God's Most Amazing Creatures...: The First Week of School!

Hello! We have had an amazing first week of school! We have learned many new routines and have had a lot of fun getting to know one another, with some fun games and activities. We have eased into the transition of all the core classes, with the exception of Language Arts. We will begin that on Monday! I have had so much fun getting to know your child, or to see them grow. It is amazing how much the 3rd graders have grown up and how much ownership the 4th graders have taken with this group. I am so proud of all of them, and feel so blessed to be their teacher! Besides all of the fun we have had, I have highlighted just a few things below that we have learned this week:

Religion- This week, we discussed who God is, and how Jesus is our advocate. We discussed our blessings, and read Bible verse sharing the power of God. Our first memory work is due on Tuesday!

Next week’s memory:

September 2- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

September 6-and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-24

Language Arts- We read and wrote when we created our time capsules, which we will put away and get back out in May to see our many changes. We measured our height and traced our hands and feet. We also filled on surveys about our Favorite Things, and created self-portraits. Next week, we will have our first Reading stories out of our basals, and we will have our first spelling test next Friday. Spelling words, and our challenge word will come home on Monday in the assignment books. I will also put these words online for you to access. I ask that your child take their reading book home at least twice a week to review the story. We will have a comprehension test over the selection on Fridays as well. Next week, we will also begin English, where we will identify complete and incomplete sentences. The students were introduced to Steven Kellogg, the Author of the Month, this week, and they love him! We read Best Friends, Can I Keep Him?, and Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash this week. :) Monday the students will also receive information about book reports, when they are due, and what is expected. Third graders are reading mysteries and fourth graders are reading Newbery Award winning books. Thank you!

Math- We took our first mad minutes and I assessed where each child was in this process. Each child will see some progress in memorizing his or her facts! Third graders worked place value, putting numbers in standard, expanded, and word form. They also used greater than, less than, and equal to. Fourth graders worked with Mrs. Barnett, on place value through the hundred thousand, and also worked with putting numbers in standard, expanded, and word form. We completed some Problem Solvers, which takes real world math problems, and breaks them down, so that they can solve and experience them. This is such good practice! Please practice math facts at home with your child through flashcards and computer games. Thank you!

Art- We created “Who Am I?” pictures. These are self-portraits made with construction paper and other media, and wrote riddles for the rest of the school to solve. Please come by our hallway to see if you can pick out each child in our class. Fun! Today, we also created window pictures, where each pane is a depiction of something we had fun with this week! These are hanging in Mrs. Barnett’s room.

As a reminder, Friday Folders will come home this afternoon filled with graded work. All of the 3rd graders have one. The 4th graders will get theirs next week. Please empty these and return the folder on Monday. Although we did not have very many assignments this week, anything with a letter grade can be “redone” for half credit per answer, and turned back in on Monday. So far, everybody is doing very well and working very hard!

Next week, homeschoolers will join us! We will begin Writers’ Workshop, Art, P.E., Music, Spanish, and Computers. Fun times in the 3rd/4th grades… :)

Have a great weekend! God’s Blessings!

Kim

Here are some pictures from the first week of school!