READING
We have been working on a unit on Greek Mythology, and just completed it. The students chose their favorite myth and wrote a summary of it. 


We have two small reading groups.  One group is reading Horrible Harry's Secret and the other is reading Amber Brown You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox.

READING BUDDIES
We do reading Buddies with the kindergarteners after recess on Wednesday.  Both grades look forward to this special time.


WRITING
We wrote Bio Poems.  Several are below for you to enjoy.

ENGLISH
We have worked with sentences and determining the sub ject and predicate of the sentence.  We are presently working on nouns.  We have worked on common and proper nouns.  We are now working on singular and plural nouns.  The rules for making nouns plural are what we are presently working on.  Next, we will work on possessive nouns.

Looking for nouns

Looking for nouns.

RELIGION
In religion we have worked on the rosary,

Playing a rosary game.

SPELLING
Spelling pretest are on Mondays.  This lets the children know what words they really have to work on.  We have a spelling Bee on Thursdays.  The children like this as they get to sit on the desk until the misspell a work.  They can earn the chance to sit back on their desk if they spell a different work correctly when it is their turn.  The final test is usually on Friday.

PLAY PRACTICE
We are presently working very hard on our Christmas Play.  It is called Shepherds, Sheep and a Savior.  We are working hard so you can enjoy the real meaning of Christmas.

MATH
We just finished our subtraction unit and will be starting our Multiplication Unit this week. We will spend a lot of time working on our multiplication facts in class. To practice our facts we will play different games and activities to help remember them. Before the chapter tests we have one to two review days in which the kids practice different problems from the chapter to earn a point for their team. When they get the answer correct they get a chance to toss a ring to earn up to five extra points.
A reminder for the parents, if your student has not already told you, in their hard cover math book at the end of each chapter there are up to four review pages with problems that work on the math problems we discussed and learned about in the chapter. They are able to bring their math book home to use these pages for extra practice at any time.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We did a Maps Unit for Social Studies during first quarter in which the students learned about parts of a map, different kinds of maps, and how to use maps. We also started learning the 50 States of America; the students have to know the names, capitals, and abbreviations. We will be practicing them during third quarter as well. During second quarter I will give a worksheet here and there to the students for extra practice on the states in which they will be given extra credit points for correct answers.

SCIENCE
We are starting with a unit in Earth Science which discusses topics on changes in the earth's surface, materials of the earth, the planets, sun, and moon, and clouds and storms.
The first chapter of the unit is on the changes in the earth's surface. During this chapter we have learned about different landforms that make up the earth and how different natural hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, water, wind, gravity, and living things affect the earth's surface. We did an experiment on weathering and erosion using sand and water to see first hand how they can affect the earth's surface.

ART
For art we have made some fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving projects, and are now starting on Christmas and Winter projects. For Halloween we made windsocks and paper lanterns, a leaf drawing for fall, and a turkey for Thanksgiving. Some of our Christmas and Winter projects are going to be surprises for Mom and Dad and the kids have been working really hard on them!

CHRISTMAS SURPRISE!
This December Miss Peters' Christmas Elf, Jingle, will be visiting our classroom to keep a watchful eye on them and give nightly reports on how the day went to Santa. Monday was Jingle's first day in the room and so far the kids are enjoying finding her in the room.
For fun we are also reading the book Christmas Shoes together and will watch the movie once we finish the book; which may be after Christmas Break depending on how often we have a chance to read it.

January 2018

Happy January! 

Third Grade Math:
The third graders are busy learning about multiplication! You have probably seen the bright orange flashcards in the home folders. Please have your third grader use the flashcards a few minutes every day to help with memorizing these facts. We will start having timed tests on multiplication facts 0-5, starting Catholic School's Week. Some math vocabulary we are using is factor, product, and multiply. We are also calling "2 x 5 = 10" a multiplication sentence.

Fourth Grade Math:
The fourth graders are working with multiplication as well. They are reviewing multiplication facts and will have timed multiplication facts several times a week, starting Catholic Schools' Week.  We are also looking for missing factors, learning how to multiply 2-digit numbers by 1-digit,and how to multiply 3 digit numbers with and without regrouping.

Science:
As you know, we have started our unit on the solar system! Each student will be making a model of a planet. It is due February 9th. A sheet explaining the project went home on Monday, January 22. All of the students are excited about our Space unit. Ask your budding astronomer why we have seasons! We will also be learning about the phases of the moon, each planet, the scope of the solar system, and a myriad of interesting facts, I am sure!




Social Studies:

Authors reading postcard books

about Wisconsin

Wisconsin continues to be our focus for Social Studies. We finished up our post card travel project which took the students imaginatively traveling around the five regions of Wisconsin. Now we will focus on the history of European explorers coming to Wisconsin, such as Jean Nicolet, and Pierre Esprit Radisson. We will also "explore" our Wisconsin Catholic heritage that started when the French explorers came to Wisconsin in the 1600s.

Art: 
Our class loves art! The Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl posters created by this class were fabulous. A photo of (almost) each postcard is posted in our blog. The students also made a collaborative portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. Next, we will focus on collage as used in a Caldecott Honor book, The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats.

English:
We are presently working on verbs.  We did a project in which  we learned about vivid verbs.  Each student has a chart with vivid verbs that could be used instead of the old tired ones.  We are also looking forward to writing a book with Studentreasures Publishing.  We will be using our vivid verb list to make our writing more appealing.


Writing:
Our big project is writing our book that will be published by Studentreasures Publishing.  The students chose under sea animals as the topic for this book.  Presently each student is researching a sea animal and will then write a report that will be included in the book.  More information about the book will follow as we come closer to the publishing date.

Reading:
In our large reading group we are working on such skills as cause and effect, text to text, text to self, summarizing, discussion questions, imagery, and vocabulary.  All of the skills are being taught using Patricia Polacco books.  She is our author study right now.

All of the students are also in guided reading groups.  Each group is working on reading and comprehension skills as well as reading a chapter book.

Religion:
We are learning how to form a good conscience.  We are also learning when and how to examine our conscience.  We can and should examine our conscience anytime.