For the past few Fridays our class has been playing Math games in the morning with Mrs. DeZwaan's students.  This Friday we played a game called "Close to 100" where students use playing cards to try and get their sum as close to 100 as possible.  This time of the week is enjoyed by all and a lot of mental math is happening!

Another awesome part of our week was meeting in our pod groups.  We meet every other Wednesday in an effort to make new friends around the school and grade levels.  In our pod groups we pray for each other and then have an activity.  This week we read books together for March is reading month.

Here are some curriculum highlights:

Math:  Next week we will complete our unit on writing equations and solving word problems.  I sent home a practice test this weekend that the students need to return by next week Thursday.  We will have our test on Friday, March 20.  The word problems have become very lengthy and the students have realized that we need to read carefully in order to solve 2 step word problems.  Math involves a lot of careful reading right now!

Science:  We had a big week of experiments this week dealing with light.  We learned that light travels in a straight line and that we can use mirrors to change the direction of the path of light.  We also experimented with different materials to see how they react to light and we demonstrated how shadows are made.  It was a fun week!

Bible:  We completed our unit on Joseph and took our final assessment on Monday.  Everyone did a great job and these tests went home with your child in their folders.  We are now focusing on the story of Easter.  Each day we study a different part of the Easter story and we are creating an Easter poster.

Reading/Writing:  This week we have worked very hard on our 2nd chapters of our informational books.  Our 2nd chapter is all about our animal's physical characteristics.  We created a large diagram of our animal with labels, we researched their life cycle and added that to our chapter, and finally we grouped all of of other physical characteristics and wrote them into a paragraph format.  The following pictures are of them moving through the different stages of research, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their information.

I sat back this week and watched your children learn and it brought tears to my eyes.  They are a true reflection of God's beautiful creation.  They have a LOVE for learning and for doing what is right :) Thank you for fostering that in your children--THEY ARE AMAZING!

REMINDERS:
Monday-Reading Minutes Due
Tuesday- Skull (animal) Detective Presentation at Pine Ridge
Friday-Spelling Test, Math Test

Have a wonderful weekend, Mrs. Wyma & Mrs. Stielstra