Feb. 6-10, 2012

Dear Parents,

Please ask your family to pray for Ellie's Erich's mother who is in the hospital for an extended stay.  She is scheduled for surgery for ulcerative colitis, but is in the hospital to build up her strength.  Let's storm the heavens for this family.

This week Timon Sweere is our Shining Star and we will celebrate Eric Avyazian's birthday on Monday.   We will have our Valentine's party on Tues., Feb. 14.  The students brought home a class list on Thursday to use for their cards.  They were told that, if they choose to pass out valentines (most 3rd graders do) they must include everyone in the class.

Lessons for the week:

RELIGION - Continue with our parish and then move on to vocations

MATH - ALL of the multiplication facts 0-9 have been introduced and need to be memorized. Our weekly speed drill on Thursday will cover factors of 0-7 and will be for 5 minutes.  Most of the students are doing great with these.  We will continue to work with these facts this week and also explore multiplying with 3 factors - 2x4x4=.

READING - "Big Blue Whale" is our nonfiction selection.  Skills covered will be forming generalizations, using a graph, author's purpose and point of view, and similes and metaphors.

GRAMMAR - Irregular verbs such as do/did/done, see/saw/seen, come/came/come, go/went/gone,

SPELLING - compound words - everything, sometimes, outside, someone, anything, without, sidewalk, afternoon, playground, newspaper, notebook, basketball, barnyard, cardboard, fingernails  challenge words - adult, calm, feast, mammal, swallow

SOCIAL STUDIES - Your student will be bringing home a paper on Monday explaining our next long term project which involves the study of one of our presidents.  Please look for this important information. 

In class we will then go on to look at the many inventions that  shaped our communities, such as the skyscraper.

HEALTH - We conclude our study of nutrition and then move on to the correct use of medicines.  We then look at the effects of alcohol and tobacco and discuss how to say "NO" to these and other drugs.

Enjoy the Super Bowl today - I'm sure most of the children will be involved in some way at least in the commercials.  As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me or leave a message on my phone at school.

Sincerely,

Patricia M. Kretz

ATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK - Jan. 30 - Feb. 3, 2012

Please check the schedule sent from the office with all of the special dates, times, and activities for this week.  Lunch times have been adjusted, so please be sure to check that schedule.  If you are coming for lunch on Monday, perhaps you can "adopt" a 3rd grader for lunch whose parents are not able to make it.

Matthew Noble is our Shining Star for this special week.  Mass will be on Thursday, due to Science Fair on Tuesday, and Scholastic book orders are due on Friday.

Please see the note that was sent on Thursday about our special project with the morning kindegarten class.  We will be able to use as many stuffed animals as you can send in.

Overview of lessons for the week:

RELIGION - Our parish is a community of believers who worship and work together.  We will look at the different ministries in our parish and their activities.

MATH - Speed drill on Thursday with factors of 0-5 for 5 minutes.  We will explore the facts with factors of 4, 6, 7, and 8 this week.  PLEASE help your child to memorize these as they are introduced.

READING - "Cactus Hotel" is our selection this week with skills of cause/effect, sequence of events.  Our monthly Read-In will be on Friday.

GRAMMAR - Helping verbs - have, has, had, is, are, am, was, were, will

SPELLING - Words with/o/ and /u/ - tall, always, song, across, often, cause, saucer, bought, fought, cookie, footprint, pulls, sugar, woman, wolf  challenge words - discovered, insects, remains, tough, treat

SOCIAL STUDIES - If you are in the building, be sure to check out our 3rd grade "March of the Penguins" in our hall.  This week we will research the different explorers who traveled to this frigid continent and add them to a timeline.  We will then look at the research stations that play a major role in this continent.  This will conclude our study of Antarctica.

HEALTH - Nutrition is our focus this week.  We will look at the food pyramid and the food groups.  The children will be keeping a log of their food intake, both at home and at school.

St. Luke, pray for us.

Blessings,

Patricia M. Kretz

January 26, 2012

Our third grade class will be completing a service project with the morning kindegarten class on Wednesday, Feb. 1st.  We are collecting new or gently used stuffed animals to be given to the Memory Unit at Trinity Nursing Home.  We will be adding "adornments" to them to help celebrate Valentine's Day.  This is in keeping with our theme for Catholic Schools Week of "Faith, Academics, Service".  If you are able to send in gently used stuffed animals, please make sure they are laundered first to protect the health of the nursing home patients.

I will be shopping at Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics over the weekend for the supplies for this project.  If anyone has coupons from either of these stores that you are not using, PLEASE send them to school tomorrow, Friday.  This will certainly help with the purchase of these items.  I will return any unused coupons, if you wish.

Thank you and God bless,

Patricia M. Kretz

January 23-27, 2012

It's hard to believe that this school year is half over.  Our final Shining Star for the first semester was Mitchell Blandino and Sarah Ruetschle is the first Shining Star of the second semester.

Report cards will be sent home on Friday, Jan. 27th.  COSI on Wheels will be coming to St. Luke School on Thursday, March 8th.  This is a program for K-6th grades and the theme this year is "Wild in Ohio".  Many volunteers are needed for this program, so if you are able to help out, please let me know.  Volunteer training is given that morning.  This is also a great opportunity for grandparents to spend time with our St. Luke family helping the students.

Outline for the week:

RELIGION: The students wrote and illustrated types of prayer this week.  They will then learn about the "Liturgy of the Hours" and pilgrimages.  We will then explore our parish as their home.

MATH - Chapter 5 test will be on Wednesday.  This covers multiplication facts with the factors of 0,1,2,5, and 9.  Text books were brought home on Friday so you can look over the material that will be covered.  We will have our first multiplication speed drill on Thursday covering facts with factors of 0-5.

READING - "In My Family" is the selection for the week.  This is the story of a Mexican-American author who shares her family's traditions.  This story is also written in Spanish, so it gives our students a great opportunity to use the Spanish they have been learning.  Skills covered are author's purpose and point of view, using a diagram, sequence of ideas, and similies.

GRAMMAR - Linking verbs - using the verb "be" in present tense and past tense.  I "am" in the band.  My brother and sister "were" are school.

SPELLING - words that end with ch, tch, sh, th :  teach, coach, peach, approach, fetch, sketch, itch, stitch, splash, finish, crash, squash, tooth, fourth, underneath  challenge words: comforting, designed, dozens, encouraging, relatives

Spelling sentences are due on Wednesday.  I use the children's sentences for our test on Friday.

HEALTH - We will conclude our study of the digestive system this week.  On Thursday and Friday they will be given a test to see how much they understand about the organs of the digestive system and the steps to digestion.

SOCIAL STUDIES - On Friday, the groups published a paragraph about their particular penguin in the computer lab.  This week they wil be designing a life size replica of their penguin.  This teamwork has been very interesting to observe.

We have no texts for the Health and Social Studies units.  The lessons are all covered in class from different resources that I have.  Our smart board has been out of commission as Mr. Morter replaces my projector.  Hopefully it will be up and running some time next week.

Catholic Schools Week is the week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 3rd.  Information about special activities for that week will be coming from the office soon.

Stay warm this weekend.  God bless your families.

Mrs. Patricia Kretz