Third Grade-September 30th Class

Class is cancelled tonight due to a power outage at the school.  We will meet again next week.

In the meantime, your child still has opportunities to earn reward stickers.   Keep going to Mass and doing extra credit activities online to earn reward stickers.

This week would be the perfect opportunity to make sure your child knows the key words from chapters 1 and 2.  A vocabulary quiz will be popping up very soon!

See you next week!

Kindergarten-September 26th Class

We had a great time in class today.  We colored a picture of St. Michael the Archangel and listened to a story about him from Catholic Children's Treasure Box Series #18.  The story told us about how God made all the angels and it described the battle between the good and bad angels led by St. Michael the Archangel.  The children were told that St. Michael the Archangel's feast day this Wednesday, September 29th.  If you'd like, you can click on the links and find craft ideas and coloring sheets.

We covered chapter 2, God Gives Us Light in our We Believe textbook.  We discussed how God loves us so much that he made the sun and moon to light our world.  We drew pictures in our books to show our favorite ways to enjoy the sun and the moon.  While we colored a worksheet about how God's gifts of the sun and rain create a rainbow, we listened to and sang a song thanking God for the sun and the moon.  In our Project Disciple portion of the class (page 34 in the textbook), we identified the things that give us light.

During circle time we listened to a story entitled "God Made the World" from the Catholic Children's Treasure Box series #19.  We learned that God made the world out of nothing so that we could enjoy it and all the wonderful things he gives us.  Afterwards, we prayed the Sign of the Cross and the Hail Mary together.  Flat Father Stanley chose his first friend of the year to visit.  We look forward to hearing all about his adventure during circle time next week.

We made a Jesus fish craft at the end of the class.  It was a fun little project for everyone.

Homework: Check your child's folder for this week's coloring pages and homework. Our homework is a coloring page that ties into what we learned in our textbook this week.  You will also find two brightly colored prayer cards paper clipped into your child's folder.  Please pray the Sign of the Cross and the Hail Mary with your child each day so he or she can learn these prayers.

This week's homework.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.  I look forward to seeing everyone in class next Sunday.  Our class is truly a delightful bunch of kids.  It is a pleasure to teach them!

Third Grade-September 23rd Class

This week we covered chapter 2, Jesus Teaches Us About God's Love, in our text book.  The faith words for this week are: bible, Kingdom of God, faith, crucified, and Resurrection.  Please see that your child knows these terms.  They are very likely to show up on a pop quiz in the future.

We learned about the second joyful mystery of the rosary, the visitation, this week.  Each student was given a coloring page that represents this mystery.  Ask your child to tell you about it.

Second Joyful Mystery: The Visitation

Students received their reward cards for the class incentive program in class today.  Please see the post from last week to see how your child can earn stickers each week.  Children who came to class this week without the necessary materials (pencil, textbook, and folder) and their homework were very upset that they did not earn a sticker.

Each week the sign out sheet will list the homework assignment for the week.  These assignments are based on the lesson covered in class.  In many cases, it will be a page in the textbook.  The assignments are not difficult and can easily be done in 15 to 20 minutes.

This week's homework assignment is the crossword puzzle page 32.

Note: If you have not turned in the Getting to Know You Survey, please do so next week.

See you all next week!

Kindergarten-September 19th Class

Our first week of class was a lot of fun.  We had a lot of fun learning about each other and learning about God.  We covered the first chapter in our book and learned that God made the world.  We discussed all of the wonderful things God made for us.

Each week during class your child will have a coloring page that is related to the lesson or a story that will be told in class.  This week, we colored a picture of God's name and listened to two stories about God's creation of the world.

During circle time the class met our class mascot, Flat Father Stanley.  Flat Father Stanley likes to go on adventures and starting next week he will go home with someone in the class for one week.  When he is visiting with each family I ask that you take some pictures and write a paragraph or two to tell us about his week.  We will discuss his adventures during circle time.  At the end of the year everyone will get a DVD with the story of his adventures.  Because our class is so small, I anticipate Flat Father Stanley going home with everyone for two one week visits.  His travels will be spread out over the school year.

Each child was sent home with a blue folder and their workbook.  Please make sure your child comes to class each week with his or her folder, workbook and a pencil.  This week your child's folder should have contained the coloring sheet of the week, a welcome letter and a getting to know you survey.  Please fill out the survey and return it to me next week.

During next week's class I will be sending home a copy of the Hail Mary.  Each week during circle time we will be saying this prayer.  Over the next few months we will be working on learning the Hail Mary and becoming familiar with making the sign of the cross before and after we pray.  The best way for your child to learn this prayer is to say it with him or her every day.  In class I will say a line and have the class repeat after me until they are comfortable with saying it on their own.

I look forward to seeing you all next week.  Have a great week!

Third Grade-September 16th Class

We had a great first class together on Wednesday night.  The vast majority of the children came to class ready to learn, and I think most of them enjoyed our first class quite a lot.

We covered chapter one in our text book.  This chapter talked about how God sent his own Son to become one of us.  This week's key words are: Blessed Trinity, Incarnation, prophet, public ministry, repent, disciples, and Apostle.  Make sure your child is familiar with these terms and knows their definitions.  Definitions of all key words can be found in the glossary in the back of your child's text book.  I like to give pop quizzes so tell them to be prepared.

Part of class each week will involve the introduction of a new mystery of the rosary.  Each week your child will come home with a coloring page that represents a different mystery of the rosary.  Before we pray a decade of the rosary meditating on the mystery of the week, I introduce the name of the mystery and give an explanation of mystery.  I ask the children to come home and share what they have learned with their family.  Engage your child and ask him or her which mystery we covered in class and see if they can tell you what it is about.  For the next four classes we will continue to learn about the joyful mysteries of the rosary.

This week's homework assignment is to color in the first joyful mystery coloring page.  The page is about the annunciation.  This particular mystery tied in nicely with the chapter we covered this week, since we talked about the incarnation of our Lord.  Students were asked to color the page and share what they learned about the annunciation with their families.

First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation

I spoke briefly to the class about the incentive program I will be starting at our next class.  When your child earns 20 stickers on his or her reward card he or she will get to pick a prize.  Stickers can be earned several different ways:

• Attend Mass and bring back a copy of the bulletin.
• Come to class prepared with your text book, folder,  a sharpened pencil and homework assignment.
• Complete an activity listed under the Third Grade tab on this webpage. (Limit of one activity for a sticker per week.)
• Score a 90 or above on a pop quiz.
• Learn the Apostle's creed and recite it to me. (Limit one, but student can keep trying once a week until he or she has it.)
• Prove to me that you know the prayers required for second grade (Glory Be, Our Father, Hail Mary, Act of Contrition).  Links to these prayers can be found under the Third Grade tab on this webpage.  I will award one sticker for each prayer.  (Limit one sticker per prayer.)

Next class we will be covering chapter two in our text book and we will learn about the second joyful mystery of the rosary.  If time allows we will either play a bible trivia game or saint search bingo.  Either game will help your child to come to a deeper understanding of our faith.

Please complete and return the Getting to Know You Survey that was stapled to the colorful letter in your child's folder.

I look forward to seeing all of you next week!