What a fun week!  

First of all, swimming lessons are off to a great start.   Your children are little fish in the water and it is a lot of fun to watch them swim! Those lovely swimsuits are definitely not a favorite for most of the students, but they still have a great attitude toward swimming class!  If you want to come watch this week, your child will be swimming from 12:35-1:20 on Monday-Thursday.  There are no swimming lessons on Friday.

Secondly, it SNOWED this week!  I love the enthusiasm the class has over seeing the snow again (definitely much more enthusiasm than me!).   The prayers of the students are prayers of praise for the change in seasons and for the blessing of playing in snow.  What an awesome creator our God is!

Here is what we have been doing in class:

Reading:
This week in reading we have started our new unit on studying characters throughout a book series. This is a very fun unit because they are doing this in book clubs. Ask your child to tell you about it. Our mentor text Sarah, Plain and Tall is such a great book. It is one of my favorites. Each day your student first meets with their group to discuss the previous day's teaching point and then we meet as a whole group and practice a new strategy. One important skill required in book clubs is how we talk to others but more importantly, how we listen and respond. We have actually practiced this using very specific prompts. This is a very important life long skill. This week the students set their reading goals and tracked the main and secondary characters of their story as well as the setting.



Writing:
This week we have practiced writing with sensory details a bit more as this is a very important skill so that our readers can experience our small moments that we are writing about. We also picked our next small moment that we want to publish for our 2nd personal narrative and we made our writing plan by putting the moment bit by bit on post it notes on a story mountain.


HOMEWORK ALERT: Your child has brought their story mountain home this weekend and they need to read it to 2 other people adding more verbal details than what is on their post it note. They also need to have those 2 listeners sing it in their homework folder for Monday. Please make sure that the story mountain comes back on Monday.


ALSO--I do need your help. It is very important that your child meets their book club reading goal every day and if they bring that book home to finish reading that it comes back with their orange reading journal the next day. If it does not come back, they can not participate in their book club because they do not have anything to share because they did not do the work. I appreciate your help on making sure that this happens each night. This reading can count for their normal reading minutes as well--just record it as such. Thank you!

Math:

We worked hard all week in preparation for our Friday Math test.  We reviewed multiplication and division facts, practiced finding area, and drew many pictures to help us with two step story problems.  Our test today went very well.  I told the class that their confidence in Math has grown so much since the beginning of the year!  I also told the students that as long as they did their best, I was extremely proud of them.  They DID do their best and my heart is full of pride.  What a hard working group!  Next week we will start a new unit dealing with measurement, time, and graphs.

Bible:

We wrapped up Psalm 121 this week.   We also began Psalm 100 which is a review for the class from previous years.  We have been studying Abram and how God calls him to leave his home and move to a new land.  We have mapped out Abram's journey to the land of Canaan and we have begun to focus on the promises God makes to Abram.  How incredible to see God's salvation plan unfolding in this story of the Bible!

Social Studies:

We learned this week about Michigan's climate (seasons, precipitation, lake effect, and temperature) as well as vegetation (orchards and forests).  We also focused on human characteristics in Michigan such as bridges, major highways, the Detroit tunnel, and lighthouses.  The class really enjoyed learning about the building of the Mackinac Bridge and we enjoyed a book and video on this topic.  I also showed the students a website that allows them to see photos of Michigan's lighthouses.  Several of the students asked to have this website to explore some more at home.  It is www.terrypepper.com/lights/state_michigan.htm

Have a great weekend!

Lynae and Erin

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend of rest, relaxation and family time. This weekend there was much joy and cheering in the Wyma household with the recent Calvin Men's soccer victory and the Women's Volleyball victory.  Gold and Maroon were flying all over our house. Quoting my husband, "It is a good DAY to be a KNIGHT!" (I am sorry to all the non-Calvin fans out there, I do not mean to gloat).

All joking aside, we have been having a wonderful time in 3rd grade.  We enjoy watching your children learn each and everyday.  They are so unique and have such precious spirits and we LOVE the individuality our class has.  They are such hard workers and they take their job of learning very seriously.

A REMINDER:
SWIMMING STARTS MONDAY: We will go each day from 12:30-1:52(this includes our bus ride there). Parents are welcome to come and watch. Your child will not need to bring a suit or towel as they will be provided for them and the kids are THRILLED about the fashion statements the suits make :). On the swimming days, it would be helpful if your child does not wear any accessories...jewelry, rope necklaces...only because they often get left behind and it takes more time for them to get them on and off. You also might want to pack a snack for the afternoon as they will be hungry when they are done.


Reading:
We finished Because of Winn Dixie.  We did a few special whole group activities to culminate this story.  We did an in depth study of some difficult vocabulary from the book. Your child worked with a partner using their Ipad and they studied a particular word and then on Monday, they will present these words to the class.  These words will be added to our word wall and the goal is to start using these words in our writing.  Ask your child what their special word was.  

We also did a fun silent "write around" where we each had 3 minutes to add external and internal traits to each of the characters from Because of Winn Dixie.  This was fun and they did a wonderful job.  They are now hanging on our door--take a look if you are in the building.  

As readers this week, the students were able to use any strategies from our giant toolbox to use during their independent reading time.  Ask your child what works best for them as a reader.  

On Friday, your child had to analyze a character from the story and talk about a life lesson that they have learned and how they can apply that to their life.  We want our students to not just read and recall but to apply it to their life and to see all of the life lessons through their Christian Faith Lens.

Next week we start our new unit on reading books within a series and it will be done with your child participating in a book club.  The mentor texts we will use will be Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark. We will study how characters change as they go through certain life events.  We will also be spending a lot of time teaching how to speak, listen and respond during a book discussion.

Writing:
This week we have been working on writing our 2nd personal narrative.  We have learned how to make it more powerful by writing about our "firsts", "lasts", and small moments we have had where we have experienced strong emotions.  We have also learned how to write using sensory details to help our readers experience our story.  We will spend a little more time on this next week as this is very difficult to do.

I want to let you all know that your children's spelling sentences are looking so much better than when we started.  They are paying much closer attention to forming letters correctly, using uppercase where appropriate and using punctuation.  I can also tell that your children are coming home and doing their word sorts.  Thank you for your help with this.

Math:  This week we were persistent as we worked on two step word problems.  We began by learning the correct order of operations when working with two step word problems (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add and Subtract).  Students have learned the order by memorizing the acronym PEMDAS as Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Students then started carefully reading story problems where they needed to use a two step operation in order to solve the problem. We continue to draw pictures of our math problems to make sure they make sense.

Next week Friday we will be having our second math test.  I will send home a practice test on Monday that the students have until Thursday to work through.  Have them bring the practice test back to school on Thursday and we will go over it together. 

Bible:  We finished our Unit this week on the fall of creation to the story of the tower of Babel.  We took a small assessment on this unit on Thursday which came home with your child in their Friday papers.  We focused very specifically this week on the Noah and the ark and the Tower of Babel. We continue to learn how God desires that we always put him first in our hearts.  The class continues to stand amazed at God’s love for his children even though we are sinful. 

We also completed illustrating our Psalm 121 books.  About half of the class has turned in their bible memory on Psalm 121 to me already.  This is due next week Friday, November 14.

Social Studies:  We continue to dig deep into our study of Michigan.  This week we had a lot of fun exploring the Michigan map.  Check out our smug mug site to see some of the fun!  We learned about the different landforms in Michigan (peninsulas, islands, sand dunes, and mountains) along with the different bodies of water (bays, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls) that are in our state.  We also began studying Michigan’s climate and vegetation.  The class is doing a great job with this unit and I love their enthusiasm for the state of Michigan!

Have a wonderful day!   Erin and Lynae

We had a wonderful FULL week of school!  It felt good to be back in the swing of things after having a few days off for conferences and the convention and the kids were ready to learn as well! We enjoyed meeting with each of you for conferences and are so thankful to journey with each of your children through Third grade.  We treasure all of the students in our class and consider it an honor to teach them every day.  As always, feel free to contact us anytime with any questions or concerns you may have.

We have had a busy week!  Here is what we have been doing:

Math:  This week we continued to build fluency with our multiplication and division facts.  We are also carefully reading story problems and drawing pictures to help us determine which order of operation is needed to solve the problem.  This coming week we will begin two step story problems and continue to work on our math facts. 

Bible:  We have been studying in the book of Genesis and learning how sometimes it is hard to obey God.   We have learned about Adam and Eve, Cain killing his brother Abel, and how their disobedience led to some tough consequences.  We have also studied the story of Noah and the ark and the challenges that Noah faced while building the ark.  Yet we see God’s protection and love for His people shinning through these stories and His salvation plan unfolding.  What an awesome God we serve!!  The students LOVE reading the stories directly from the bible and take turns sharing their thoughts and insights.  Bible continues to be a favorite subject of many kids and I just treasure this time as well.

Bible Memory:  We have begun Psalm 121.  As we learn each verse we are writing it down into a memory book and adding an illustration to help us remember it.  I will send home a slip on Monday with the NIV version we are learning so you can practice at home with your child as well.  

Social Studies:  We have begun our Social Studies unit called “The Geography of Michigan.”  We have learned what it means to be a geographer and we are busy studying about the natural and human characteristics of our community.  We have also focused on Michigan’s location through exact and relative terms.  The class LOVES this unit so far and is so excited to learn more about their state.  They especially love the book Legend of the Sleeping Bear this week.  I love to see their enthusiasm for learning!

READING
This week we really got very deep into thinking about our characters and connecting with them. We first looked at the objects that our characters hold close and what does that reveal about them. We then looked for patterns in the relationships that our characters have with others. This lesson fostered a conversation in our reading time about how relationships that we have with others can sometimes help us or hurt us and then we have choices to make about the importance of that relationship in our life. We also talked about which characters in our book act like image bearers. That is pretty high thinking for our 3rd graders. It always amazes me how deep my students think about their books and how they feel so comfortable to share. We also looked at the problems our characters face and how they overcome them. Before I taught this lesson, we talked about how we overcome our own challenges and problems and talked about how Jesus helps us overcome everything. I then asked the children how they thought people without Jesus overcome tough times in their life. They all just looked at me because they really could not image it. This led us into a discussion about why it is so beneficial to believe in Jesus and to put all of your faith in Him.

Reading this week was AMAZING!!

WORD WORK
Thank you all for signing your child's homework folder showing that your child explained their sort to you on Monday and they did it. I hope it was a bit more clear about what you can do with those sorts. You might want to have your child sort their words several times per week. One way to help your child spell the words is to follow this procedure:


1-have your student read the word
2-have them look at the word and spell it out loud
3-have them turn the word over and write the word without looking
4-have them flip the word back over and check their spelling
5-have them put all of their correct words in a pile and their incorrect words in a different pile
6-have them continue to practice(in the same way as mentioned above) the incorrect words until they get them all correct


SPELLING TEST
When I give the spelling test on Friday, I am also going to be using that as a test to correct letter formation and placement. I have talked to the children about this. If they put an uppercase letter in the middle of a word, it will be marked incorrect even if it is spelled correctly. This is part of a 3rd grade standard that your child needs to master--using uppercase and lowercase appropriately.

Just as a side note--I am sure that you have noticed how neat your child's writing has become using the penmanship paper and raising the expectation a bit. CELEBRATIONS!!!!

WRITING
This week in writing we have started our second unit on creating an even more powerful personal narrative. We kicked off the unit by reading a book titled Come on Rain by Karen Hesse. She is an amazing writer and uses some many of the strategies that we will be learning about in this next unit. We will use her book for our entire writing unit to study her work so we can then practice it in our own writing. This week we learned that not only can personal narratives be about important people, places or things in our life but we can make them even more powerful by writing small moments about the "FIRSTS" in our lives. My examples that I modeled for them were...The first time I had to call 911....The first time I had a student teacher...The first time I dropped Elise and Maddy off at Pine Ridge... This next unit is a unit in which we really want the children to write with much more emotion. They did an amazing job with this as some of them shared their writing on Friday.


REMINDER: Swimming Lessons will start the week of November 10-21. We will go each day from 12:30-1:52(this includes our bus ride there). Parents are welcome to come and watch. Your child will not need to bring a suit or towel as they will be provided for them and the kids are THRILLED about the fashion statements the suits make :). On the swimming days, it would be helpful if your child does not wear any accessories...jewelry, rope necklaces...only because they often get left behind and it takes more time for them to get them on and off. You also might want to pack a snack for the afternoon as they will be hungry when they are done.

Blessings to you in the upcoming week!

Lynae and Erin

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

This was a busy week in our 3rd grade classroom.  When I (Lynae) take a look back over the week I am amazed at how much we accomplish.   A few of my favorite moments this week were the following:

• We found 12 different bible verses that mean a lot to us and put them on a ring because the students wanted to take them home and put them in special places so they can refer to them often and possibly even memorize the verses.  It just warms my heart.
• We gathered around the flag pole to pray for our country, our school, and other local schools.  I love the community that we have here at Pine Ridge.
• We won a pizza party with the Walk-a-thon fundraising our class did.  What a blast to receive such a special treat!
• We learned about renewable vs. nonrenewable resources and our job as Christians to care for the resources God has blessed us with.
• The class was able to shop again at our Rock Star Store on Friday.  This is a huge motivator for so many students and so much fun!
• Listening to your children pray for each other each day when we begin school.  These students have such caring hearts and hold each other in prayer faithfully.

Academically, we have been very busy too!  Here is a glimpse of what we have been up to:

Math:  This week we continued to work with Multiplication and division with the factors of 2,3,4,5,9, and 10.  We also focused on how we find the area of an array and learned a few different strategies to help us with this.  We spent a lot of time with cubes the week and learned how 6x4= (2x4)+(4x4).  

Bible:  We are learning about the organization of the bible.  This week we focused some more on the table of contents and also studied the concordance and the footnotes.  I was amazed at how many students loved learning about the concordance.  We would pick a topic, such as joy, and then look at how many verses there were in the bible on that topic and then choose a few to look up and read as a class.  Students also finished their  "Daily Dozen" where they had twelve verses from the bible that they illustrated, put on a ring, and took home to reference often when they need to remember God's promises to them.  We have memorized Psalm 24 and will be starting Psalm 103 this coming week.

Science:  This week we focused on renewable verses non-renewable resources.  We read books and watched a couple of video clips on the importance of renewable resources.  We also talked about how paper, plastic, and glass are made and how often we use these types of items everyday.  On Friday we started studying the importance of farmland and we did a fun experiment with an apple to learn exactly how much farmland we actually have.  (Ask your child to explain that experiment to you!)

Reading:  In reading this week we have continued to work on retelling the big events of our story.  We focused this week on learning more about our characters and their actions and feelings in order to help us recall the big events of he story.  We also learned how to examine the life lessons that our characters are learning which helps us gain a different point of view from that of our own.  Your children are very focused and engaged during our reading time.  It is so amazing to watch.

Writing:  In writing this week we have created our discovery drafts of our first personal narrative.  We looked at published authors and how they create exciting leads which suck the reader in as well as how they end their chapters and their stories.  The children then took what they learned about leads and endings and started revising their own.  Ask your child about the types of leads/endings writers use (action, setting, dialogue, and feelings).

A note from our Music teacher, Mrs Boer....

This is what we are learning in Music Class:

*Hymn of the Month-Take My Life and Let It Be

*Theme Song-Let Your Kingdom Come

*Keeping a steady beat

*Note values

*Tempo

Blessings!

Mrs. Stielstra and Mrs. Wyma