Week of March 9-13, 2009

Friday 3/13/09

• Math 3: Today we took a test.
• Language Arts 3: We took spelling tests and then worked on pen pal letters.
• Language Arts 4: We took spelling tests and then worked on our Horse timelines.
• Science 3/4: We played a game of Jeopardy to review our unit on the nervous system and then took the chapter test.
• Religion 3/4: We watched the first few chapters of the book of Matthew to go along with what we've been studying lately, regarding the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist. Homework: Try to use this weekend to catch up on memory work!
• Art 3/4: WELL....we were going to have art but instead Miss Bertschi's family surprised us with a visit from Ohio and brought Spider-Man cupcakes for everyone, for her birthday. If your child has a blue tongue, thank Mr. and Mrs. Bertschi. :) Have a great weekend!

Thursday 3/12/09

• Math 3: We used yesterday's strategies for finding a missing addend for a sum of 100 to learn how to make and count back change for $1.00 using the least amount of coins possible. It was kind of a tricky concept so if you get a chance, try to work on counting back change with your child at home. We learned that we count back the smallest coins first. For example if we spent $0.76, we would count back 4 pennies and then 2 dimes. Homework: Finish 102 A/B and do oral facts 102.
• Language Arts 3: This morning we reviewed capitalization of proper nouns as well as the difference between proper and common nouns. We read a fun poem called "Raccoon" and used it in our cursive practice as we re-wrote the poem.
• Language Arts 4: We used notes we had taken from previous stories in our Technology literature unit to create a timeline showing the use of the horse as technology advanced.
• Religion 3/4:
• Social Studies 3/4: Primary and secondary sources were the topic of today's discussion and we examined a census from the year 1800. We will look more at it next week because we ran out of time in class today.
• PE 3/4: Volleyball with Mr. Bretscher.

Wednesday 3/11/09

• Math 3: Third graders learned how to find a missing addend for a sum of 100. There are several strategies for solving this type of problem, ranging from rounding the number to the nearest ten, to drawing a picture of base ten blocks, to simply subtracting the number from one hundred. Some finished the sheets in class, others didn't. Homework: 101 A/B.
• Language Arts 3: Today's story was called "City Superheroes," which told us about raccoons, rats, and other city dwelling animals. Homework: Spelling sentences!
• Language Arts 4: Fourth graders worked with identifying and writing topic sentences and supporting details. They also read "The Messenger," about the development of communication. Homework: Spelling sentences, and finish the Topic Sentence worksheet.
• Science 3/4: We spent most of the afternoon working on the conclusion of our science unit on the nervous system. It was interesting to discover that the human brain is very different from animal brains, but also has some similarities. However, animals cannot think on the same level as humans. We did several brain teasers and activities that required us reason and use logic, which showed us how smart we really are! There is no way our dogs could have solved the puzzles we did today. Finally, we completed the chapter review in class together. On Friday we will play Nervous System Jeopardy, take the chapter test, and discuss the projects we will be working on next week...details to come.

Tuesday 3/10/09

• Math 3: Today we learned multiples of 4! It sounded scary at first but we were surprised to find that we only learned three new facts: 6x4, 8x4, and 9x4. All the rest we've already learned when we studied multiples of 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 11! Cool! We also worked with parallel lines/line segments and the properties of quadrilaterals. Some finished their worksheets in class, others did not. Homework: 100 A and B.
• Language Arts 3: We read "Make Way for Ducklings," a fun story about a family of Mallard ducks who take up residence in the city of Boston! After taking a quiz about the story we worked more on our pen pal letters. We are trying to use our knowledge of topic sentences to write more cohesive paragraphs in our letters. Homework: Spelling words 3x.
• Language Arts 4: Fourth graders worked on using colons and semi-colons in writing, and continued to work on pen pal letters. Homework: Spelling words 3x.
• Religion 3/4: Our lesson was on Jesus' birth and we sang Christmas carols! We also worked on memory work and some students still need to catch up. Today's lessson was pages 152-153, see planner for individual assignments.
• Social Studies 3/4: We worked with a primary source today and used a map of the Indiana Territory to help George Rogers Clark decide where to go to gather troops!
• PE 3/4: Volleyball with Mr. Bretscher!

Monday 3/9/09

• Math 3: Today we used our new knowledge of mixed numbers to measure line segments to the nearest quarter inch. Because this is such a complex concept (measuring, fractions, etc.) it took up most of the morning but some did manage to finish their A paper in class. Homework: Finish 99A/B and complete oral facts 99. A homework pass may be used on one PAGE if desired.
• Language Arts 3: After taking our spelling pre-test we discussed topic sentences and the qualities of a good paragraph. We wrote topic sentences given a list of examples or details, and then we came up with our own topic sentence relating to school. We wrote sentences like, "I play at recess." or "I learned a lot in science." After coming up with the topic sentence, they then needed to write a short paragraph going into detail about their topic sentence. So if the topic sentence was "I play at recess," the paragraph needs to give examples of how you play at recess. Homework: Spelling words in ABC order, and finish the "topic sentence" paragraph. **a paragraph should have 3-5 sentences.
• Language Arts 4: Fourth graders took their spelling pretest and then read an excerpt from the novel "Black Beauty." It was interesting to read a story from the perspective of the horse, not a human. We took a comprehension quiz on the story and then worked on pen pal letters, which we will be finishing up this week. Homework: Spelling words in ABC order.
• Religion 3/4:
• Science 3/4: We learned about the autonomic nervous system today through several experiments. It was cool to watch our partner's pupils change size depending on whether the lights were on or off, and we also recorded our resting heart rates and breathing rates. The autonomic nervous system controls these types of involuntary movements, which are different than movements that we must learn, such as walking or talking.
• Music 3/4: We continue to work on recorders and are trying to learn the notes necessary to play the song "The Lamb" from our songbooks. Students have been given a fingering sheet with the notes highlighted, and the song can be found on page 229 of our chapel songbooks if you wish to practice at home.