What a wonderful week we have had in 3rd grade.  Our students are working so very hard on everything they are doing.  We have amazing children that we are just loving as we are really getting to know them.  We can't wait to share with you everything they are doing at parent-teacher conferences.  They are each a blessing and have been created with their own unique personalities which are shining through.

We take this very seriously as we have been given these children as a specific appointment from God and he has put them in our care each day with his perfect plan for their lives in mind.

Psalm 139:13-16
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Here is what we have done this week:

Reading-In the story Because of Winn-Dixie, we have been studying our characters very deeply. This discussion has led us on some very serious conversations about life choices, passing judgement on others, and trying to understand and empathize with others.  This unit on character study lends itself so well to also talking about the character traits of Christians as "Image Bearers" of Christ. Everything your child reads this year is filtered through their lens of Christianity.  We have been talking about that during our mini-lessons and then as they go and practice in their own reading, they are also reading through the eyes of their Christianity.  This week we learned to listen to our internal voice to make connections with our characters and to continue to grow our ideas about our characters as we watch them change throughout the story.

Writing-In writing this week we have spent a lot of time working on our penmanship and complete sentence writing.  As we have worked hard on revisiting correct letter formation, we have also worked hard on publishing our first personal narrative.  We can't wait to share them with you at conferences.

Math- This week we focused on multiplying by factors of 6 and 8.  We used many different strategies to help us find the products.  We also focused on word problems and drawing pictures to help understand what mathematical operation needed to be used to solve a problem.  At this point we have learned all of our multiplication and division facts for factors 0-10 with the exception of 7’s, which we will study next week.  I am so proud of this group and their determination when they work in Math.  These concepts can be challenging but everyone has a wonderful attitude and does their best!

Science- Each child was given a research topic dealing with changes to the Earth’s surface.  Your child researched one of the following:  Volcanoes, Landslides, Erosion, or Earthquakes.  They then took the information that they found and created a Keynote presentation.  We will be finishing these up next week Monday and presenting them on Tuesday.  I loved seeing the students work so independently on these projects and their presentations are turning out great!!  I look forward to sharing them with you at conferences.

Bible- We focused this week on Day 6 and 7 of the Creation story.  We learned about Adam and Eve as well as the Garden of Eden.  Your children LOVE reading the story of creation right from their personal bibles and have so many great questions and observations about how sin entered the world.  We talked a lot about how God gave Adam and Eve free choice and how the choice was made to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  We also talked about how God gives us choices and how He desires for us to have a relationship with Him and follow Him daily. 

Upcoming Events

Parent Teacher Conferences  Tuesday, 10/21 4:20-8:40 and Wednesday, 10/22 3:00-8:40

NO SCHOOL  10/22-10/24

What an awesome week at Pine Ridge!  I think one of my favorite events of the entire year is Grandparent's Day.  There is so much PRIDE in the classroom during the time that the Grandparents come visit.  It was fun seeing the students share what they enjoy about school with their Grandparents.  The program in the gym was also just amazing.  It just brings tears to my eyes to listen to the students sing praises along with all the Grandparents.  God's faithfulness just shines through it all!  Click here to see some of the pictures that were taken.

Conferences:  Conferences will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 21 and 22.  Sign-ups for conferences are available online and you should have received an email this week about how to do this.  If you are unable to sign-up or did not receive an email with sign- up instructions, please contact Laura Norman in the office and she will be able to help you with this.  

Swimming lessons:  We will be attending swimming lessons from Monday, November 10 to Friday, November 21.  A permission slip went home for you to sign on Friday.  Please return them to school as soon as possible.

Here is what we did in 3rd Grade this week:

Reading:  This week we have started our new mentor text, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.  The children love coming to the floor for our mini-lesson. This next reading unit is all about building ideas about our characters in the books that we read and it requires deep thinking while we read. This week we not only started to identify our characters but to also we learned how to envision them, and empathize with them and see their point of view.  Your children are doing a wonderful job with this and they are loving their reading time.  It is amazing to see how engaged they are during reading time.  

Writing:  This week we are publishing our first narratives which will be shared with you at conferences.

Math:  This was a week of review for our Math test that we took on Friday.  We covered multiplication and division of the factors 0,1,2,3,4,5,9,and 10 as well as word problems and finding area.  We will start our second unit next week which continues with multiplication and division.  At this point each student has a preferred strategy for solving multiplication and division problems and we are working at becoming more fluent in our facts.  Any additional practice that you can give your child at home is greatly appreciated.  

Bible:  We are continuing to practice Psalm 103:1-8 for our Bible memory.  We made it through verse 8 on Friday and will continue to practice this passage this coming week.  If your child is able to recite it to you at home please send in the paper stating he/she said it to you and how many helps were needed.  In class we began our unit on the study of Genesis.  We learned that Genesis means "beginning" and how God is an awesome creator!  We worked through the first 6 days of creation this week as well.  

Science:   This week we focused on renewable and nonrenewable resources as well as how we can care for God's earth.  We learned how important it is to care for the land we have been given and what we can do to help conserve farmland as it is a long-time renewable resource.  We also looked at oil and how it is nonrenewable.  The class learned how harmful oil spills can be to us and to animals and how oil spills are cleaned up.  We also looked at how we can use renewable resources more so we don't use up our nonrenewable resources.  

Blessings,

Mrs. Stielstra and Mrs. Wyma

AUTUMN is on its way!   My weekend math equation:

COLD + DAMP = Mrs. Wyma's house is clean

I try to find the blessings in weather such as this!!

We have a lot of learning going on in 3rd grade--Take a look!

Reading- this week we worked on making inferences while we read as a way to strengthen our comprehension.  This is a very complex activity for children but I again was so impresses as they worked on this and how they were able to start doing this in their own "good fit" books.  We also finished The Marvelous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Next week we will use the mentor text Because of Winn Dixie to being our next unit of reading which is all about studying our characters.  

Writing: this week we have learned how to end our story with action, setting, dialogue or a feeling/emotion as well as add more details to the heart of our story.  This next week we are starting to edit and revise and publish our first personal narrative and I am excited to share those with you at conferences.

Math-  This week we continued to work with factors of 3’s and 4’s as well as story problems dealing with multiplication and division,  Next week Friday, October 10, we will be having our Unit test.  To help your child prepare, I sent home a sample test this weekend.  They have until Thursday, October 9 to work on this at home.  I told the students that if they do not understand a problem, they simply need to circle it and bring it back to school.  We will be reviewing a lot next week and answering any questions that your child may still have.  This practice test will be your child’s math homework for next week. 

Science-  We focused on rainfall and landslides this week.  We learned how a lot of rainfall affects our soil and also the importance of maintaining healthy soil for farmland.  We also had a lot of fun on Friday when each student made their own brick.  They took their knowledge about earth materials and particle size and decided which earth materials would best be used to make their brick.  This was a lot of fun and everyone is eagerly waiting to see how their brick dries up!

Bible-  We continued to be bible explorers this week and focused on the Map section at the back of the bible.  We also spent a lot of time talking about the importance of spending time in God’s word.  Students found favorite passages in the bible and added them to their rings that we made last week.  So many students loved this activity and we had a long list going on the board of our favorite verses.  This was also a wonderful activity for reviewing how to find passages in the bible. 

This week we also had some special guests (HC BOYS VARSITY FOOTBALL PLAYERS) come and read to us. This was so fun for the kids to do.  When the story was over, the boys did a wonderful job interacting with the kids.  FUN!!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 9, Grand Parents Day- see the Pine Ridge Post for specific details

Ditto Update:  Each year ditto contributes $165 per pupil, toward annual tuition costs.  As a way of supporting ditto's efforts, our class will be hosting a Work Bee on Monday evening, October 13 , from 6 - 8pm.  What a great way to volunteer and have fun at the same time!!  Please make every effort to support ditto and our HCS and ZCS community by attending our scheduled Work Bee.  See you there!!

Have a BLESSED Sunday!  Erin and Lynae