3rd and 4th Grade Class Page

  Updated Friday evening, November 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM  (Last Up-date until after Thanksgiving)   Hope you have a bountiful, blessed Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Tests and Quizzes:

****** 3rd and 4th graders have a Math Test on MONDAY.

  *****Spelling Test - List 17- is this Tuesday.

#########There will be a Language Test in the first week of December - for 3rd and 4th graders - on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Upcoming Events

Field Trip : A field trip form will be coming home next week concerning our Christmas "Blessing"  Trip.  It is scheduled for most of the day on Friday, December 12th.   Mark your calendar

Class Notes :

On Tuesday of this week we are having a guest speaker in our classroom .   Mrs. Imelda Goedecke is very knowlegeable of the history of the Pilgrims and the geographical area around Plymouth, Massachussetts. She is going to share with our boys and girls about the first Thanksgiving experience. Hopefully,  it will bring the events of those days to life!

A.C.S.I. State Poetry/ Speech Meet Competition was November 14, 2008  -  Congratulations to all of our  Winners!!!!  I am very proud of you for all the effort you put into your poem, fable, or scripture.

A BIG Thank You  to everyone who helped, donated, and bought a meal at our Navajo Taco Fund Raiser Dinner.  The children raised over $600  after expenses!   Just the first $100 of this allowed our classes to purchase a goat and a brood of chickens for an impoverished third world country family.  Those animals will provide food and income for years to come as well as a missionary opportunity to witness about Jesus that could change the whole family's eternal destiny.  The rest of the money will be used to do some Christmas blessing to one or more local families. We are going through some of the local churches for recommendations of a very needy family.  We are also going to work at the Love Kitchen.

Don't forget for fourth grade there are still  two book reports due each month.  The book report due on the first school day closest to the 15th of  month is a Non-Fiction and the one due on the closest school day to the 30th of the month is a Fiction book report. Third graders are doing only one and it is due on the 15th of the month.  In January your child is going to be asked to do a monologue or a dramatization of a book character.  Your child will need to find a book about a character, either fiction or non-fiction that can be characterized or monologed ( make a verbal speech pretending you are that character and tell us about an adventure you had in the book.) for about 3-5 minutes. You might want to start thinking about that assignment and get the book and plan ahead.  Help your child choose age appropriate books for their reports. For the fiction reports the third graders are usually able to read early chapter books at this point. Some advanced "picture books" might also be acceptable.  Fourth graders are well into regular sized chapter books and series sets. Think about how many pages are in the book.  For 3rd graders 30 - 100 pages are common for 4th graders 50 - 150 pages are common, for fiction book.

In Handwriting for third graders, I am grading differently.  You will see E for Excellent, G for Good, S for Satisfactory, N for Need Improvement.  Since third graders are just beginning to learn cursive, grades will be based on your child's effort and attempt to do the work.  The 3rd graders handwriting book will not come home to be done as homework, I will require all missed work to be done during their recess time.  You will be given opportunities to see your child's work but thr responsibility is theirs.  Fourth graders, your handwriting is staying the same, nothing has changed!!!

In Bible we are memorizing I Corinthians 13: 1-13 This week there will be no test and we are on verse 8.  I am so proud of our classes. Scripture memory skills! Our class has been doing quite well on memorizing their verses.  Come to Chapel on Thursday morning and cheer them on! This quarter we are also memorizing the books of the NEW TESTAMENT.  This past week we did verse one of our scripture and the first four books of the New Testament. This week the students will be tested on verse one - three   and the first twelve books of the N.T.  I give a grade for Bible books and the  scripture memory, but I also expect them to copy the verses neatly, with correct spelling,  in their Bible Flip Chart. A few of our students are having trouble  remembering to bring their Bible Flip Chart to class. Look in their flip chart and you will see a grade that shows how well they quoted our verses for that week. If there is no grade on a Bible verse card, next my initials, and the date, that is an indicator that they did not quote the verse that week or left their flip chart at home. You will notice that  I underline words that are misspelled. Each of those  misspells knocks a point off their grade for the week. Our goal is to have this whole passage memorized by the end of the marking period.

Please work with your child on Math facts:  Our class is working with memorizing their math facts by practicing with flash cards and taking timed facts drills almost every day. Every child needs a HOME SET of  FLASH CARDS for addition, subtraction (for all grades) and  multiplication ( up to the 3's and the soon the sevens for third grade)and division Go over speedy recognition of the facts on a daily basis,  Please! ***Want to try a fun way to practice facts???? Take a standard deck of playing cards, pull out the jokers, rename the Jack as a 10, the Queen as an 11, and the King as a 12.  Lay the cards face down shuffled in a center pile. Take turns with your child , taking one card from the top of the pile, very quickly turn your cards over at the same time.  The first player who can add (subtract or multiply) the two face up cards gets the set.  The one with the most cards wins!

Opportunities to get your S.A.L.T. hours:   **** Several of you have said you were willing to take books home for grading. My goal is to get our student's workbooks back to them graded within  two days or less of when the work is assigned.  The trick is that most of these books are needed back in the class the next morning for more assigned work. So I will try to send home only enough books that can be graded and returned in one day. You will not have to put scores on the books.  Just check them against the teacher's key.   **** If you can still do this kind of grading, come refresh my memory. There are other ways to help. Thanks to Mrs. Miller for helping with an exciting Science project we are planning.  Let me know if you still want to earn S.A.L.T. hours. Talk to me!

This quarter we are working on instilling character traits in our children that encourage really putting others first.  We will encourage students to be a real friend to other students, spontaneously, selflessly looking for ways to serve others by awarding a "Lion's Award" to the student in each class that best demonstrates that, at the end of the quarter .   One "issue" that we are trying to root out of them is the problem with TATTLING! I will be taking bones away for unnecessary reporting of every little word and action they observe in other children.

Thank you for encouraging excellence in your child.  Let's keep the communication open. An especial big THANK YOU to the parents who are helping out with grading and assisting in many ways! Thanks also for parents who have contributed supplies to special events and activities. We have "END OF THE MONTH STORE " coming up at the end of the the semester.  Several parents have already contributed toys and prizes to that, thanks!  We still need some little items, school supplies, toys, craft projects, candy, etc. that cost between $.25 - $.99 (YES! just cents!) I ordered a lot of goodies from "Oriental Traders". That is one way to get a lot for a little.  This "classroom store" allows our students to redeem the "bones" they have earned for good behavior.   Parents, you are such a blessing and you really help the flow of education for our children! Keep on praying for our students and class everyday.  It is the Lord that makes this whole thing possible!

Teaching4Him,

Mrs. Barbara Murphy

Contact me at: bmurphy@mcsaz.org or at my home email bjmurphy4850@hotmail.com