Third Grade-October 14th Class

This week we covered chapter 4, The Church Begins, in our text book.  The class learned about the beginnings of the church.  We discussed the Ascension of Jesus and his promise to his Apostles to send the Holy Spirit.  We read a story about Pentecost, the day when disciples received the Holy Spirt.  Since everyone loves a birthday, I pointed out to the class that Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Church.

This week five new key words were introduced.  They are: mission, Ascension, Pentecost, Church, Christians.  Students are responsible for knowing the meanings of these words.  It is important that they understand the meanings of these words because they will appear in their religious ed texts year after year.

Tonight I introduced the fourth joyful myestery of the rosary: The presentation of Jesus at the temple.  Students were given a coloring page representing this mystery and asked to tell their families about it.

Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of Jesus

A sheet of prayers you child is expected to know was sent home tonight.  Three of the prayers your child should already know.  They are the Hail Mary, Our Father and the Glory Be.  If your child does not know these prayers please help him or her to learn them.  We are using them every week in class when we pray a decade of the rosary so it's important that they know them.  This year the students are expected to learn the Apostles' Creed.  Help your child to learn this prayer by having them say it every day.  Once your child has learned this prayer he or she may recite it to me before or after class to earn a sticker for his/her reward card.

Some of you may have noticed that we now have a stop light in the front of the class.  Our first few weeks of class have been filled with a lot of out of turn talking and calling out that has prevented the class from getting to the fun games and activities that I had planned.  Each week everyone will start out on the green light.  Students who break our posted class rules (they're on the front board) will see their clip moved from green to yellow to red.  If your child winds up on the red light you will receive a note telling you why.  Students who make a habit of winding up on red will be referred to the office.    Please remind your son or daughter to make every effort to be considerate of others in class and refrain from talking out of turn.  I'd like our class time to be fun and productive.

This was our first week with the stop light system and I have to say the class was totally different.  We even had enough time to play Saint Search, which is a bingo type of game where the students learn about the saints.

This week's homework: Project Disciple pages 48 and 49.


Have a wonderful weekend!  See you all next week!