December 9th - 18th

Religion:
Memory for the week is only the Christmas parts that your kids are responsible for.  I sent home the sheet on Monday with the words printed on it.  We have also been working on it a lot in class together, but just in case you need them:

Shepherds view the starry night
And behold a wondrous sight:
Angels sing of Christ, the King;
Listen to their voices ring.

Math:
Today we started looking at measuring distances and lengths to the nearest quarter inch.  This is a difficult concept that combines rounding numbers, fractions, and measuring.  Be patient while your kids keep practicing this skill

Reading:
We will be looking at Christmas stories that leave Jesus out of them starting on Monday.  Our goal will be to complete a project that adds Jesus into these Christmas stories so that the characters will know the true meaning of Christmas.  This will be done in class and the end projects will be put on the blog over Christmas break.

Grammar:
We will be covering nouns until the end of 2nd quarter.  We have already covered common and proper nouns and are moving on to singular and plural nouns through next week.

Science:
Next week on Wednesday is our weather vocabulary quiz.  I will send home a review sheet on Friday.  The kids are also going to be creating their own weather maps and filming a weather forecast based off of the map they put together.  They will most likely need some time to work on it over the weekend, but a lot of in class time will be given tomorrow and Friday.  These weather maps need to be finished by Monday at the latest.

Cornerstone and Grades
I have been doing my best to get grades up on Cornerstone in time for you to see them before the quarter ends.  I will be putting more late and redone work into the gradebook this weekend.  If your child turned something in before this last Friday it should be in the computer.  If it was turned in this week, I should have it all up to date over the weekend.

Important Dates:

• Monday 12/14 - CCLS Advent Service @ 7 pm (Middle School/Concordia Sanctuary) 
• Please arrive in time to be seated with Mrs. Glackin no later than 6:55 pm.
• Please make sure your child has used the restroom before the service starts. 
• Dress for church in your Christmas outfits or Sunday best.  
• Friday 12/18 - Class Christmas Party @ 2 pm
• No School  12/21 - 1/1
• Classes Resume on Monday 1/4/16

Week of November 30th

Dear Parents, 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break and are well rested.  I have had a couple of really great days with your kids and have enjoyed getting back into our normal routine.  Here's what you can expect for the next week or so: 

Santa's Workshop:

Tomorrow is our classes time to go shop at Santa's Workshop.  The envelopes were sent home before break.  If you plan to send money, Thursday is the day!

Religion:

We will be going through the book Voices of Christmas and discussing all of the characters from the Christmas story from their point of view.  Your kids have a book full of discussion guides that we are going through in class.  If they don't finish a page in class, it will need to be completed as homework.  This will take us all the way to Christmas break.  

Math

We are still working with money a lot and the word problems are beginning to be multiple steps.  Yesterday and today we learned about fractions using candy and money.  We will take a math test on Friday, so some review on word problems and time may be good.  

Reading:

We are reading a story called Author:A True Story that exposes kids to a real author's experience and story.  We are also working on deciphering an author's purpose for writing pieces: PIE= Persuade, Inform, Entertain.   

Grammar:

For the next 2 weeks we will be working with all different types of nouns.  They will need to identify, sort, and appropriately use the following types of nouns in their reading and writing: Common, Proper, Singular, Plural, and Irregular Plural. 

Writing:

Our writing for the next 2 weeks will integrate what we are learning about an author's purpose and nouns.  Your kids will accurately write a short paragraph for each letter of PIE and then identify and sort the types of nouns they used in those paragraphs.  A lot of this will be worked on in class, but if they don't finish a portion of it on a given day it will be homework.  This must be done in order to be able to do the activities I have planned for each day.  If they fall behind on this, it will be difficult to participate in class the next day. 

Science:

Yesterday we began our weather unit.  This will take us all the way to Christmas break.  I sent home a calendar for the unit yesterday.  This will be a lot less work intensive than our Thanksgiving unit.  However, it will require some homework and study time at home for a vocabulary test and short quiz next week.  Please see the calendar for specific dates.  

Help Fund Our Author Project

This is the flyer with the vouchers containing our ID. The ID #11731379 is unique to our school.  There will be copies of it at every register in case our supporters do not have a voucher, but they must initiate the request to have it credit CCLS.  They won't just automatically credit every sale to us.

The Book Fair date is Sat., Dec. 5 from 9:00-9:00 at West County Mall.  If anyone wants to order on line, they use the ID number as well.  Online orders can be applied from Dec. 5 through Dec. 10.  Everyone should know that purchases include everything that is available in the store including Nooks, books, magazines, games, CD's, and even food.

Book Fair Coupon Code - Use on December 5th (You must have the BookFair ID at checkout)

Thanksgiving!

Dear parents and students,
As our class has spent the last few weeks studying the Thanksgiving holiday I am reminded how grateful I am to have a class full of lovely teachable children and supportive parents.  Thank you for all that you have done to help your kids and myself with our Thanksgiving celebration.  I am so proud of their hard work and it was a joy watching them grow through the process.

I have put the videos of all their presentations on the Social Studies page of this blog.  Your kiddos should have a study guide with questions for each video that they brought home with them. During the break they should watch each video and be sure they can answer all of the questions.  On Monday they will take a quiz on each video that exactly matches the questions we sent home.  (These are questions written by the students that produced each video, which is why some of them are repeated.  Mr. Fishburn and I approved the quiz written by each group before we sent home the questions.)

Lastly, we are on Lesson 14 for spelling when we return from the break.  Preparing a word list for Monday is the only other homework the kids have over break.

Have a great Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Glackin

Week of November 9th

Religion:
We have been working our way through the questions on Baptism in the catechism last week and this week.  Your kiddos have brought up some great questions and discussion topics.  I'd encourage you to talk with them about their own baptisms and how that grace and forgiveness is still alive in them today.

Math:
We have been working on adding money and counting larger amounts of money.  In the next week or so we will be taking on the challenging concept of fractions.  This is brand new concept for the kids and often takes more than just a couple of weeks for them to get the hang of .  Any practical application with fractions like pies, pizzas, hershey's bars, oranges, etc. will help them develop deeper understanding of the concept.

Writing/Grammar:
We have 2 major writing assignments and a couple of smaller assignments that tie into our Thanksgiving Unit.  I have sent home directions for the 2 major assignments:

• Thanksgiving Tradition Essay - 
• The rough draft has been turned in and now each child will self-edit their writing and then conference with me.  If needed they will do a 2nd rough draft. 
•  Final Due Date - Fri. 11/20
• Magic Treehouse: Thanksgiving on Thursday - Book Review
• This was assigned Monday in class and we have read through ch. 7 so far in the book. There are 10 chapters and we plan to be finished reading the book by Thursday.  Mr. Fishburn and I have about 20 copies of the book that the kids can check out if needed.  
• There will not be a required rough draft due date for this assignment, however, I am more than happy to look over what your child has read before the final turn in date.  
• Final Due Date - Wed. 11/18

Our grammar for the next 2 weeks will be integrated into these writing assignments.  We are really working hard on proofreading marks and combining sentences to make them more interesting.  

Reading/Social Studies:

These 2 subjects will be going hand in hand until Thanksgiving.  Your kiddos have been digging into books are other resources to find information on their Thanksgiving projects.  We have been teaching them how to do research, cite sources, and apply what they have read to a project.  They have been working hard! 

Thanksgiving Events: 

Kelly Ritter and Robyn Soetart have been sending out invitations and emails about volunteer sign ups for the the events leading up to our Feast.  If you see them, please thank them for the time they have put into helping Mr. Fishburn and myself.  Here are the ways you can also be involved: 

1. Come join us for the Feast! Thursday Nov. 19th @11 am (Please RSVP by Mon. 11/16)
2. Volunteer as a helper on Pie Making Day - Wednesday Nov. 18th from 1-3pm. 
3. Donate! We need as many families as possible to donate the following items (please sign up outside the classroom or contact Kelly Ritter if you can donate an item or 2): 

2 turkeys (if you would like to donate a turkey but not cook it let me know)

2.    2 volunteers to cook turkeys (only if needed)

3.    3 Green Bean dishes (each should be able to feed 10-12 people)

4.    3 Stuffings (each should be able to feed 10-12 people)

5.    3 Mashed Potatoes (each should be able to feed 10-12 people)

6.    2 Gravy (each should be able to feed 12-15 people)

7.    2 Sweet Potatoes (each to feed 10-12 people)

8.    3 Corn dishes (each to feed 10-12 people)

9.    6 dozen Rolls/Bread

10.  3 Cranberries (each to feed 10-12 people)

11.  10 $6.00 donations for supplies to make pies

*** The above food items will need to be prepared and cooked   

 Have a great week! 

Week of Nov. 2nd

Thanksgiving Unit: 
For the next 3 weeks both 3rd classes will be combining Reading/Writing/Grammar with Social Studies.  This is a unit developed around the First Thanksgiving that will encompass all of the following skills:
Reading to find information
Doing research
Asking deeper questions
Organizing information
Writing and creating to show information learned
Learning about history
Comparing and contrasting things of the past with current day
Presenting
Working in groups
Citing from texts
Comparing fact vs. fiction
Writing a book review
Discussing how God fits into the first Thanksgiving
AND several other things.

Your child is receiving a calendar of events and due dates from now until Thanksgiving break. This should be kept in their Social Studies Binder.   All assignments will be started in class, but the essay and book review will require work time at home.  I have no problem with you checking over your child's work, but please let them work on their own as much as possible.  This should be a showcase of what they know and are capable of.  I will be conferencing with them each before the due date as well.

The majority of this unit will be worked on at school with t  

Important Dates: 

• Monday November 16th - Daniel Boone Home Field Trip (Leave school at 8:30 and return at 2:30) Please dress in warm clothes and be ready for outside weather.  Please also bring a lunch and good walking shoes, possibly ready for rain and mud.  

• Wednesday November 17th - PIE DAY We will be making pumpkin pies from 1-3pm with the kids.  Kelly Ritter and Robyn Soetart will be organizing volunteers to help with this.  We will need about 4-5 parents to help this day.  

• Thursday November 19th - FEAST DAY  in the Webster Gardens Fellowship Hall 11:00 - 1:00 pm(please note this date has changed to the 19th NOT the 20th).  You will be receiving an invitation soon and we ask that you would RSVP with the names of your family members that will be attending.  This is a day that we will be eating and watching your kiddos present their projects.  Please plan to join us!!  

Week of Oct. 19th

Reading: 
This week we are working on using our voices as we read out loud.  We will be doing some Reader's Theater skits and recording them to work on the fluency of our voices as well as tone and inflection.  We will also be looking at summarizing stories by pulling out the characters, setting, and plot of what we read.

Math: 
We are beginning to work with money more in depth this week.  On your child's math homework, it is imperative that they correctly use the dollar sign and decimal point when writing answers that deal with money.  Starting today we have begun doing more challenging time tests for addition facts.  Each child will work their way through addition from 0-12 and then move on to subtraction 0-12.  The goal is that they can complete 50 facts in less than 2 minutes.  The quicker they can move through these, the easier math will be for them as we dig into more challenging concepts.

Science: 
We have finished up our Animal Unit and are doing a short week on the 3 states of matter.  There will be some homework assignments coming home since this is a short unit.  We will have a 10 point vocabulary quiz on Monday of next week.  They will have a study guide in their science binders at the end of the week.

Conferences:
We will be spending a large chunk of time this week and next week getting ready for our student led conferences.  This just means that we have a little less time for study hall in class.  I will do my best to compensate for that in terms of how much is assigned.  Please be sure to send back the yellow conference time request form by Wednesday to make sure you get your preferential time slot.

CCLS Book Fair:
The book fair is set for Oct. 27th - 29th.  This is a great way to get your kiddos interested in reading, do some early Christmas shopping, and support your school.  The book fair committee is always looking for more volunteers.  You can click on the Volunteer Sign Up link to find a way that you could help out.

Book Fair Hours & Special Events:

Tuesday, 10/27:                    

7:15am–7:45am ~ Teacher Preview!

8:00am–3:30pm ~ Fair is open.  K-4 students will visit with their classes.

6:00pm–7:30pm ~ Fair is open during the Candy Corn Festival!

Wednesday, 10/28:   

7:30am–3:30pm ~ Fair is open.

7:30am–8:15am ~ Breakfast With A Buddy!  Students may invite a relative or special friend for a light breakfast and book fair shopping!

                                                                                                                                    

Thursday, 10/29:       

8:00am–7:00pm ~ Fair is open during school and Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Important Dates:

• Wednesday Oct. 21st - Conference time request forms due back 
• Friday Oct. 23rd - Fall party at 2pm 
• Thursday Oct. 29th - Half day of school (Parent Teacher Conferences)
• Friday Oct. 30th - No School (Parent Teacher Conferences) 
• Monday Nov. 16th - Field Trip to Daniel Boone Home (Mr. Fishburn and I will send out an email regarding chaperones and other information.)
• Friday Nov. 20th - Thanksgiving Feast - ALL parents are invited to come!

Week of Oct. 12th

Important Notes:

• Book It - Book It is a reading program that encourages kids to read for at least 20 minutes a day.  Studies show that kids who read for that amount of time each day are more successful in several aspects of their lives as they grow up.  Here are the basics of the program: 
• Each night that your child reads (they must be the one doing the reading) they can color in the day on the calendar that was sent home last week.  
• Since I sent it home a week after October started, I told them they need to complete at least 18 days of reading.  
• If they bring it back to me with 18 days filled in they will receive a coupon for a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut.  
• These are due back on November 2nd.  
• Scholastic Book Orders - The next due date is October 28th.  Every book you buy for your child earns points for me to buy books for the class with.  Here is our class activation code to order online with.  PBGXF.  I will post this permanently at the top of our Reading page on the blog.  
• Student Led Conferences - The next couple of weeks will be spent working heavily on preparing our conferences for you.  If you haven't seen certain papers come home, it is most likely because your child is saving to use at their conference.  If you would like to see it before then, feel free to come down to the room and look in their conference binder.  Your child should know how to help you with this, but I am willing to help if needed.  
• Book Fair - Look for more info to come home this weekend.  

Reading:
We have been exploring the Problem and Solution of stories in class.  Last week we looked at Curious George books and found the problem, solution and action steps in his stories.  This week we will be applying this skill to writing our own stories.  You can expect to see a full cycle of the writing process in the next couple of weeks.

Math:
We have begun working a lot more with word problems.  Addition problems are referred to as "some and some more" problems and subtraction problems are referred to as "some, some went away" problems.  These problems build on the assumption that students are fluent readers and can decipher information into multiple steps.  In class I have the kids pick out the important information first and then turn it into an equation or number sentence.

Science:
We are finishing up our Animal Unit this week in class.  The kids have shown very good understanding of the concepts we covered and I don't feel it is necessary to have them take a test for this unit.  Instead we are using the app "Pic Collage" to create collages out of their zoo pictures.  They must classify the animals accurately in order to complete this project.  After today, most of the kids have either completed or almost completed the project and will not need to work on this at home.  
Religion:
We are still talking about the 10 commandments.  This week we are focusing on the 8th commandment and how our words hold great importance.  We will also be finishing up a small service project for Webster Gardens church.  Our class was asked to write notes to put inside the pockets of coats that are being donated to kids in the community.  Not only has this been a great lesson in letter writing, but it has opened up discussions on how to share our faith with those outside of our immediate circles.  The kids are doing a great job!