What a beautiful morning it is.  This morning I (Erin) had the privilege of watching many of our students play soccer and how they are a reflection of the image of God.  As a teacher, when I go to events such as this, I am reminded of how awesome God's creation is within each unique child. There is so much more to our children than what they can do academically.

Here is what I saw:

• Children encouraged one another on the field when goals were made as well as when goals were missed---LOVE DOES. 

•  I listened to parents praise efforts rather than end results--LOVE DOES.

• Teams won and lost with humility and grace--LOVE DOES.

• Coaches coached with integrity and positive encouragement--LOVE DOES.

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in Heaven.   Matthew 18:10

With that said, we know this is our focus as teachers, to grow them up in the LORD through ALL we do in the classroom.  We are having so much fun with your children as we are getting to know them as individuals.  We love seeing who God has created them to be and hope to foster His will in their lives.

Here is what we have done this week in class.

Reading:  We have worked hard this week on how to retell a story in sequential order using only the main events.  This is a skill that we will continue to work on throughout the next week.  We have also finished taking our DISCOVERY reading test and the children worked so hard on that.  We have officially started our word work/spelling and you will get the graded spelling tests on Monday. Reminder that reading minutes are due Monday.  Please make sure to add up the total and have a parent signature.

Writing:  We have picked our small moment stories that we want to publish.  We have also started to organize them by using a time line to make sure we are telling the story bit by bit and not leaving out any details.  Your students are doing an amazing job with their first personal narratives.  They also LOVE to write which is so wonderful to sit back and watch.

Math-  This week we continued to learn about multiplication and division.  We focused specifically on the factors of 9 and 3 and also worked at building fluency with  the factors of 2, 5  and 10.  Most of the students are becoming quicker at coming up with strategies to solve their math problems and I am pleased with their progress.  We begin each day by seeing multiplication as a repeated addition problem, drawing pictures to help us, and understanding how each multiplication equation is related to division.  Most students use their fingers to help them multiply and this is also a strategy they have been taught!  We are continuing to focus a lot on word problems.  At this point I am not nearly as concerned about their fluency with their multiplication and division facts as what I am about each student understanding the process.  

Science-  This week we focused on earth materials, particle size, and water.  The class had a lot of fun seeing how water mixes with different soils and how some soils allow water to seep through while other soils with smaller particle size hold the water at the top of the surface longer.  We were able to related this to the different soils found at the South Side playground (sand) compared to the Pine Ridge playground (clay) and how this affects their play after a rainstorm.

Bible-  We began this week by studying the table of contents.  We learned that their is an old and new testament and how many books of the bible are in each one.  We studied the table of contents and spent time finding books in the bible using this as well.  We also began a book with twelve bible verses students can hold close to our heart and read to remind them of God's promises to them.  

Check out our latest additions to smug mug.

UPCOMING DATES: September 29: NO SCHOOL

                                     October 9: 1:00-2:30 Grandparents Day

                                     October 13: 3rd Grade DITTO work night 6:00-8:00pm

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Mrs. Wyma and Mrs. Stielstra

The Armor of God

Dear Parents,

I absolutely love teaching bible to your children.  I stand amazed almost every day at the pure love this class has for hearing God's word.  We have had so many great classroom discussions already about favorite passages from the bible and the importance of spending time with God.  Each morning we sit in a circle, hold hands, and take turns praying.  This is one of my favorite times of the day as I listen to the heartfelt prayers each child has to offer to God.  We are also busy highlighting passages in the Bible as we have poured into the book of Ephesians.

This week several of our lessons focused on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).   We did a lesson with oranges that the kids just loved.  One of our oranges was like a child who put on the armor of God (the rind of the orange) and went into the day prepared whatever came his way.  The other child believed the lies of the devil and slowly took off the armor of God (we slowly peeled away the rind of the orange).  We then placed the oranges into a bowl of water and observed what happened!

The class was just amazed at how an orange without it's armor sank.  We talked a lot about how we STAND when we put on God's armor and that is just what God desires for all of us.

Here are a few highlights of what else we have been up to this week:

Math- We are busy multiplying and dividing!  I love seeing the confidence of the students increase as we continue to learn more multiplication and division strategies.  The class has now learned all of their multiplication and division facts for 2's, 5's and 10's.  We practice these facts every day at school as part of our Math Drills but any additional practice at home is wonderful for your child.  We also had our first Quick Quiz so I can see what concepts each child is still working at learning.  Much of our learning is still very hands on and we draw a lot of pictures to understand our math equations.

Science-  This week the class was very excited to work with microscopes as they observed several different earth materials.  We talked about different soils such as compost, potting soil, clay, and sand and how the particle size varies from one earth material to the next.  This group just loves this unit so we had a bit of fun on Friday by bringing in favorite rocks and sharing them with the class.

Bible-  We wrapped up our study on Ephesians this week.  To conclude the unit we made an Ephesians booklet to be placed in your child's bible.  Many of the students asked to take their Ephesians booklet home so they can use it in their home bible and share it with you as well.  We have begun our new Bible memory passage which is Psalm 24.  This will not be due until the end of the month as it is fairly new to many of the students.  We practice our Bible memory every day at school, but your child may need to review at home as well.

Reading:

This week in reading, we are still moving through our book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Each day using that text, I model a certain reading strategy that the children then go and practice at their own level in their good fit book. This week they continued to practice the strategies of questioning, envisioning, making predictions and they also learned how to read a page in their book and identify what the main idea/event was that happened on that page.  This strategies will become very important when it comes to our lessons next week when we start to learn how to retell what we are reading only including the most important parts rather than retelling the whole story.  We also learned some strategies this week about what to do when we get to a word in our book that we can not read or we do not know what we mean.  Ask your child what they need to do when that happens!  Your children are doing a wonderful job with their reading.

Please make sure that your child brings their good fit book back every day.  It becomes very difficult for them to have to choose a different book in class because they start to get the plot lines mixed up and then all of their comprehension falls apart.

READING MINUTES ARE DUE MONDAY!!

Writing:

This week in writing, we have spent some time generating more personal narratives.  We also spent time learning how to have a writing conference and to talk about what we are working on as writers as well as how to ask a partner about what they are working on.  We also are starting to recognize certain areas in our writing that we need to get better at which becomes our next steps in our new writing.  On Friday, each child picked their story that they want to turn into a published personal narrative.  We will work on this for the next few weeks to start looking at how to make this piece of writing our very best.  

A few items to remember:

• Discovery Testing- September 15 and 16.  Make sure your child eats a good breakfast and is well rested.
• Walk-a-thon- Wedneday, September 17 at 1:00 p.m.  at the High School Track
• Picture Day- Friday, September 19
• No School- Monday, September 29- Staff Development day
• Grandparent day- October 9

Blessings!

Mrs. Stielstra and Mrs. Wyma

Our Second Week In!

Good morning parents!  We had a great second week of school with your children.  They are all doing really well with adjusting to Pine Ridge and many of them are making new friends.  We have posted a few new pictures on our class photo website (the tab at the top of the blog) if you want to take a look!

As we look ahead, there are a few dates to remember:

• September 10- Psalm 23 is due.  Please send in a note if your child has said this to you with the number of helps he/she needed.
• September 15-  All Walk-a-thon money is due to school
• September 17- Walk-a-thon at 1:00 at the High School Track
• September 19-  School Pictures
• September 29, Monday- No School.  Staff Development day
• October 9, Thursday- Grandparent day at Pine Ridge (1:00-2:30)

We are really starting to dive into the curriculum and wanted to take a moment to update you on what we learned this week.

Math-  We continued to focus the week on the meaning of multiplication and drawing out what each multiplication equation looks like.  We focused on arrays (rows and columns) and spent a lot of time building different multiplication problems with arrays.  We also began division this week by using building blocks to figure out our equations.  Much of our math time is "hands on" right now as students get a firm grasp of the concepts being taught.

Science-  We explored rocks and minerals this week.  Students learned that rocks are made up of minerals and we looked at several different minerals that make up granite.  We also focused on different earth materials such as gravel, sand, silt and clay and explored the particle size of these earth materials.  This class loves Science experiments and it is a lot of fun to listen to their predictions as they work!

Bible-  We continued to learn about the book of Ephesians this week.  We focused specifically on the passages about children obeying their parents, what it means to live in "Unity" with one another, and also on the armor of God.  The class really enjoys finding verses in the bible.  As a class, we read out loud the selected passage for the day and we often highlight the verses that stand out to us.

Reading: We have been continuing to build our independent reading stamina. This week we started reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.  It is a very unique book pack with high level vocabulary which has been sparking great conversation.  This week we have been learning that the most important thing about reading is that understand what we are reading about. To help us with that, we have been practicing several different comprehension strategies.  Our first strategy was to listen to our "internal thinking voice" and to ask questions while we read and then as we read, we are seeking to answer our questions. I model this in our read aloud and then they practice this in their own good fit book.The next strategy we learned is envisioning.  We practiced reading certain parts of the text and then sharing what exactly we see in our heads as we are reading those words.  Your children wee great at that which is often a difficult task when tried right away.  The strategy we did today was making and confirming predictions while we read which again will help our comprehension.  I love watching your children read.  

We are finished with spelling inventories and next week I will start to do running records to find their exact instructional level.  Your child will also bring home their good fit book on Monday to read at home for their reading minutes. Look for a book bag with directions on Monday.

We will start our word work/spelling/vocabulary the following week as I need to first make sure that our independent reading routine is down before I add another component to our workshop.

Writing: We have been working very hard on generating ideas and small moments as we are moving through personal narrative.  We have written about important people, places, and things in our lives.  We have been really focusing on writing about small moments.  Rather then writing about your whole day at the amusement park, we are writing about the first time you were in line waiting to get on a roller coaster.  Each day when we are done writing, we share what we have been working on.  This is one of my favorite parts of the day as they LOVE to share and they take such pride in their hard work.  It is GREAT to see.

Have a wonderful weekend with your families!

Blessings,

Mrs. Stielstra and Mrs. Wyma

We have had a wonderful first week of school.  Your children are all amazing.  We are so looking forward to having a wonderful year of growing closer towards Jesus and learning about many new things.

Below is a little summary of what we have done this past week in each content area.  

Math:  This week we began multiplication with 5's.  To teach this concept, your child learned that multiplication is really one long addition problem.  For instance, your child should be able to tell you that 4x5 is the same is 5+5+5+5.  All students learned how to draw a picture to show each multiplication problem that they are working on.  We call these drawings equal share drawings as multiplication can be used to represent equal groups.  We spent a lot of time this week solving multiplication problems of fives on our white boards by using our strategies of addition equations and equal share drawings and the students are feeling confident in this area.  I am so proud of them!

Science:  We have begun our first Science unit called "Earth and Me".  In this unit your child will learn about rocks and minerals, different earth materials, land and resource use, erosion, landslides, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  We began our unit by having every child choose a rock and then write a descriptive paragraph about the rock they had chosen.  We then sat in a circle and placed our rocks in the center.  The kids took turns reading their descriptions of their rocks and having their friends guess which rock was theirs.  This was a very fun activity and all of the students were very brave in reading their writing to their classmates.  

Bible:  Our first unit in Bible is focused on the book of Ephesians.  We learned that the author of this book is Paul and that the book of Ephesians was actually a letter sent to the church in Ephesus.  (The kids thought it was really cool that a book of the bible was actually a letter instead!).  I was completely amazed this week at the amount of knowledge your children had about Paul.  What an amazing thing to witness the sheer joy that comes from your kids as they recount so many wonderful facts from the bible!!  We focused specifically this week on the gift of salvation.  We made salvation hearts (hanging up in the hallway) and as we did we talked about how we can not save ourselves; but God has made a way for us!  We had a wonderful class discussion about salvation, Jesus' death and resurrection, and the promise of forgiveness.  

Reading:  This week we have talked about what reading is going to look like in 3rd grade and what we each need to be successful readers.  We also set goals for what we each want to accomplish this year as readers. On Thursday the children went book shopping and picked out their first "good fit" book they will be reading.  We also learned about a "FIVE FINGER TEST" to see if our book is just right for us.  We also read several different versions of unique fairy tales and we talked about how in 3rd grade the most important thing about reading is our comprehension.  We learned that identifying the narrative elements (characters, setting, problem, and solution) in stories we read help our comprehension. 

Writing: This week we also identified what helps us each do our very best writing.  We also talked about the WRITER'S NOTEBOOK and how that would collect all of our writing for the year.  We did have our first lesson on writing in which your child had to write about an important person and small moments that they remember with that person.  I was so excited to see how many children just wanted to keep writing--AWESOME!!!

Enjoy this long weekend and holiday break!  

We will see you all on Tuesday!

Mrs. Wyma and Mrs. Stielstra

Off to a Great Start!

We are having a great first week in 3rd Grade!  What a super group of kids with AWESOME attitudes toward learning and doing their best.  Our first couple of weeks are full of procedures, getting used to the feel of a new school, and adjusting to a new classroom with new friends.  The weather is definitely warm.....looks like summer finally decided to make it's appearance!

A fabulous Group!!!

We look forward to seeing you at Parent night on Wednesday.  We will be meeting in our classroom from 7-7:30 p.m.  Afterward Mr. Howell will hold a meeting in the gym from 7:35-8:00 to go over everything you need to know about Pine Ridge's procedures.  We hope you can make it!

Blessings,

Lynae Stielstra and Erin Wyma

Welcome!!!

Welcome to Mrs. Stielstra and Mrs. Wyma's 3rd grade class!

It was such a pleasure to meet so many of you last night. We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to come to school and make your child feel more comfortable for the first day.  Our classroom is ready to go....all we are missing now are our students!

Our theme this year is "Love Does".  Author Bob Goff wrote the inspiring book "Love Does".  As a class we will be exploring different ways in which we show love to others in our classroom, home, community, and beyond.  The theme is based from John 13:17 which says, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."  What an awesome reminder to treat everyone in our classroom with Christlike love and find ways to demonstrate this love everyday!

We are looking forward to a great start on Monday.  Our first day back to school is a full day.  The school day runs from 8:10 (first bell) to 3:15.  Please have your child bring their school supplies with them if they did not bring them last night.  It looks like it is going to be a HOT day (finally!!!), so dress your child comfortably.  

We will be communicating with you this year through our class blog.  Here you will find curriculum highlights from the week in the "classroom newsletter tab", pictures of your child in school, and upcoming events.  Please take the time to subscribe to our blog so you are notified each time we update it with important information.

A few upcoming dates:
August 24th- Convocation at 3p.m. at the HCHS Auditorium
August 25th-  First day of School
August 27th-  Meet the teacher night
August 29-Sept. 1- No school  Labor day Recess
Sept. 2-  Meet the Superintendent, at Pine Ridge from 3:10-4:00
Sept. 19  Picture Day

Each of your children are already so precious to us and we are holding them up in prayer as we begin this new school year.  We look forward to partnering with you as we go forward.  Always feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have.

Blessings,

Lynae Stielstra and Erin Wyma


PS--if you are a parent from Mrs. Wyma's classroom last year, please unsubscribe to receiving these blog updates (unless you really want to continue to follow us).

Good Morning!!

I have updated the classroom newsletter.  We also have a few things coming up that I am requesting parent volunteers for.  The first one is the upcoming field trip to Outdoor Discovery Center.  I need 2 more chaperones to attend in order for our class to go.  They require a certain student/adult ratio and without that we can not attend.  Below I am attaching the sign up genius link for this trip.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C49ACAB29A4F85-outdoor 


I am also requesting parent volunteers for the last week of school.  We will be making tetrahedron kites and I will need numerous parents to help with this activity.  The dates and tines are on the sign up which I am also attaching a link to for.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C49ACAB29A4F85-tetrahedron?uToken=25ECC7FEFD07FA075EC3DFCA02E8

Thank you!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!   Erin