Week of March 30 - April 3, 2009

Friday 4/3/09

• Math 3: We took a math test today.
• Language Arts 3 and 4: We took spelling test #27, read some library books related to our new literature unit, and had a "show and tell" time to share about our spring breaks.
• Religion 3/4: Again, we used religion time to rehearse for the Easter program, which takes place TUESDAY APRIL 7 at 6:30 p.m. Please make plans to attend and invite family and friends, maybe even someone who has never heard the story of Jesus' death and resurrection before! Homework: All students should have brought their songbooks so that they can finish memorizing the songs for the program. Also, readers should be rehearsing their scripture and be comfortable enough to read expressively.
• Science 3/4: We put together our science journals, observed our beans, and decorated the covers of our journals, which we'll be using to observe the bean plants we're trying to grow. It's only been two days and some are already starting to show signs of sprouting!
• Art 3/4: To go along with our science unit we decorated water bottles that we plan to use at school to replace disposable water bottles! Please hand wash the bottles this weekend and bring them back to school on Monday so that we can put them to good use. The bottles are NOT diswasher safe, neither are the decorations.

Thursday 4/2/09

• Math 3: Today we reviewed our division facts and learned how to multiply single digit numbers by any multiple of 10, 100, or 1,000. Everyone finished 109 A in class. Homework: 109B.
• Language Arts 3: Third graders read a story about Johnny Appleseed and discussed other stories they've heard about the legendary man. They also took a comprehension quiz. Homework: Study for spelling test tomorrow.
• Language Arts 4: Fourth graders worked on identifying important events and their effects while reading an informative piece on the settlement of Jamestown. They also took a comprehension quiz. Homework: Study for spelling test tomorrow.
• Religion 3/4: We used our religion time to rehearse for the Easter program.
• Social Studies 3/4: We finished watching the video from yesterday and discussed how Indiana's growth might have been different (more or less) if the Indians hadn't been pushed out of the area by the pioneer settlers.
• PE 3/4: Flag tag, outside, with Mr. Bretscher! :)

Wednesday 4/1/09

• Miss Bertschi is incredibly sorry for any hurt feelings that resulted from her April Fool's joke...she is NOT engaged, nor is she dating anyone. :(
• Math 3: Today we wrote number sentences for division story problems. The goal is to be able to solve these problems without drawing pictures, and if you study your dividing facts then that won't be difficult to do. Please make it a priority to study multiplication and division facts every night. Homework: 108 A/B.
• Language Arts 3: We worked with our Ananse story from yesterday to identify the steps in a process. Homework: Spelling sentences.
• Language Arts 4: We used our story from yesterday to get more practice with identifying the main idea and supporting details. We organized our thoughts using a graphic organizer. Homework: Spelling sentences.
• Science 3/4: We examined lima beans today and began a slightly long-term experiment. We are comparing the growth of whole lima beans as opposed to halved lima beans. Every few days we'll check for changes and record observations in our Growth Journal.
• Social Studies 3/4: We watched a video on Pioneer Indiana to kick off our next study: The time period of 1800-1851 in which Indiana became a state and began to develop into a thriving place. We also read a Scholastic News about the future of robot technology, the new Yankee Stadium in New York, and a sunken ship that was recently discovered.

Tuesday 3/31/09

• Math 3: This morning we used stones to act out, then draw pictures of division story problems. We then used those pictures to write division number sentences. Finally, we reviewed the three ways (three different symbols) to write a division problem. Homework: 107 A/B.
• Language Arts 3: We began our new literature unit, on Storytelling! The first story was a legend from Africa about how the Anansi stories came to be. Anansi was called the spider man and represents any small, weak person who defeats a seemingly impossible opponent - kind of like David and Goliath! We will take a look at other Anansi stories this week too. Homework: Spelling words 3x.
• Language Arts 4: We began our new literature unit, which is on Colonial America. Our first piece was a historical one called "Early America" and it told how the various people came to America. Homework: Spelling words 3x.
• Religion 3/4: We used religion and most of social studies time rehearsing our easter program.
• Social Studies 3/4: We used our remaining social studies time to learn our music for he easter program. Homework: Songbooks have bookmarks on the songs that students need to memorize this week!
• PE 3/4: Volleyball with Mr. Bretscher!

Monday 3/30/09

• Math 3: We reviewed dividing by 1, 3, and 4. We also spent most of the lesson learning how to add money amounts in the thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands. Then we worked on writing those large numbers in words and practiced writing checks again. Homework: 106 A/B.
• Language Arts 3 and 4: We took spelling pre-test #27 and then spent the rest of our lesson reviewing adjectives and adverbs. This is something that we've already been working on and still get a little confused when trying to remember that adjectives desribe NOUNS and adverbs describe VERBS. Most students finished the packet in class today but those who didn't need to complete is for homework tonight. Also, everyone has ABC order.
• Religion 3/4: We used our religion time this afternoon to begin the blocking for our easter program, which takes place one week and one day from today - that's next Tuesday! Please plan now to attend and invite aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins...anyone who you want to share the story of Jesus Christ with!
• Science 3/4: We are beginning a new unit on botany and will also begin working on a project to help us celebrate Earth Day, which is April 22. We spent our classtime today brainstorming and discussing options for our project that we'd like to involve the whole school in, and we also made a list of ways we can help protect the earth and "go green" at home.
• Music 3/4: This afternoon we worked on the songs that we will be singing during the Easter program next Tuesday. See you there!!