Hat Days

All St. Michael's students will be allowed to wear hats for the rest of the week in support of Julia Lee. Julia is starting to lose her hair, and will be wearing hats often. In support of her we will allow students to wear appropriate hats for the remainder of the week. We will not wear them to Mass on Thursday. If you have any questions please let me know. Thank you.

I sent an e-mail to all parents who had previously provided e-mails to me. If you have an e-mail address that you use often, please send it to jenny.steele@sendit.nodak.edu   so I can add you to my group e-mail list. Thank you!

Advent Season

Advent season is in full swing here at school. We have been meeting together as a group with 2nd-5th graders each morning for Advent prayer and reflection. We begin our morning with an opening prayer and lighting of the Advent candles. After prayer we have been reading a short daily think, pray, act book. Hopefully your child has been coming home with Advent "homework". Each day the leading teacher has been giving the group and assignment to do at school or at home. Yesterday's homework was to apologize and mean it if needed and admit when you're wrong. Some of the other homework assignments have been listening the first time, unexpected cleaning at home, and prayer. If you get a chance, ask your child what the Advent homework is for the night and try to help them stick to it and get it done.

After the homework assignment, we have been reading from a book called A Stranger for Christmas. I encourage you to ask your child about the book. It is really sending a great message about "I was a stranger, and you let me in." We finish morning prayer with a song called "Bethlehem, Heaven's Gem"

We also started a new specialist class today at school. We now have a technology teacher, Mrs. Effhauser. 3rd grade will be going to the computer lab for technology class every Wednesday at 10. They were very excited to get up there today and it was an awesome first day of class.

The school is also busy preparing for our Christmas program. The program will take place in the church this year, instead of the gym. It will be on Tuesday, December 18th at 6:15. Please drop your child off in the church basement at 6pm. A note was sent home about what the 3rd graders need to wear. They will be wearing pajamas for their portion of the show. Please check the note for specifics in what to and what not to wear. Thanks!

It always seems to be a busy time of year, but in the midst of all the running and planning, don't forget to take time to pray and thank God for the true gift of Christmas.

Building Bridges

This activity was a few weeks ago, but I told the class I would add some pictures to the blog from it. They had a great time!

The first model was a bridge built with stir sticks (tiny straws). They had to build it across a space of 10 inches, and they had to make it wide enough to hold a 9 oz. cup. After they built the bridge, they had to test how many toy dinosaurs it would hold. They made predictions first and then tested it.

After the first bridge fell, they had to construct a 2nd bridge made from craft sticks (popsicle sticks). They all guessed this bridge would hold more, but one group built their straw one so well that it actually held more than their craft sticks. They were very surprised at how well the bridges held. It was a fun activity to reinforce what we had read about the design process.

1. Identify the problem
2. Do research
3. Develop possible solutions
4. Choose one solution
5. Design and construct a prototype
6. Test the prototype
7. Communicate results
8. Evaluate and redesign

Here are some pictures from our experiment.

I think it's safe to say they had a great time. I hope they also took some learning away from it as well!

ND State Testing...

The third graders are doing an awesome job testing this week. We have completed 4 out of 5 language arts tests and 1 out of 3 math tests. We will complete the math tests tomorrow afternoon and the language arts will be in the morning after Mass. 

Thank you for providing your child with as much rest as possible and a healthy snack. They have all been very excited about the snack part of it! 

We are also busy practicing for our Mass this week. We have not had a lot of time for other subjects. They did start a new writing project on Monday and we will be working on grammar practice as well. 

Another note: I was having some computer problems with PowerSchool where I enter in all of our 3rd graders' grades. It would not let me on the program, so I was stock piling all of their graded work. I finally got it back up and running this morning and finished entering in all of the grades. You will see A LOT of papers in your child's folder tonight. 

I hope to see you all at the Harvest Hoe Down! Have a great week! 

Also, if you have not heard Julia Lee (Mrs. Lee's daughter) is having some tests and procedures done at the Children's Amplantz Hospital in Minneapolis. Here is the link to follow her story on CaringBridge. Many prayers are greatly welcomed!!!

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/julialee1        

(if you have never been on a CaringBridge site before, you will be asked to register) 

Conferences and Field Trip

Tomorrow St. Michael's is going to the speaker Rachel's Challenge at the Chester Fritz. We will be leaving the school around 12:30 and we will return before the end of the day. No permission slips were sent home because all families signed a general field trip permission slip at the beginning of the school year. There is no cost for the event. 

I did talk to our class a little bit about Rachel today to prepare them for tomorrow's speaker. Rachel was one of the first killed in the Columbine shooting in Colorado in 1999. Our conversation brought up a lot about bullying and they did want to talk about school shootings that they had heard about on the news or from others. We discussed some of it very briefly, but if you would like to talk to your child a little more, please do. I know they probably still have questions about the topics, and they will have more after tomorrow's speaker. The speaker will focus on paying it forward and creating a culture of kindness, so the message will be more positive than negative. 

Also, conference forms went home on Monday. Please sign it and make a note of your conference time. If you need to reschedule make a note of that on the form, so I can contact you for a different date and time. Thanks so much and if you have any questions or concerns please let me know! 

Donations and Midterms

A big thank you to the families who have already donated items/money for our class Fun(d) Fest Auction Basket. I will be taking donations up until this Friday October 5th.  Please remember it is not required, but you do receive commitment points for your donations to the basket. 


Midterm grades will be coming home in the Friday family file folders. 3rd graders receive letter grades. I will print a page that shows their progress to this point. Please remember it is not a final grade for the trimester. I used last Friday as a cut off date. Anything not turned in by that date will not be included in this update. If you have any questions about your child's grades after you see the midterm grades, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me. 

So far, I have been impressed by how well they get their work done and turned in to me. Keep it up at home. Please be sure to check their folders for past projects and papers. They do not need to stay in the folder once they have been graded. 

October will be a busy month with days off, North Dakota State Testing, Harvest Hoe-Down, Fun(d) Fest and many other extra activities not related to school. I will keep you up to date on here and send any additional information home with a note as well. Happy October! 

Fall Fun(d) Fest

Hi everyone! Just in case the note I sent home today (Friday) does not make it home, here is the exact note again! Please know that it is not required to donate, but all donations are appreciated. Fun(d) Fest brings in a lot of money for our school for supplies and items we may not otherwise be able to purchase. Thank you in advance for your generosity. I do not mind shopping, so please feel free to send a monetary donation if you don't want to brave the stores! You can check the sign up sheet outside the door anytime, and if you have any questions please let me know! 

Fall Fun(d) Fest

Silent Auction Basket

3^rd grade will be putting together a Fall Harvest Basket for the Fun(d) Fest this year. I am looking for donations for our basket. The theme is fall harvest, so anything that has to do with Thanksgiving or the fall season will be great. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated!

Examples: decorative cloth napkins, placemats, napkin rings, harvest decorations, pot holders, seasonal coffee, wine, cookbook, candles, meats, cheeses, Hugo’s gift cards, etc.

If you do not want to do any shopping, but would still like to donate, I will take monetary donations. With these donations, I will purchase any other items not donated that we would like to add to the basket.

I will put a sign up sheet outside my classroom door. If you would like to sign up for a certain item, please do so. You can e-mail me your preference as well at jenny.steele@sendit.nodak.edu, and I will add it to the list. This will help us get a variety of items.

Items and monetary donations can be brought to the classroom on or before October 5^th.

Thank you in advance for your help and generosity!

Mrs. Steele