Week of August 29th

Religion:  This week's CFP devotions will focus on the virtue respect. Adam and Eve's disobedience will teach us about our own struggles concerning respect for God and others. Our respect for God will also be challenged by our study of the 2nd Commandment.

Math: We started the math text this past week. We will take the time to answer questions from graded homework in class. Please go over these with your children. Many mistakes are happening from not reading carefully or working too quickly. I plan to make quizzes from the homework questions. After doing calendars this week, we will press on to clocks and thermometers. Follow up with teachable moments at home especially on telling and using time.

Reading:  We will finish reading Ranger in Time on time and get the author's point of view in person. Kate Messner will visit on Tuesday, Aug. 30. The 3rd-4th grade presentation will be from 10:00-10:45 in the church sanctuary. Mr. Fishburn ordered extra books which are available for sale while supplies last. The kids have really enjoyed this book. There are currently three books in this series with more to come in the future. Check your public libraries for all of Kate Messner's books. They would make great read aloud material for home.

Spelling: Our first contract is behind us. The kids seemed to really enjoy doing jumping jacks while spelling. Please do each activity only once per week as per the directions. I look forward to seeing what kinds of words are selected this week.

Grammar: We will continue with the four kinds of sentences. So far, the kids have done well identifying and writing these.

Social Studies: I hope you didn't take the day off to attend a field trip on Sept. 9th. Mr. Fishburn and I found an alternative to replace our foiled afternoon plans. However, kindergarten scheduled a field trip and the bus only minutes before we got our trip approved. We are hoping for a date the following week.

Mr. Fishburn will introduce the rural/urban/suburban project on Monday. The students will work in pairs researching, presenting and writing the differences in these three communities. This project will be a combination of field trip notes, research notes, Vern diagram, main idea/detail sentences, and a representation depicting the differences.

Science:  Our notebooks are coming along. We counted the fruit inside pea pods. Yes, the seeds are called the fruit even in green veggies. We will look at a variety of seeds this week and will start some sprouting beans in the near future. We will log daily changes in their growth for 6 days.

Please come to Curriculum night. We will talk about Seesaw, a digital way to see the work students are proud to save and show you without a lot of clutter and files of paper. 

Week of August 22nd

Religion

Micah 6:8 serves as our theme verse. "What does the Lord require of you. . .act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." We not only memorized this verse but we see it as a key verse for understanding how we live in God's will. Ask your kids to give examples of how to live each of the three requirements. It's our goal this year and every year of our lives.

Be sure and note the new memory assignment. We begin a new pilot program, the Character Formation Project, for our morning devotions. This week is a series of lessons about creation that teach the virtue integrity, God's power to be true to Him and to yourself. We also begin our first lessons from My First Catechism for Kids.

Math

We spent a few days reviewing addition and subtraction with some fun games. Friday's baseline test showed good retention overall of 2nd grade math skills. Therefore, we will press on to 3rd grade math.

This week we will begin keeping a math notebook. Our first entries will be problem solving strategies. Another transition to be introduced will be using an answer sheet and text- book for the first time. Look for this to begin toward the end of the week.

Spelling

You should have seen some mini sight word quizzes we did this week. We will continue these on the first day of each week. A list was sent home over the weekend. Not all words will be tested, only a random sampling.Be mindful that what makes these challenging for some is many are homophones.

First contracts went home on Friday. They are due Friday, August 26. This week's list was a prescribed list of classmates' and teachers' names the students should know how to spell.

Reading

A story from our textbook was appropriate for this week, "First Day Jitters," reminded kids that students aren't the only ones who get nervous. Teachers do too. In class activities included vocabulary and sequencing.

The 3rd and 4th grades are reading Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail by Kate Messner. Ranger is a rescue dog who is transported into the past. Ms. Messner will be our visiting author on August 30. Her visit will give us a greater appreciation of the research, editing, and publishing process. This book will satisfy our reading and social studies this week. Students will write responses that will help them identify with those who made this difficult journey. 

Social Studies

We need to adjust our field trip plans for September 9. We will not be going to Soulard Old Trinity. Mr. Fishburn is working on plan B. More details will be forthcoming.

Hopefully you have seen the "Who Am I?" folders taking shape. This week we solve these mysteries with our combined classes. It will be neat to combine this lesson with our identity in Christ.

Science

We took part of the survey test for the next unit in our new Foss science curriculum. It was challenging for many. Our third graders are going to learn so much this year as we complete hands on activities and document our findings in a notebook. Our first large unit is Structures of Life. This will begin with seeds and progress to animals and people.

Art

Mistakes don't happen in art this year. They are better known as a Beautiful Oops. The students learned to make something beautiful from an otherwise discarded mistake. That's life. We make the best of the situation. Creativity and much imagination was exercised on Fridayand will continue until the next Friday.

Important Dates

August 30   Author visit

September 1  Curriculum night

September 5  Labor Day (no school)

September 9  Field trip 

Can you help?

We can use old newspaper for art and science.

Big thanks, parents!

The first three days were awesome! Applause for excellent hall behavior, good manners, and terrific attitudes.