have your child bring a brown bag lunch with his/her name on it, good walking shoes, and appropriate dress for the weather.

Upcoming Dates:

• Reading minutes are due Monday
• Word Work test on Friday
• Math test REVIEW due Tuesday,  April 19
• Math test on Wednesday, April 20

Here is what we have been up to in 3rd grade:

Math:  We have been solving two step story problems this week.  Reading carefully is important and these problems take time.  We will finish this unit on Monday, review on Tuesday, and take our test on Wednesday.

Reading:  We have begun Mystery book clubs.  Each day your child meets with his/her book club and discusses their reading from the previous day.  It is amazing to listen to their discussions and to watch them find evidence in their books to support their thoughts.  

Writing:  We have begun our Persuasive Essay unit.  We examined several essays this week and looked for the big idea of the essay and then the evidence to support that big idea. By the end of the week the kids were getting really good at this! 

Bible:  We read about the tabernacle and talked about the importance of the Israelites having a place to worship God.  We drew a diagram and learned about the furnishings that were placed in the tabernacle.  We talked about how God is teaching the Israelites the importance of worshipping him.  Acts 2:1-4 is our new Bible memory.  

Science:  We have begun a new unit called Light and Sound.  This week we focused on light and did several fun experiments.

Blessings,

Lynae