WOW!!! What a beautiful sunny day even though it is a bit on the COLD side!

This week ended with a wonderful celebration of our love for one another.  As the children opened their valentines, the room was filled with joy, laughter, and thank yous. It is always so fun to sit back and watch that.  I was reminded again of how awesome my job is that I get to be with your children each day.

Reading and Writing:  This week your child has tackled a tricky skill of learning about and identifying different text structures in non fiction text.  They learned about how authors of nonfiction structure text these various ways...informative, sequential, comparison, and cause and effect.  Along with each text structure, they had to learn how to create a specific graphic organizer to organize their information according the the text structure.   We have one more activity to work on with this next week before moving into our animal research project.

Word Work: This week, due to no school on Monday, we will be getting a high frequency word list home for a test on Friday.  With this word list, you will want to have your child practice these words each night by the read...spell...check method.

Math:  We will be wrapping up our unit next week on multi-digit addition and subtraction.  I sent home a practice test with the student on Friday that should be completed by next week Thursday.  If there are any areas where you child is struggling, just have them circle the problem and I will reteach that concept to them in class.   

Bible:  We finished our unit on Isaac and Jacob and took a test on that information on Tuesday.  Your child should have brought their test home in their Friday papers.  We have moved on to study Joseph and how Jacob loves him the most.  The class talked a lot about the eleven other brothers and how jealous they must have been of Joseph.  We finished the week by looking at how the jealousy of the brothers spirals out of control when they sell their brother Joseph. 

Our Bible memory will continue to be John 14:1-6 for next week.

Science:  We concluded our Organisms Have Character unit this week as well.  Your child completed their popplet of information and you should have received an email from me to view their work.  Each student independently completed the popplets and I was proud of how hard they worked.  We also learned about classification and practiced this skill by classifying different plant and animal cards. 

Reminders:

·            No school on Monday!  Enjoy your break!

·            Our new Bible Memory is John 14:1-6.  This is due by February 20.

·            Reading Minutes are due on Tuesday.

Upcoming Valentines Day Party Details

We had a wonderful time on our field trip to DeGraaf Nature Center on Thursday morning.  The students really enjoyed snowshoeing and we had more than enough snow to make tracks in!  We also learned a lot about the Native Americans of Michigan.  Thank you to Sonya Snyder, Pam Scholten, and Kerri deVries for accompanying us on this trip.

Here are the curriculum highlights of the week:

Reading/Writing:

This week we have spent more time with main idea and supporting details in our own nonfiction books that we have chosen.  This is a very tricky skill for them and this is something that will be taught again in 4th, 5th, 6th...  We also this week learned some strategies for how to figure out the meaning of unknown words when we are reading nonfiction.  We first check the glossary, then we check the context clues, and then we look the word up in the dictionary.  I am happy to say that all of our students are able to find words using a traditional paper dictionary.  

Reading Minutes due Monday.onday

Math:  This week we worked on subtracting three digit numbers with regrouping.  The students need to make "proof drawings" to show that their answer is correct.  We learned several different strategies for showing our proofs.  Next week we will continue to subtract three digit numbers across zeros (300-246) with proof drawings and also do more work with word problems and subtraction.  

Science:  We continued to work on our "Organisms Have Character" Unit.  We compared and contrasted the Beetle and Crayfish and organize our notes into the categories of habitats, physical characteristics, behaviors, and animal defenses.  The students have done a great job of placing their notes in the correct categories and many are beginning to create a web on their ipads to complete their final project.  The class loves this unit and has worked very hard.  

Bible:  We have been reading our Bibles everyday as we study the life of Jacob.  This week we talked about Jacob's desire to leave Uncle Labon and return to his home, how Jacob wrestled with God, and the meeting of Jacob and Esau after living apart for so many years.  The class just loves reading these stories from the Bible.  It has become such a special time that we often start our day with our Bible lesson.  We all sit on the floor and take turns reading the passage and holding discussions on what we have read.  Your children TREASURE their Bibles and many highlight every word we read.  My prayer is that the Bible will always be a treasure to them.

CLASSROOM VALENTINE PARTY

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

This is one of my favorite holiday parties of the school year.    I love to watch the excitement and joy of children giving special notes of kindness to others and then to watch the open their cards so carefully and you hear laughter and "thank you" throughout the room.  It ALWAYS is one of my favorite things to sit back and observe as a teacher.

This year Valentine's Day holds a very special meaning to me.  The theme of LOVE DOES naturally lends itself to who Jesus is and how we are called to be a reflection of that LOVE to others. I am so excited to celebrate this holiday among my students and fellow teachers in a Christian environment.  Just the fact that I can add a bible verse to this letter reminds me of the blessing I have to freely worship and serve the Lord in this amazing school district.

We will be spending the week talking all about God's love and our love for others.  We will also do several fun little Valentine themed learning activities all throughout the week.  We will be making our own special "mail bags" with unique addresses on them.  Then on Valentine's Day, we will take a special time as a class to pass out our Valentines to each other and then we will sit and open them together and let that laughter and gratitude fill our classroom.  We will be taking a lot of time to go slowly and to cherish each special little note that we receive from others.

I will not need any parent volunteers for this party. I am just asking that all students have their Valentine’s filled out and turned in by Friday (the 13th) morning.  Attached to this is a list with all of the student names.

Matthew 22:37

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Our class list:

Belle

Nick

Maddy

Lilly d.

Lilly F.

Raphael

Michael

Lukas

Luke M.

Ellie

Brycen

Caden

Annabel

Erin

Sam

Luke R.

Addi

Josh

Eden

Nathaniel

Gavin

Ava

Mrs. Stielstra

Mrs. Wyma

Have a great weekend!

Lynae and Erin