1st Week of December

Hello parents,
December is here and let me tell you...it goes fast!  Thank you so much for helping to make our Thanksgiving Feast wonderful this year!  The food was delicious and we are so appreciative for all of your help! Here's what we have going on in 3rd grade for the next couple of weeks.

Religion: We are looking at the Christmas story and awaiting Jesus' birth from several different points of view.  Using the book Voices of Christmas we will learn the reason that Jesus was born so many years ago!

Reading: Our 1st book club session is underway.  I will be teaching the kids reading strategies such as predicting, visualizing, making connections, find problems and solutions, and others as we read through The Boxcar Children together.  Then they will be breaking off into smaller book club groups and applying these skills independently to their respective books.  For this session of book clubs all the kids are reading a book from The Bailey School Kids series.  As the year goes on, we will break into different levels and genres of books.

Science: We are done with our unit on Life Cycles and will be starting to look at Force and Motion beginning next week.

Seesaw I plan to have your kids use Seesaw more and more.  Thanks for all of your comments so far.  The kids love seeing your feedback during the school day!

Important Dates:
Thursday December 8th: Santa's Workshop (we are right away in the morning)

Wednesday December 14th: Last day that I will accept missing/late work for 2nd quarter.

Friday December 16th: Service project field trip to Bethesda Nursing home on Big Bend.  We will be singing Christmas carols and playing games with the residents.  (Leave at 8:45 am and return at 11:45 am)

Monday December 19th: CCLS Advent Service at Concordia Campus - 7 pm (This is a formal and mandatory event)

Tuesday December 20th: Christmas Party @ 2 pm (Last Day of School before Christmas)

December 21st - January 3rd: NO SCHOOL

Week of Nov. 7th

Dear Parents,
Our Thanksgiving project is in full swing.  Your kids are working hard in class to do research before they begin creating things.  Here are a few points to remember:

• Daily homework will still include memory, math, and spelling.  Outside of those subjects, we won't have much time to assign other things since we are working on our projects.  
• Check the calendar that got sent home on Friday for due dates of things.  The kids also have a copy of that calendar in their binder. 
• This week we are doing mostly research and teaching the kids how to cite and organize the information they find.  They are responsible for staying on task and being a productive group member during this.  I will be sending home half sheets of paper with grades for behavior/participation this week.  
• The Traditions Essay is due on Monday Nov. 14th.  We spent a LONG time in class explaining this and taking questions.  This assignment needs to be completed at home.  However, your child is welcome to bring it in and ask for feedback and clarification if needed.  
• ART - Please send a recycled mason jar (spaghetti sauce etc.) so that we can use it for an art project this Friday.  

Reading

We are reading Thanksgiving on Thursday from the Magic Treehouse series.  We are separating facts from pieces of fiction as we read each chapter.  

Religion: 

Our character formation curriculum is currently taking us through the story of Moses and showing us integrity, self-sacrifice, responsibility, and self-sacrifice.  We are also talking about contentment and service connected to our Thanksgiving unit.  

Important Dates:

Wednesday Nov. 16th  - Operation Christmas Child Boxes due

Monday Nov. 21st - 1:00 pm Pie making Day (We could use volunteers to help us make the pies as well as $$ donations to buy the supplies.  These pies will be served at our Thanksgiving Feast.) 

Tuesday Nov. 22nd - 11am - 1pm  - Thanksgiving Feast  (Please see the sign up sheet and invitation to RSVP.) 

Wednesday Nov. 23 - Friday Nov. 25th - No School/Thanksgiving Break

December 8/9 - Santa's Workshop 

Monday Dec. 19th - CCLS Advent Service at Concordia campus

Dec. 21st - Jan. 3rd - No School/Christmas Break