A new year has begun! I am enjoying getting to know each of your children.

We will have our first school mass next Wednesday, September 16th. Please join us any time you are able at 9:00 in Trinity Hall.

I am sending a reading log home for September. The official Pizza Hut Book It! program begins in October. I will ask the children to keep a reading log each month at home and bring it in at the end of the month. I encourage you to read with your child, too. From time to time I will assign a book report. Usually at the beginning of the month to be done by the end of the month with a project. The time spent reading for their report should all be logged on their book log.

This week is busy! The spring concert is this Thursday and the children have been rehearsing. They all sound fantastic singing tunes from Broadway!

Next week Thursday we will have the final math test of the year as we wrap up angles, polygons, perimeter and area. This will be an open book test.

May 29th is Track and Field Day. This is a fun day! Please have your child wear a t-shirt with their team color if possible. Water bottles are good, too.

This week is our final spelling list and test of this school year!! Yeah!

The Little Flowers group had a Bake Sale this weekend and made money to give to the charity My Starving Children. Way to go girls!! I am proud of you all.

Please remember to send back the permission slip for May Crowning on May 13th. It is a gold colored sheet. Thank you!

Our Literature Circles are moving along nicely! We are in three groups reading The Thing About Georgie, Because of Winn Dixie and The Lacemaker and the Princess. All three are great books and the book group experience is a great way for the children to share their "take" on the chapters read. Ask your child about their book circle.

What a lovely weekend it was! Thank you again for your donations and support for the Parkinson's Walk on May 2nd. To have such a beautiful day was a blessing.

Mrs. Gramstad is inviting parents to her class for an "open class" on May 18th. Our class meets at 9:30 on Monday, May 18th.

I am sending a letter home this week, April 30th...with the hope that you will commit my blog address to memory!!!

Today we took the Chapter 7 math test. The children could use their multiplication charts and counters. I did tell them that the next test would be without the charts! Memorize those facts!!

We have eggs in an incubator to see if they will hatch! At 5 and 10 days we will try to candle them and see inside. As we study Life Cycles, this fits in nicely. We are also observing beans and their parts: embryo, seed coat and stored food.

We will have a science review next week, April 22nd, and quiz on April 23rd. Kids are bringing home reviews to study from 4/22.

Math: we continue with division. This week division with 3&4, 6&7. We will have a test on Friday, April 24th. This will give me a good idea of where we are and what needs more practice time.

Religion: We are reading and discussing the Church through time and how we fit into God's family. The class created little books about their own stories of faith. There will be a religion test on May 6th on Chapter 21.

Language Arts: We are reading a non-fiction narrative about the Statue of Liberty. We are working with main idea and the details that support it. We will also review capital letters.
We will also be starting Literature Circles in 3rd grade. Ms. Paumen and I selected 3 great books to form 3 literature circles. It works like this: each child will select the book they want, not knowing who may be in their group. (Hopefully everyone gets their 1st choice). The groups will meet at "circle time" and read independently. They will each have a job to do after reading, like the "Part Picker" or "Summarizer" and will use their journals to write or draw in. Then discussion will follow to share thoughts from journals. I am hoping this will be a great experience for each and every child.

Science: Life cycles. We are looking at all kinds of animals and comparing life cycles. We will be putting chicken eggs in an incubator in the hope that in 21 days time we will have some chicks!! (We haven't decided what to do with them after that...) There will be review in class and a test on Chapter 1 will be April 27th.

Spelling: Weekly assignments will continue to the end of the school year. Students are given credit for weekly work that is complete and handed in on or before Friday morning. Work that is handed in after that is given half credit. I find that kids who do the work and practice the words throughout the week do much better on the written tests. The option to do the work at school or at home is left up to each child. Spelling is on our When I Am Done List here at school. Meaning, when a student's other work is complete they can work on the spelling assignment.

We have a new student in our room. Chandler Ross joined the third grade on Monday, April 13th. He is making friends quickly and will move onto 4th grade with this fine group.

I look forward to seeing you at Spring Fever! Thank you for your donations. Check out our baskets at the silent auction, one has everything sporty in it, the other is a Twin's package and includes some great tickets to a game this summer. Go Twins!!

I hope that this will help you stay up to date on what is new in our room! You can also email me at any time: nancy.mcgrath@stfxb.org

The children need to practice multiplication facts! They should practice them each night or in the morning. As we continue on with division it is so important that they know the multiplication
facts and can recall them quickly. I know this takes a different amount of time for each child, but without practice they won't be mastered by the end of the year.

Thank you so much for your generous contributions to my Walk for Parkinson's Disease. I really appreciate your kindness. Pray for nice weather on May 2nd!