1/30/25

 Burg's Buzz

nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

1/30/25

Reading/Language Arts

For part of this week, the third grade students have been working on writing a persuasive letter. Students were asked to write a letter to a new student in class persuading him or her to be friends with them.

Beginning today, the class will start Lesson 3 in Module 5. There will be a spelling pretest and missed words to write that will be due on Friday.

Math

The third grade class continues to work on understanding fractions. Students worked on making equivalent fractions. Students have been using fraction tiles to make comparisons between fractions.

Science

The third grade class is learning about weather. Students have learned about types of weather, how it is measured, and about reading weather maps.

Reading Incentive Program

The January calendars are due back to school on Monday, February, 3rd. A February calendar has been included in the take home folder.

Fill Me With Love Activity

In your child's take home is an activity that you and your child can complete together. There is a pink heart. Inside that heart, fill it with things that you love about your child and things your child loves. You can draw pictures, use stickers, print things off the Internet, use photographs, or anything you can think of to use. Please cut out the heart and return it back to school by Friday, February 7th. The hearts will be displayed in the hallway.

Super Bowl Party

The third grade class will have a Super Bowl party on Friday, February 7th. If students have either a Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles gear, they are more than welcome to wear it. If your child has no team merch, then students are encouraged to wear green if cheering for the Eagles and red for the Chiefs.

Valentine's Day Party

The third grade class will have a Valentine's Day party during the afternoon Friday, February 14th. Students may bring valentines for their classmates. If your student is bringing valentines, please make sure one is brought for each child in the class. A class list has been included in the take home folder.

Silent Auction Item

Monetary donations are still needed for the silent auction item for the St. Malachy Foundation Gala (growth chart with each student's height identified). Donations can be sent to school with your child, or you may Venmo Lindsay Ide or Shelby Bishop.

The Gala is scheduled for Saturday, March 1st at The Legacy Venue.

Important Dates

Friday, January 31st-Dress to Impress Day

Friday, January 31st-Mass 1:30 PM Holy Spirit Church

Thursday, February 6th-Mrs. Burg Absent from School

Friday, February 7th-Super Bowl Class Party

Friday, February 14th-Spirit Day $1

Friday, February 14th-Valentine's Day Party

Monday, February 17th-No School (Teacher PD)

1/23/25

 Burg's Buzz
nburg@crestonstmalachy.org
1/23/25

Science

The next topic that the class is covering is weather. The students have discussed the different types of weather

Math

The third grade class will be testing over the topic of fractions on Friday, January 24th.

Reading/Language Arts

In third grade this week, the class is reading the realistic fiction story Running Rivals by Jake Maddox. The story is a rivalry between two runners who both end up getting advice from each other. The comprehension skills covered monitoring and clarifying, literary elements, and author's purpose. Students also worked on homophones as the decoding skill. The grammar skill focused on pronoun/verb agreement. The vocabulary skill covered the Greek root bio- and the Latin root vid.

The class has completed learning all of the lowercase cursive letters.

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week starts on Sunday, January 26th with mass at Holy Spirit Church beginning at 9 AM. On Monday, January 27th, the students will need to bring a sack lunch (milk provided). The dress up day is St. Malachy gear. The dress up day for Tuesday, January 28th is Polar Paradise. Students need to dress in winter gear such as stocking hats, scarves, boots, etc. Another idea would be wearing white or something with a snowman on it.  Students will be getting together with their Advent Angels to make snowmen. On Wednesday, January 29th, students will meet with their Advent Angels to make thank you cards to retired priests and nuns. The dress up for this day is Disney. On Thursday, January 30th, the students will be going on a field trip to Feldhackers Fun Center to go bowling. The bus will leave STM at 8:45 AM and return back to school by 11:00 AM. Students are asked to wear grippy socks. The dress up day is Decades. The students are asked to pick a decade and wear the clothes associated with it (examples include 50s-poodle skirts or white t-shirt, cuffed jeans and a leather jacket or 80s-neon colors, leg warmers, windbreaker jackets). Friday, January 31st, is the Grandparents/Special Guest Mass. Students will need to be picked up at the school beginning at 1:00 PM by their mass guest. Mass begins at 1:30 PM. Students can then leave with their mass once mass has ended. If your child needs to ride the bus or trolley, please notify the school. The dress up day is Dress to Impress (mass attire).

In the take home folder, there is a form to fill out about who will be attending the mass with your child. Please make sure the form gets filled out and returned back to school.

Important Dates

Friday, January 24th-Spirit Day $1

Monday, January 27th-Students need a sack lunch

Friday, February 14th-Valentine's Day Party in the PM

1/16/25

 Burg's Buzz

nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

1/16/25

Science

The third grade students will have a test over living things and their environment on Thursday, January 16th.

The next topic the third grade class will cover is weather.

Math

The class continues to learn about fractions. Students have been using a number line to represent fractions both less than one and greater than one.

Also, students have been doing some measurement using inches. Students have been measuring length to the nearest inch, 1/2 inch, and 1/4 inch. This is also another way to practice fractions. 

When the students arrive in the classroom in the morning, I have been using that time to review math skills such as subtraction with regrouping, fractions, telling time,   By doing this, I can see if there are any topics I need to spend time reteaching, or if I can pull a small group of students together and go over the concept. At this point, I am not having the students do corrections. Several of the pages that the students have completed are in the take home folder. If a students has missed most of the problems, I will going over the topic at some point before the end of the year.

Reading/Language Arts

The third grade class has started Module 5. This module will focus on teamwork. This week the class is reading The Soccer Shootout by Jake Maddox. After winning the state soccer tournament the previous year, Berk has to compete with Ryan, a new player, for the position of goalkeeper. When the coach thinks that Ryan should be the goalie, and Berk should move to the sweeper position, reluctantly Berk switches positions, but decides he won't help Ryan out and be a good teammate. When the coach offers to put Berk back at the goalkeeper, he decides to better teammate to Ryan to help him improve his skills. The comprehension skills covered literary elements, theme, and author's craft. Students worked on subject-verb tense as the grammar skill. The decoding skill focused on the sound of /oi/ and /oy/. The class covered the suffixes of -er/-est/-or as the vocabulary strategy.

The results of the Module 4 assessments have been included in the take home folder.

Mass

The 3rd grade class will be leading the mass on Wednesday, January 22nd. Your child's part has been included in the take home folder. If your child has a speaking part, please practice it with them at home.

Ben Tracy Presentation

The St. Malachy PTO is sponsoring presenter, Ben Tracy, of Safe Social Network. Ben will discuss digital citizenship, online safety, and responsible social media for families. The event is free to the public, and will take place on Wednesday, January 22nd at the SWCC Performing Arts Theater.

Permission Slip

During Catholic School Week this year, students will get to go bowling at Feldhacker's Family Fun Center. Students in grades kindergarten through third grade will go on Thursday, January 30th from 8:45 AM-11:00 AM. The cost of the field trip is $6.00. Please return both the permission slip and the fee back to school by next Friday. 

Important Dates

Wednesday, January 22nd-3rd Grade Leads the Mass

Wednesday, January 22nd-Ben Tracy Presentation 6PM

Friday, January 24th-Spirit Day $1

Sunday, January 26th-Friday, January 31st-Catholic Schools Week

1/9/25

 Burg's Buzz
1/9/25
nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

Reading/Language Arts

This week the third graders read the play "Two Bear Cubs" by Robert D. San Souci. The play is based upon a Native American myth. In this drama, two bear cubs do not follow the advice their mother gives them about not going downriver. When the cubs come up missing, Mother Grizzly is terribly worried and asks the rest of the forest animals for help in finding them. An unlikely animal proves to be the hero in rescuing the bear cubs. The comprehension skills included discussing elements of drama, literary elements, and theme. Students also learned about the  Latin roots aud- and vis- as the vocabulary skills. The grammar skill focused on using quotation marks. The decoding skill covered words with vowel sounds of au, aw, al, and o.

Science

The class continues to learn about plant and animal adaptations. Students read about how an organism needs to react to its environment in order to survive. Students also looked at the cause and effect relationship between human activity on plants' and animals' environments.

Math

The third grade class has returned to school by working on fractions.  To introduce the topic, students used Hershey chocolate bars to familiarize them with vocabulary terms such as numerator, denominator, halves, thirds, fourths, equal parts, and unit fraction. Students have worked on partitioning regions and finding the whole when given a unit fraction. 

Please continue to have your child practice the multiplication and division facts at home. We will continue to review those basic facts here at school, but any additional practice your child will be greatly beneficial.

Hearts Around the World

The third grade class is participating in Hearts Around the World. The goal is to get a valentine card from each of the fifty states and possibly other countries throughout the world. Please share the school address with all of your family and friends. We will have a map to keep track of all of the locations that we receive valentines from. There is also a note in your child's take home folder about this project.

December Reading Incentive Program Results

For the month of December, ten students met the reading goal of at least 400 total minutes read. The class read for a total of 7, 186 minutes in all. Maddox received the award for the most minutes read in the month.

The goal for January, February, and March increases to 500 total minutes.n

Music Class

There is a note in the take home folder from Mrs. Warner. The note is about purchasing a recorder. If you already have a recorder from a previous child, your third grade can use it. Just have him/her bring to school.

Items Needed

The third grade class is in need of more paper towels and Kleenex. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

 FAST Testing

The winter screening for FAST Testing will begin on Monday, January 13th. Students will take two reading and two math assessments.

St. Malachy Foundation Gala

Each year the STM Foundation hosts their annual gala. This is a fundraiser that directly benefits St. Malachy School. This year the event is planned for Saturday, March 1st.

The STM Foundation has decided to change up the baskets. In the past, each grade or grade band (3rd, 4th, and 5th) donated a basket for the live auction. This year it has been decided to have one whole school basket instead. Each student at STM is asked to donate $1.00 towards the basket. Please have your child bring a dollar to school by January 31st.

Each class will also be responsible for a silent auction project as well. More information will be sent out about this at a later date.

Important Dates

Friday, January 10th-Spirit Day $1

Wednesday, January 15th-PTO Meeting

Wednesday, January 22nd-3rd Grade Leads the Mass

Wednesday, January 22nd-Ben Tracy Presentation-6PM

Friday, January 24th-Spirit Day $1

Sunday, January 26th-Friday, January 31st-Catholic Schools Week