Wow! Here we are at the end of October and Thanksgiving just around the corner. Next Tuesday, Nov. 2 will be the end of first quarter. It doesn’t seem like we’ve been here for nine weeks. The students are doing great and we’re moving along at a nice pace. Before we know it, January will be here.

We had our week long testing and I was very proud of this group. They all worked really hard. It was nice they had a break in the morning and the afternoon with specialist or a snack break. Thanks to all the parents that donated snacks during that week. Not all parents were called. Your time will come when you will be called to donate something, so don’t fell left out.

So what has been going on since last month? In math we’ve been working hard with addition. Some students have really come along way with learning their addition math facts. Friday, tomorrow, we will do our last 2 minute time math facts quiz. We will start subtraction next. Have the students start learning their subtraction math facts. Remember to practice every night for 10 minutes. This last week we have been doing subtraction with regrouping and without grouping. Some students forgot how to subtract when they had to regroup, but I think they are all back on the right track.

Now that we’ve finished learning what a sentence is, we started working on nouns in a sentence. We learned what common and proper nouns are. Some still have trouble remembering to use capital letters for proper nouns. We will begin working with plural and singular nouns.

We had our first Liturgy that we planned on Wednesday and everyone did a great job. Thank you 4th grade for singing with us. They were all rewarded with donuts.

I’m beginning a unit on bullying. I have a few videos order from the Bishop Hammes Media Center on bullying. I found some role playing skits that I would like the students to act out. The three play are called Masks, (everyone is different); Let Me Play (let other students play/taking turns); and Scrabble, (sharing/working together). If they do really well with the skits I would like them to present them to the younger grades.

I was very impressed with the frog dioramas. The students take great pride in doing these projects. We are done with the life cycle unit now.

We will begin learning all about plants. Does anyone have 12 baby spider plants they would like to donate to use? We do different activities with the plants.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

We are half-way through the quarter!

I have decided to use the calendar in their daily planner to record their reading and math facts. Instead of me making a calendar, please sign the calendar in the planner just like you were doing on the piece of paper. This way there will be less papers going back and forth. Also, please sign their planner weekly. I will check them for any comments or notes you may have.

Things are running pretty smoothly so far. This group of students likes to talk. The kids are getting used to me telling them “no talking” when they are doing an assignment. But we’re getting things done. We have covered many new things in all subject areas.

In religion, we have covered information about the Church community and what the Church is. In the next chapter we’ll be discussing that they first learn about God from their parents at home and that the family home is called the “domestic Church.” Then we will have completed our first unit.

In reading, we have completed three stories about adventures. We will wrap up this theme within the next two weeks. I have been assessing the student’s fluency and comprehension reading the last few weeks. My plan is to start small group/individual reading after we complete the first reading theme test.

We will have our second spelling test Friday, Oct. 1st. Please make sure you completed the Dear Parents activity with your son/daughter. This skill activity will be on their spelling test. Their words are in the daily planner.

In language, we have been working hard on sentences. We have covered the subject, predicate, types of sentences, and run-on sentences. We will start the unit review Thursday and have our first language test next week on sentences. We still are working on writing our first story. Once we get through all the steps they will be working on their stories every day.

Math can be a challenge for some students. We have reviewed and learned about place value, compare, order, and round numbers. We will be starting addition and subtraction next week. I will be showing them several methods to use to add or subtract. This is when they really need to know their math facts. Each week we do a 2 minutes timed addition test. Most of the students are improving their facts. Keep up with studying them.

Anyone interested in coming in a doing a fall art project with the kids? We have art on Wednesday at 2:15 P.M.

Do you have an email address you would like to share with me, I can email you the notices I post on the blog, too.

Have a good day!
Mrs. Punjak

We completed 7 days of school and things are looking great!

I wanted to inform you of a few things coming up. On Tuesday, Sept. 14th I will be hosting an open house. I will have on display all the curriculum books I will be using this year. I will handout information about the Sitton Spelling program I use for spelling. I will go over any questions you have about the curriculum or schedule. If you would like to talk to me one on one about your child, please make an appointment to do this. It's a little hard with all the families there to try to discuss an individual. I hope to see all families there from 5:00 - 5:30.

Our first spelling test will be Wednesday, Sept. 15th. Many students are worried about it. I told them it's like any worksheet they do. They have their list of words in their Daily Planner they bring home nightly.

The first set of corrected paper came home Friday. Please go through them with your child, sign the orange folder and return it to school Monday. You can keep the corrected paper at home. I hope to have enough graded papers to send home their first grade report (averages) on Friday.

Open house for the school will be tomorrow, Sunday, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Anyone is welcomed to stop in and see all the renovations completed this summer and to check out all the classrooms.

Have a good weekend.

Sept. 7, 2010

Welcome back! It’s great to be back. I had a great restful summer. My daughter got engaged in July and planning a wedding for June 2012. I hope everyone else had a great summer. It appears that the students are ready for school. We did a little review of things from last year on Wednesday and Friday. On Thursday, we had a fun day with popcorn. We read a story about popcorn, we did math, language, writing, all about popcorn.

Field trip this week Thursday, Sept. 9th, to Big Top Chautauqua. We will leave school around 8:30, go the park in Washburn for lunch, and return to school around 1:30. I still need one more driver. Anyone interested?

This week we are getting into the books. We started with Religion. The first unit is about Family of God. We will read and discuss about: What does creation teach us about God? ; Why do people gather to worship God? ; and How is your family like the Church?
In Language we are staring out with sentences. What is a sentence and what types of sentences re there? They had their first worksheet today and they all finished it in class and did a great job.

Math we will start out with reviewing the hundred chart, place value, and greater and less then numbers.

In reading we started our first theme, Off to Adventures. I will start assessing the reading level of all the students this week. Remember the only assigned homework they have right now is to read 15 minutes each night and to practice addition math facts for 10 minutes each night. Please sign the calendar and return it every Monday. This is part of their reading grade every week.
Wednesday will be the first set of preview words they will be bring home in their assignment notebook. They will probably have the test on these words next week. I will be sending home Wednesday a Take Home Dear Parents activity sheet. Part B of their spelling test will cover this concept. Please take time and do this with your child so they are prepared for this on their test.

If you ever have any questions or want to discuss your child with me please call the school from Mon., Wed., Thurs., & Fri. 7:45 – 8:10, Mon., Tues., Thurs., & Fri. 9:50 – 10:20 or 3:10 – 4:00.

I’m looking forward to a great year.

Mrs. Punjak

April??? Where has all the time gone? We only have twenty-six days left! They are still eager to learn.

In math they seem to enjoy division. We made it through the 0 – 10 division facts. We just started 2 digit-division. This gets a little confusing. But I’m confident that they will do a great job. We will touch a little on fractions and maybe decimals. Please keep doing the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts all summer.

In religion we just finished up Unit 3, The Body of Christ. We will skip over to Unit 5, The Church Leads. We will be discussing what is Jesus’ law of love, how does God give you faith, hope, and love, and how does the Church help you make right choices?

We have just finished our 5th Theme in reading. We will be doing the theme skills test next and then the following week start Theme 6, Smart Solutions. This is a fun theme.

Spelling is going really well. I did a spelling test from the last four units and they all did a good job. Some students still need a little help on homophone words (words that sound alike but are spelled different). Here is a list of the words we will try to get through in the next month: room, sea, against, top, turned, learn, point, city, play, toward, five, himself, usually, money, seen, didn’t, car, morning, I’m body, upon, family, later, turn, move, face, door, cut, done, and group. This will take them through 295 everyday words they should know.

We are getting towards the end of our English book. I started doing DLP (daily language practice) on the board daily. I write sentences that have several mistakes in them, could be spelling, punctuation, capitalization, mistakes. (Example: its an story that has ben retold in meny different ways ). In this sentence I’m looking for capitalization, contraction, adjective, spelling and punctuation. Since I started this I have noticed several kids are making many silly mistakes when writing sentences. Sadly you will notice a slight grade drop in language due to this. Please work with your child at home with writing sentences correctly.

Ms. Cleveland has finished her observation here in social studies. She did a good job and we wish her luck in the future. We are finishing up another chapter. They will be doing the chapter review on Monday and the chapter test on Tuesday. Then we will finish up the year with the chapter on a growing America.

In science we have read about the water cycle, which includes where is water found, what is the water cycle and what is weather? I hope to finish up this chapter in the next week so we can get started on earth’s place in the solar system. When we go to UMD Planetarium I would like the kids to have a little understanding about the constellations and the solar system. The next project I want the kids to do is draw or design the water cycle. We will discuss this in the next coming weeks.

In art we have been trying our hand at making different kinds of spring flowers with different kinds of media and designs. Flowers are not some kid’s favorite art project. But they are will to try anything as long as it’s not a worksheet or test.

A note will be going home with the dates and locations of the field trips planned for May.

Happy Easter!


Here we are at the end of the 3rd quarter. Only nine weeks of school left and so much too do. We’ve been doing many activities during Lent and now for Holy Week. We read in our religion book that the church teaches us that Catholic should attend Mass on Sundays and holy days because the Mass is the center of the Church’s life. When you do this, you follow the third commandment, “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” Every time you go to Mass, you are encouraged to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in Holy Communion. The Church requires that you do this at least once during the Easter Season. We discussed that it is very important for them to attend Mass on Easter Sunday.

We have been studying about different communities. We read about two Native American Communities. Every student had an assignment to make a replica of the Hopi or Iroquois home. The Iroquois lived in the forest of the northern part of the United States. They used the land around home to build their community. Their houses were called long houses. The Hopi lived in Arizona, the desert land. They build their houses of stone and earth. The houses looked like apartment houses. I am very impressed with the work that many students put into this project. They will be on display in the north entrance this weekend. This is just another reason to come to church Easter Sunday.

Ms. Cleveland, from Northland College did a lesson about the Powhatan People in Social Studies. After reading the chapter the students tasted Three Sisters Succotash that the Powhatan people made. Many students really liked it and asked for the recipe. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup wild or brown rice
2 cups canned or cooked lima beans (you can substitute any bean)
2 cups canned or cooked corn
1 cup butternut squash cubed
1 cup banana squash cubed
Oil or butter for frying
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the rice. Reduce heat and cover.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the corn, beans and squash.
3. After 20 minutes, gradually add the corn, beans and squash to the rice. Stir well. Replace cover and simmer for additional 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, sauté garlic and red onion in small frying pan with butter or oil. Sauté until onions are translucent, not until brown.
5. Add the sautéed onion and garlic to the rice during the last 5 minutes.
6. Check rice after to see if done, if not simmer additional 10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and allow it to cool down before serving.

I’m impressed on how well the students are doing with their multiplication. Keep practicing at home. We are working on division and they are finding out that if they know their multiplication they can do division real easy.

The reading calendars are going really good. As long as they return it Monday or Tuesday they get credit for the week. I will send the April calendar home tomorrow. They can return it on Thursday, April 8th.

Reminder: No school April 2nd – 7th. Return to school Thursday, April 8th. Have a joyous Easter vacation with your children.

It’s been awhile since my last blog. I’m not sure how many people are really reading it, but I’ll keep posting for once a month.

What has been going on? In religion last week we were talking about the Good News, Parables, Messiah and God’s kingdom. Along with the book work we have been discussing about Lent and what Lent means. This week in our book we are reading about making choices, sacrifices, Jesus’ sacrifice, Jesus’ resurrection and the Paschal Mystery. This is a hard topic for the kids to comprehend. If at all possible please try to attend Mass on the weekend so the children understand what Lent is about.

They have a big project going on in Reading. We are doing a Reading Writing Workshop on Animal Research. Each student selected an animal and we have researching that animal. They used the Library to find books, they used and encyclopedia, and they did internet searches. They learned how to take notes, who to organize their notes into a graph, and now how to write a paragraph from their notes. When they are done with their rough drafts, they will begin to type them on the computers. If time allows they will copy and paste animal pictures into their reports. This is a long process but the kids really get a lot out of this. It’s so hard for them because they want to copy information out of the book and write their reports. They are learning that there are many steps to writing a good research report.

They made it through 1 digit multiplication. I’m always so impressed on how well they catch onto multiplication. They have a little trouble with the 6’s, 7’s, and 8’s. I tried to tell them to break them in half and then double the answer. They are starting two digit multiplication. Today was a joy. We did our 45 minute lesson and they wanted to keep trying to catch on. After recess we started again and finally everyone caught on to doing 2-digit long multiplication. Then they thought it was easy. It can be a challenge at first, but I won’t give up. They need to take a deep breath and tell themselves I can do this.

In Language we finish the unit on verbs. We will be starting adjectives and adverbs. I also started doing the daily oral language practice on the board again. They need work on writing complete, correct sentences. No matter how much I stress capitalization and punctuation, I still have several students who forget. This is something every student can use work on, writing sentences. Occasionally dictate a sentence to them and see if they can write it correctly. This is great practice.

In Spelling we are still picking away at our everyday spelling words. Along with that we are leaning suffixes, prefixes, long and short vowels, compound words, double letter sounds, and much, much more.

In Science and Social Studies they just finished up the units. They did the unit reviews and now they are doing the unit test. It looks like they are doing really well. It is a little hard to do the science and social studies test, but I let them use their notes, corrected worksheets, and their books. They are really leaning how to use the index or glossary to look up certain words to find the page they read it on.

We have completed all the lower case cursive letters. I’m really encouraging them to write their lessons in cursive. Many students don’t want to yet because it slows them down. Practice will make them better. During the third quarter I tell them they have to do all their work in cursive. The only hard thing about doing this is that they are not required to use cursive in the upper grades. I still think it’s very important to teach it to them in 3rd grade.

On March 17, 3rd grade will be hosting the Liturgy at 9:00. Please join us if you can.

I’m very happy that the reading calendars are coming back each week. Keep up the reading and math facts.

The pizza sale is still going on. The last turn in date is Monday, Feb. 22nd. Some students turned in the first round of slips on Wednesday. This is a good fundraiser for our school.

Remember the reading/math fact calendars are due every Monday. This will count as a reading grade.

I told the student that Wed. was the turn in day for book orders. I only had two students’ order books. If you would still like to order, I won’t be sending in the order until tomorrow (Friday). I understand this was a bad time to send it out with the pizza sell. I will send out another book order next month.

We are in need to paper toweling. If every family could send in one roll, that would be great.

I’m very impressed with the students learning their multiplication facts. Keep memorizing them every chance they get. We have now learned 0 through 10 facts. I started doing 2 minutes time test on multiplication. Their goal is to increase the number of problems they get right each time. Ask your child what the five different strategies they have learned to do multiplication.

In religion we read the Bible story about Noah’s Ark and the meaning of the rainbow. On Tuesday we discussed what Mardi Gras meant (Fat Tuesday) and what Ash Wednesday meant to each of them. We will continue with Lenten activities throughout the Lent season.

Spelling is going very well. I have been testing the students on their words they have gotten wrong throughout the school year and they all have really improved. Keep working with them on the words they get confused spelling.

In Social studies we just finished up the chapter about how communities change over time. We will start reading about how communities share many things. We will talk about the many cultures in communities and what some of their customs are. We will also read about National Holidays. At the end of this chapter we will have finished our first unit. They will be doing a unit review and then a unit test. I will have them bring home their social studies book to review for the test. They do get to use their books for the test.

In Language we have gone through the chapters on the sentence, nouns, and verbs. We will be doing the unit review and test shortly. Then we will start on adjectives and adverbs. Everyday we are working on writing a complete sentence. They are getting better with capitalization and punctuation but need work on a subject and a predicate in each sentence.

Northern Great Lake Visitor Center Field Trip!

What a great day we had. I didn’t hear any complaints. The 3rd and 4th graders started out snowshoeing around the Boardwalk. It was a ways.

We only had a few kids fall down, but they got back up and kept going. Then we went inside to learn about Winter Hibernation.

When we finished that the students went into the exhibit hall and partnered up and did a scavenger hunt activity. We then proceeded into another room to listen to a presentation on migratory and winter birds.

Each student then made a pinecone feeder to take home.

Hopefully they all made it home and are hanging in a tree outside. Fun was had by all (I think the adults also had fun, I know I did). Read the other blogs to see how the K – 2nd grade trip went. They were there with us but they were doing different activities.

We still need more volunteers to help with Catholic School Mass, Sunday at the 9:30 time.
Please make sure your child is reading and doing their math facts. Monday is the first day to turn in February’s Reading – Math calendar.

Next Friday, Feb. 12th we will have a small Valentine card exchange. I keep it pretty low keyed. We play a bingo game and open cards. A few families can bring a treat if they wish. Please check with me so we don’t end up with 14 treats. One family could send some kind of juice.

Next week I would like to use the kids spelling words they have miss spelled so far this year and test them. They are encouraged to take their red notebook home and study the words. They are coming along really good in spelling.

Thank you for all your prayers during my surgery. The kids made me beautiful cards. I was very excited to be back to school after 4 weeks of bed rest. The kids were very excited to see me too. My sub, Jill Zifko, did a great job with keeping the kids on track. It was really nice to come back and keep teaching where she left off.

For Religion class last Tuesday the students made banners to welcome St. Louis, Cathedral School and Bishop Christensen. Wednesday morning we were in the north entrance putting up the banners and in walked the Bishop. The kids were very excited to see and had to show him the banner we made for him. It was a real honor to have him come to our school.
They have been working very hard the last two weeks. In Religion we started talking about worshiping and the Liturgy. We also discussed the importance of the Eucharist as a source and summit of Christian life.

In Reading we wrapped up Theme 3 – Incredible stories. We started the skills test last week and will finish it the end of this week. We also have been doing individual reading with our level books. Next week we will start Theme 4 – Animal Habitats. In this theme we will be focusing on facts and opinions; compare and contrast; and making judgments.

This is my favorite time of year when we begin multiplication. It seems that the kids do really well with this when we start out. It is really important that you do multiplication facts every night. We have learned 5 different strategies to do multiplication. One of the strategies is using the multiplication fact chart (I call it the cheater chart). They are allowed to use it some of the times, but can not use it on test. This is why I encourage them to memorize the facts. We have learned the facts 0 – 5 so far. Within the next week we should have learned 0 – 10 facts.


Spelling is going better. Some students really need to work on some of the words we learned in the beginning of the year. Please take the time to go over the Dear Parent spelling sheet I send home each week. The second part of the test, skill test, comes from this worksheet. I can usually tell who did or didn’t do this worksheet. The third part of the test is sentence dictation. I read them a sentence and they repeat it and then they write it. They need to write every word correctly in order and spelled correctly and correct punctuation. When I first started this many students were having trouble remembering what I said, capitalization and spelling. There are about 98% of the students who are doing really well with this part of the test. Go over the list of words I sent home with you at teacher conferences and the words they misspell on the word preview.

This week we will be working hard in all subject areas. Next week will be a little more challenging with celebrating Catholic Schools week. Make sure you check out the calendar to see what events are happening through out the week.

Report cards will be going home Friday. There will not be a Social Studies grade. I focused the 1st semester on Science and the 2nd semester we will work more in Social Studies.

Please encourage your child to write in cursive. We are just about through the entire lower case letter in cursive.

Have a great week!