Curriculum Tidbits:
- In reading, we'll do one final project for our unit all about characters.
- In writing, students will continue to learn about what goes into writing persuasive/opinion essays.
- Last week's Sing, Move, and Memorize (Pictures below.) reminded us all of the Psalm 100 song we learned last year. We'll continue to sing it throughout this month to get it deep in our hearts.
- Our class do some weather observations this week and look for patterns. We will also compare our weather in West Michigan with the weather in other parts of the United States.
- We hope to wrap up Unit 2 of math with an assessment on Friday.
Other Tidbits:
- Our class will join the rest of Rose Park's 1st through 5th graders in visiting Hope College on Wednesday as part of Holland's Little Read.
- Field Trip - On Friday, all of the third grade classes will spend most of the day learning about the early history of Michigan at the Outdoor Discovery Center's Cultural History Center. Our class could use a few more chaperones, so if you are available and don't mind spending most of the day outdoors, please let me know! We'd love to have you! Students should dress for the weather on Friday and come with a lunch from home.
- Gingerbread Houses - As many of you know, making gingerbread houses has been a long-standing tradition in third grade, and it’s one we look forward to continuing, but with a few changes.This year the students will be working together with their peers to construct gingerbread houses in teams across the third grade classrooms. We are excited to implement this change to help us meet HC’s goal of integrating our Discipleship Practices throughout our curriculum. The activity of constructing gingerbread houses offers a beautiful opportunity for our students to integrate three of these practices: Community Building, as they work together and build relationships; Servant Living, as they look for ways to help their neighbors instead of being self-focused; and Kingdom Building, as they get a tangible glimpse into how the Body of Christ was designed to work to meet the needs of all members. We are excited to increase peer-to-peer communication across all three third grade classes and build relationships as the students problem-solve and use their creativity alongside each other. We love having you participate in our third grade life at Rose Park, and recognize that this is a change to a long-standing tradition. We look forward to welcoming you into our spaces in other ways this year! (Details to come.)
- The second graders came to teach our class about composting and invited us to add our food scraps to the new composting bins. (Pictures below.)
- Our class worked hard this week on a proposal to build the goat enclosure inside the barn a little bit higher so the goats can't jump out and roam the entire barn. They worked in groups to each write a different part of the proposal (the "Problem", our "Solution", the "Diagram" of the enclosure add-on, and the "Cost" estimate.) We hope to present our proposal to Mrs. Rynsburger this week! (Pictures below.)
- Show-and-Tell is the highlight of our Thursdays - and maybe even of the whole week! (Pictures below.)
- Our class loved our time in the barn on Tuesday. We were very surprised as how much the three new chicks had grown! (Pictures below.)
Requested Announcements:
We are looking for 10-12 large containers with lids to use as classroom compost containers. (These empty cat litter buckets are perfect, for those of you who have cats). If you have any empty containers like this to donate, we’d love to use them at school. Thanks!
Pictures:
