3/21-3/25

Using prisms to see how light bends

Looking Ahead to Next Week:
Memory: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”    

Hebrews 13:5

Spelling: ange/ash:

exchange, orange, change, strange, arranged, flashing, trash, smashed, bashful, cashew

Grammar/Phonics: Quotations Review, Onomatopoeia

Reading: Sequencing

Math: Test Friday

Science: Ch. 12 LS 4 Electricity

Writing: 5 paragraphs about Easter Break

Important News and Information:
-Easter Break will begin on Friday, March 25th. School resumes on Monday, April 4th. Enjoy your long breaks!
-Wednesday, April 13 is a half day. We will dismiss at noon for a teacher inservice. If you would like your child to go to after care that day, please return the form (sent in homework folders on Thursday) to the school office as soon as possible. 
-Classroom Wishlist: We are in desperate need of dry erase markers!  We also need brown grocery bags for an art project in April, if you have any laying around, I will gladly take them off your hands:)
-The 2016 auction item for Miss Beach's class will be a book made by the students and published with Student Treasures, which is the company the school is used in the past. The school as a whole is not doing these books this year, and us room moms have decided that we have enjoyed these books tremendously in the past, and wanted to catch this opportunity. Each student will contribute a written page and accompanying drawing into the classroom book that will be based on this year's theme verse. This will be done in school, so no worries about working on it at home. The only thing we ask is to consider purchasing one of these books, which will be $25.00. They are normally $19.95, but we'll charge an additional $5 to make it the fundraiser to go towards the Zion PTL's auction fund. There will be a form that will be coming out in a couple of weeks that will formalize the purchase of the book, but for now we just wanted to give you a heads up on our upcoming auction project. To clarify we will not have a classroom item to bid on at the actual auction, but instead by purchasing this book, we are giving each parent an opportunity to come away with a momentum from this year's class!  These books take awhile to go through the production part. So we will order them in a couple of weeks and get them at the end of the year. Please ask the room moms:  Kristen Gross, Rhonda Coplin, Darla Hollowood and Robin Collins if you have any questions about this project.
-There are several church services at Zion this weekend to celebrate Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil. I pray that your family may find time to worship our Savior this joyful Easter weekend, whether it be at Zion, at another church, or through prayer at home. 

3/14-3/18

Enjoying the beautiful weather after Achievement Tests

We painted Easter eggs inspired by the intricate patterns of traditional Russian Easter eggs

Miss Kirby's classroom had baby chicks that we visited!

Paper airplanes with Ms. Buerges's 5th grade class

Read and Relax Friday was well deserved

Kelly McCoy from First Community Credit Union came by and talked to us about the importance of saving. If you stop by one of their banking locations and open a savings account for your child, they will earn a free dollar. First community also pays a dollar for each "A" earned on a report card!

Our Reader's Theater presentation of, "Tacky the Penguin!"

Looking Ahead to Next Week:
Memory: The Tenth Commandment- You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Spelling: obe/atch:

globe, robes, earlobe, latched, matching, latch, patch, catcher, ratchet, scratch

Grammar/Phonics: Review of commas

Reading: Stories of Courage

Math: Written Test, 25 subtraction facts test (2 1/2 minute timed test), and 70 subtraction facts test (5 minute timed test) will be on Wednesday

Science:  Chapter 12 Lesson 3 Light. We will not have a written test for this lesson. 

Writing: Stories of Courage

Important News and Information:

-We will not have school on Good Friday 3/25. Friday marks the beginning of Easter Break. School will resume Monday, April 4th. 

-The School Musical for grades 1-3 will be on Thursday, April 21st. Please have your child arrive in the church basement at 6:30pm. The musical will begin at 7pm. 

-We have a small wishlist for our classroom: We are in need of dry erase markers  and 20 manilla file folders for our classroom. 
Also, if you do any spring cleaning this weekend and come across magazines you no longer want, our classroom will gladly take them:) We need magazines for a project next week about courage.  

-Some information about Titus Tuesday coming up: Ladies, please join us for a Titus 2'sday evening!  Tuesday, March 29, 6:30-8:30 pm.  Topic:  Women’s Health.  Presented by the Women’s Center of Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Foundation.  Free admission, refreshments and Christian fellowship.  Invite a friend!  Titus 2’sday is a women’s mentoring ministry based on Titus 2:3, which reads: "Teach the older women to…teach what is good.  Then they can train the younger women.”  www.zionharvesterwomensnetwork.org.  For childcare, please contact Sue Bredow at sbredow@hotmail.com before March 22.

3/7-3/11

This coming week is Achievement Test week. 

Often times with testing comes apprehension. We strive to make our testing days as normal as we can, following our regular school schedule. We will attend music, PE and library as usual. I will add extra recess in as needed. There will not be any homework during this week. As a parent, you can help by providing a healthy breakfast and assuring a good night’s sleep. It is important to remember that standardized testing is only one indicator of your child’s ability. Please remind your child to bring a favorite book to read if they finish their tests early.

Our testing schedule breakdown: 

Monday- Word Study (30 min), Reading Vocab (30 min.), Reading Comprehension (50min.)

Tuesday- Math (60 min) and Math (40 min)

Wednesday- Spelling (40 min) and Language (55 min)

Thursday- Environment (40 min) and Listening (40 min)

In the afternoons when we are finished testing, we will be doing various activities that will  include learning of course, just in ways that hopefully get the kids out of their desks a little bit: literacy centers, fun math centers, art projects, and maybe even a reader's theater. There will be no memory or spelling this week. 

On Friday the 18th, 2nd grade is having a special presentation from First Community Credit Union Bank which will teach the kids about banking. Also on Friday, we are having a Read and Relax time in the morning where students may bring in a small stuffed animal or a pillow along with some fun reading material (comics and/or magazines).  They may also bring a snack if they would like to, as long as it is peanut free. This will be a nice treat after a long week of testing.

A science experiment: which will melt faster? An ice cube in the sunlight, or an ice cube passed in our hands?

The one passed around in our hands melted much faster!

We learned about sound in science, so we did a STEM project where the kids got to build their own musical instruments

Showing the Class their instruments

A very interesting instrument design, but it worked great!

Grandparents and Special Friends Day was a lot of fun!

2/29-3/4

This week  we learned about magnets and the kids did a couple of experiments to figure out just what is attracted to magnets, and how magnetic poles attract or repel one another. This week we also read Cinderella stories from around the world. We mapped out each story, and then compared and contrasted each one with another version. On Friday, we chose our favorite version of the story and wrote an opinion paragraph about why that story is the best.

Deciding which classroom items are attracted to magnets

Magnet Lab

Having fun with Magnets

Maps and landforms

Having fun with magnets

Looking Ahead to Next Week:
Memory: The Ninth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

Spelling: oi/ay: boil, foil, coil, point, choice, voice, join, away, display, replay

Grammar and Phonics: Achievement Test Review

Reading: Dr. Seuss

Math: We will have math centers each day working on specific review skills from previous lessons, we will also review a little bit for our Achievement Test 

Science: Chapter 12 Lesson 1 Heat

Writing: We will write our own Cinderella Stories 

Important News and Information:

-2nd Grade sings THIS SATURDAY at the 5pm service. Please meet upstairs in the church around 4:45.

-The Book Fair will be open in the commons Wed.-Fri. of next week. A flyer went home in today's homework folder. We will visit the book fair as a class on Wednesday. If you would like your child to make a purchase, please send money with them in an envelope with their name on it. 

-Grandparents Day is next Friday, 3/11.- Please let you grandparent or special guest know the schedule that was in the invitation.  The students should come to our classroom as usual and grandparents and special guest begin in the church basement. The grandparents and special friend will then come to the classrooms.  We encourage the families to stay together so First -Third grades will have activities set up in the rooms that all may enjoy. If you have more than one child they may all go together.  The students will be dismissed from the church, so if the child's grandparent is not taking him/her home please come into the church to pick up your child.  I would arrive at 11:15. (in case we get done early). PLEASE DO NOT SEND BACKPACKS to school on Friday.  
-Last day for 3rd Quarter AR tests is Thursday 3/10

-A gold flyer was sent home in today's homework folder with information on ordering yearbooks. Any yearbooks must be purchased by next Fri. 3/11. 

-3rd quarter Report Cards will be sent home 3/18. 

-Achievement Test week will be the week of 3/14-3/18. We will spend some time reviewing various grammar and reading skills next week to help get us ready!
-Mark your calendars! Grade 1-3 School Musical will take place on April 21st at 7pm. If you are unable to attend, please let Mrs. Crumrine know.