Where has the month gone? I can’t believe Thursday is the first of December. Advent started this past weekend. Christmas will be just around the corner. This means we will be doing many special activities this month preparing for Baby Jesus.

I pray that everyone had a thankful Thanksgiving. I traveled to Casa Grande, AZ to visit my daughter and new son-in-law and had a restful and peaceful vacation.

Thank you for the extra help you gave your child with the math subtraction. Please keep doing math problems with them on your own. We will be starting multiplication next week. I will teach several strategies on multiplication and then Chapter 7 - 2, 5, 3 multiplication facts, Chapter 8 - 0, 1, 4 multiplication facts , Chapter 9 – 6, 7, 8 multiplication facts , and Chapter 10 – 9 & 10 multiplication facts. Help you child learn all their 2’s first, then the 5’s, then 3’s, etc. I really look forward to teaching multiplication. The kids are eager to learn multiplication.

Remember to keep reading every night, mark the calendar in their planner, and sign weekly. This does count as part of their reading grade. If they read every night it will help improve their fluency in reading. If you are asking them question about what they read this will help with reading comprehension. So if they are reading nightly and reading at school we should see an improvement in their reading fluency, comprehension and their love to read.

As I mentioned earlier the season of Advent started last Sunday. Most of the religion lessons during December will be about Advent.

I would like to thank Mrs. Dolson-Mukka for coming into the 3rd grade and teaching about vertebrates and invertebrates. The kids loved to watch one of their classmates dress up as a bug. He wasn’t to happy about it, but the kids had fun learning the parts.

I have the students work on one page a day in their cursive writing books. They are doing really good. If you can encourage them to practice cursive writing a little at home would be great. We are maybe through ½ the lower case letters. Then we’ll start on the capital letters.

Here is a look at 3rd grades calendar for the month of December.
December 9th – School Christmas Program at 6:30
Dec. 15th – Baby Jesus Party
Dec. 19th – Caroling
Dec. 20th – Christmas Store
Dec. 23rd – Classroom party
Watch for more information to follow.

OCTOBER BLOG

Here we are in the middle of October and only 2 weeks left of the first quarter. It has been a great year so far. They are wonderful. I was afraid that with a small group there wouldn’t be a lot of discussion but they are coming around. We're starting to have great discussions.

We are on our 3rd day of testing the IOWA basic skills test and they are not doing to bad. I will be doing testing through next Tuesday. I broke it up a little more than the years before. I have been giving them well deserved breaks in the afternoon.

So, what has been going on since last month? Plenty!

I have been busy planning lesson on the mimio board. The kids really like to go to the board and us the interactive board. It is more fun for them and me. It beats standing in front and lecturing. It also gives the kids more hands on learning opportunities.

In reading we have read several stories. We’ve worked on fantasy & realism, sequence of events, cause and effect, noting details, and story structure. We have also been working on leveled reading, small groups. We concluded with ending the theme of adventures and started the next theme on celebrating traditions. If your family has a special tradition you celebrate, please come join us and share your information.

In religion we are still on Unit 1, Family of God. We have read and discussed scripture stories about the creation of the Earth, helping on another, and Mary visits Elizabeth. After this week we will be finishing up the unit with a unit review and test. Ask your son/daughter to bring home their religion book and review with them the first three lessons. Some of the new vocabulary words in this unit are: create, responsibility, Bible, Church, Visitation, authority, domestic, image, respect, Holy Trinity, and community. Every Friday I do a lesson about the Gospel reading for that Sunday. When you go to church on the weekend the children will understand the Gospel readings.

In math we have been working with addition the last couple of weeks. I really see that many students really need to learn their basic math facts. They know how to add but they are making simple mistakes. When they don’t know what 9 + 4 is they struggle. Please work with them to learn their facts. In fact we just did the math computation test and many students said it was hard. Math computation knows their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. I’m going to start testing kids on their facts. My goal is to have all 8 students knowing their addition and subtraction facts through 10 by Christmas. PLEASE HELP ME REACH MY GOAL!!

In spelling we have learned 20 new words to add to our 3rd grade spelling list. We are on word 190. Check your list I sent home earlier and review all the words up to this point with your child. Please remember to do the Dear Parent activity with your child. It is part of the skills spelling test. We have learned and review long vowels, /ou/ spelling patterns, when h follows c, s, t, or w, the combination stands for a new sound, antonyms, contractions, and reviewed all the short vowel sounds. Our next spelling test will be Wednesday, Nov. 2nd.

In language we have finished up our first unit. In this unit we revisited what is a sentence, statements, questions, commands, exclamations, the subject and predicate of a sentence, and correcting a run-on sentence. We will have out unit test next week sometime.

In handwriting we have made it though several letters. It wouldn’t hurt to have your child start writing short words in cursive. The more they practice the better they will get. I know many people say, why teach cursive if they never use it? My feelings are one, it is recommend in 3rd grade to learn cursive and the other thing is some students do much better with cursive than manuscript. It is easier to keep writing one word than to keep picking u[ the pencil and starting a new letter.

In science and social studies we’ve been moving along a little slowly. You will notice they do not have a lot of opportunities for grades. These subject areas are more discussion. I also have been doing mimio lesson in this area.

In social studies we have been talking about communities. Within the communities we have learned where people live and work, where people build communities, the different types of communities near water and different kids of landforms. Thanks to a wonderful donation we will start Tuesday, Time for Kids magazine. It is like the weekly reader they did last year. This will help us keep up with events going on around us.

I let the kids look through the science book and pick their top three units they would be interested in. We started this year with types of animals. We have read and discussed about the animals habitat, what they need to live, and what vertebrates are. We will be starting invertebrates next week. Some of the vocabulary words in this unit were: oxygen, vertebrate, mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, and invertebrates.

A few reminders:

If you have not attended a Base Training Creating Safe and Sacred Environment training please try to attend the next one on Monday, Oct. 24th. You need to have this training to volunteer in the classroom, drive for field trips, or anything to do with working with studetns.

Watch for the Halloween note to come home. We will have a small party in the classroom at 10:00. Anyone can bring treats.

Early release at 12:00, Monday, Oct. 31st.

End of first quarter, Friday, Nov. 4th.

Picture Re-take Day, Wednesday, Nov. 9th.

September News

Here we are at the end of the 2nd week. It is great getting to know each child. I like to find out their likes, dislikes, their interest, and their strengths. I’m looking forward to as fun year with a small group.

A few dates to remember: Monday, Sept. 19th – dismal at 12:00
Wednesday, Sept. 21st – Native American Mass Celebration
Monday, Oct. 10th – No School
Wednesday, Oct. 12th - No School

What have been doing?

In Religion we’ve read and talked about God creation. We talked about Catholic Identity by providing a faith based education by promoting values of community and service. This month we are working on the core value – teamwork.

In Spelling we’ve had our first spelling test. I don’t put a lot of weight in the first couple of test because they need to get familiar with the format. Please remember you, the parents, have a role in their test too. Please do the activity I send home at the beginning of each unit. That skill will be on the test.

In Reading we’ve finished our first story, The Lost and Found. I also went through the reading assessment to see where each students level of fluency and comprehension. Remember to have your child read every night to an adult. Then record their time on the planner calendar. This does count towards their reading grade. I check the planners every Monday morning to grade their weekly reading.

What is a sentence? This is what we started working on in Language. We also started our first story. Hopefully we can get many published stories from this group. Next we will be working on nouns.

We’ve been working on place values up to ten thousand in Math. They really need to know this concept because they will need it for addition, subtraction, adding and subtracting money, multiplication and division. Please remember to keep practicing their math facts. Every Friday we do a two minutes timed test on math facts. They are trying to improve their score each week.

In Social Studies and Science we haven’t done a lot yet, just introduction and getting to know the book. The kids voted that they would like to study about minerals and rocks. Anyone out there have rocks or minerals to share with my classroom?

The 3rd graders will be doing Spanish once a week. They watch a ½ hour video and then a worksheet. I know many parents don’t know Spanish, so I have given the kids a translation sheet with English and Spanish words on it for each lesson.

If you have not registered for Engrade please do so. If you lost your password number, call me and I will send another one home. This is a grading program I am using in 3rd grade.
Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing all the smiley faces back on Monday.

Hugo Pizza sale has been extended to Wednesday, March 2nd. Please keep selling until then. This is a great fundraiser for our school.

Is winter almost over? The weather sure feels like it. This is Mrs. Buvala’s 5th week. Time is just flying by. We have done many new things.

In Religion we have been talking about prayers and the different kinds of prayers. Father Gary came and answered questions the students had for him. We had some really good questions for him to answer. One student had a question that Father Gary had to research. He stopped back in later to give them the information he found.

In Reading we finished up the Incredible Stories theme. They are now starting the theme on Animal Habitats. This theme ties nicely into our Science unit focusing on animals. We are currently learning about vertebrates and invertebrates.

We will begin a new Spelling unit on Monday. Remind your third grader to be working on their spelling packet throughout the week that will be due on Friday.

In Language, we have been talking about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
In Math we have skipped ahead and began two digit multiplications. We will later go back and pick up division, but it is important for the students to understand two digit multiplications before moving on to division.

We have been continuing work on our Handwriting. We will begin using our cursive writing in real world situations, such as writing letters and stories in cursive. Many students are excited that they can now write their names in cursive.

In Social Studies we have worked on map, globe, and atlas skills. We have just finished a unit on understanding communities.

Hello! My name is Kathy Buvala. I have been blessed with the opportunity to student teach here at Our Lady of the Lake in Mrs. Punjak’s third grade classroom. These first couples of weeks have flown by. I have learned a great deal and look forward to teaching your wonderful children. My husband and I live in the country. Our oldest son, Josh, is a junior at Ashland High school. Out youngest is Jacob. He is in seventh grade here at OLL. After completing student teaching, I will have a degree in Elementary Education with emphasize in Social Studies and specialized education from Northland College. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your third graders.

OMG (I’m just learning some of this language) – Oh my Gosh!! I can’t believe it, I haven’t blogged since Oct. Someone should have yelled at me. There’s no way I can go back and try to recall all that has happened since then so I’ll start from the most recent events. The trip to Cathedral in Superior was awesome last week. The 3rd graders were really well behaved. Today Mr. Bell sent home pictures of the 3rd graders with Bishop Christensen, Father Gary, and Superintendent Mrs. Schoenfuss.

I appreciate everyone that sent in items for the Outdoor Fun auction basket. Sorry the note went home later than I would have liked to send it home. But I forgot about it until our staff meeting Monday night. Thank you Brenda Rowley for coming up with the idea and the list of items.

Catholic School week is coming up soon, next week. Yeah!! I would really like to see as many of the third graders as possible at all events or at least a few of them. If every 3rd graders comes to Sunday All School Mass I will have a pizza party for them. If they don’t want to participate, that’s ok. I would like to see everyone come to Mass in their new red t-shirts. Even if you attend another church try to come to support the Catholic School on Sunday, Feb. 6th. The KC’s will be hosting a pancake breakfast the day and all the proceeds go to the school. Also there is a bake sale that will be happening that day and the winner of the silent auction baskets will be announced.

Other events going on throughout the week are the DePadua Sock Hop on Saturday, Jan. 29th at 6:30, stuff the Bingo Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 1st, all Alumni are invited to the School Mass on Wed., Feb. 2nd with refreshments after, and then the All School Mass Sunday, Feb. 6th at 10:00.

Other happenings in 3rd grade, you probably heard from your child today. I have a student teacher from Northland College with me for the next 9 weeks, Mrs. Kathy Buvala. I will have her post on the blog soon a little about herself.

I will have a little more time to post on the blog now. I will post more next week about what we are doing in the classroom for the next quarter. I’m really impressed with the students picking up on multiplication. Start practicing the multiplication facts 0 – 5.