9/25/25

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

Math

Topic 2 will focus on the factors of 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10. This week, students practiced solving problems using the factors of 0, 1, 2, 5, and 9. Any additional practice that can be provided at home using the factors practiced at school will be very beneficial to your child. There are tons of resources offered online for practicing the basic multiplication facts. Walmart and Dollar Tree also sell flashcards.

Science

The class has been learning about types of forces, including friction and gravity.

Reading/Language Arts

Third grade is now working on Module 2. Students will build knowledge about how people use words to express themselves, with a focus on poetry and letters. Students will read texts in which the characters share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings.

This week's story, Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh, is a realistic fiction story about two cousins, one living in Mexico and one living in the United States, who write letters to each other. Throughout the story, the cousins learn about the similarities they share as well as the differences between the two. The reader is also introduced to Spanish words that promote cultural awareness of Mexico. The comprehension skills involved students working on retelling, understanding point of view, and text/graphic features. Students worked with the prefixes of re- and pre- as the vocabulary strategy. The decoding skill focused on words with the long o sound. Students identified common and proper nouns as a grammar skill.

The results of the Module 1 assessments have been included in the take home folder. The selection quiz is five questions over the story that was read throughout the week. The module assessment is a new reading followed by multiple choice questions and one short answer question covering previously learned skills. There is also a short paragraph that students answer multiple questions relating to the grammar skill that was learned during the week.

FAST Testing

The results of the math FAST testing are in the take home folder. The CBMmath Automaticity tests a student's math fact fluency. Beginning in the 3rd grade, the test includes multiplication and division. If your child is below the benchmark score, please remember that the students are just now learning the multiplication facts. Typically, big gains are achieved during the winter screening due to the amount of instruction and learning that will take place over the next few months. The aMath test assesses a broad range of math skills. This is the assessment that is used to determine if a student needs an intervention. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.

Friday, September 26th

Friday, September 26th, Creston High School is celebrating its Homecoming football game. This will be a Spirit Day at St. Malachy School. Pay $1 to wear sweats/hat. Students should come dressed in their Creston Panther gear. School lunch on Friday will be a grape Uncrustable, apple slices, string cheese, a cookie, and milk. School will dismiss 3 hours early due to the parade. Please notify the school of any changes to your child's dismissal plans for the day. STM will have a float in the parade. Parents do need to accompany their child on the float.

Important Dates

Friday, September 25th-Spirit Day $1

Friday, September 25th-3 Hour Early Out

Wednesday, October 1st-1 Hour Early Dismissal

Friday, October 3rd-Spirit Day $1

Monday, October 6th-NO SCHOOL (Teacher Professional Development)

9/18/25

Burg's Buzz

 9/18/25

nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

Math

The third grade class has learned the processes of multiplication and division. The Topic 1 Assessment 1 will be on Friday, September 19th. A practice assessment was completed in class and is coming home in the red folder today. It shows examples of problems that students will be solving. Students do not have to have any of the facts memorized at this time. They just need to know how to use the strategies learned in class to solve the problems.

Science

Students are learning about types of forces. The class has explored the differences between balanced and unbalaced forces.

Reading/Language Arts

This week the third grade students are reading the fantasy story Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt. The students read about another unique character who fears the unknown world beyond his home. The comprehension skills the class is working on include making inferences, identifying text and graphic features, point of view, and theme. The class covered using the suffixes of -ful and -less as the vocabulary skill. The phonics skill focused on the long a (ai, ay, ea) and long e (ea, ee, ie, and e) sounds. The grammar skill was distinguishing between simple and compound sentences. Students were introduced to using coordinating conjunctions, such as "and," "but," "or," and "so," to join two simple sentences and create a compound sentence.

Testing for this story will be on Monday, September 22nd.

Important Dates

Friday, September 19th-Spirit Day $1

Tuesday, September 23rd-Homecoming Pep Rally

Wednesday, September 24th-1 Hour Early Dismissal

Friday, September 26th-Spirit Day $1

Friday, September 26th-3 Hour Early Dismissal (Homecoming)

 

9/11/25

 Burg's Buzz

nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

9/11/25

Reading/Language Arts

This week, the class is reading a story by Megan McDonald, Judy Moody-The Mood Martian. Students learn about another unique character. Comprehension skills covered included monitoring and clarifying, figurative language, and literary elements. Students identified the four types of sentences: statements, questions, commands, and exclamations. The phonics skill focused on long vowel words. As a vocabulary skill, students worked with the prefix non-.

The spelling post test and assessments for this story will be on Friday, September 12th.

Science

The third grade class continues their conversation about force.

Math

This week, the 3rd grade students learned about the process of division. Students practiced dividing a total number of objects into equal groups. They also divided to find out how many equal groups there were when given the number of people in each group. Students practiced the strategy of repeated subtraction to solve division problems.

Green Valley Field Trip

Kindergarten through fourth grade students will visit Green Valley State Park on Monday, September 15th. The bus will be leaving STM around 9:30 AM. Students should make sure they are dressed for the weather. As of right now the expected high on Monday is eighty-six degrees. Students do need to wear tennis shoes. Please no sandals or crocs. Activities planned included a nature hike, gaga ball, using the playground, playing on the beach, using a parachute, and sidewalk chalk. Your child will need to bring a sack lunch with a drink for the field trip. Students may also bring their water bottles if they wish. The bus will return to STM around 2:15 PM.

FAST Testing

Three times throughout the school year, students will be given the statewide math and reading screeners. Students take these assessments on their chromebooks. One of these reading assessments involves students reading aloud to the teacher. Words per minute and accuracy are recorded. This test will be administered on Thursday, September 18th. There will be a substitute in the classroom on this day as I pull students to be tested.

Extra Curricular Activities

One of my goals as a teacher each year is to attend one outside of school event for each student in my class. I enjoy seeing the students participate in activities. Being an empty nester, this is one of the things I miss. I have attended flag football, volleyball games, dance recitals, basketball games, wrestling matches, soccer games, and running races. If your child has an event that he/she would like me to attend, please let me know the date and time. I will see how it fits into my schedule.

Music at Mass

If your child is interested in playing the piano or an instrument at Mass, there is a link to a Google form on the school's website that needs to be filled out. You will be contacted by the school once your request has been approved. The third grade class will lead the mass on October 15th, January 21st, and April 22nd.

Important Dates

Monday, September 15th-Green Valley Field Trip (K-4th)

Wednesday, September 17th-1 Hour Early Dismissal

Thursday, September 18th-Substitute for FAST Testing

Friday, September 19th-Spirit Day $1

Wednesday, September 24th-1 Hour Early Dismissal

9/4/25

 Burg's Buzz 

9/4/25

nburg@crestonstmalachy.org

Science

The first topic the third grade class is learning about is force. Students have identified pushes and pulls that cause forces to happen. The class also discussed strong and weak forces.

Reading/Language Arts

The class finished Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match. Thursday will be spent taking the spelling post test, the weekly assessment (questions over the story), and the module test (a cold read that assesses students on the skills and strategies worked on).

On Friday, the class will have a pretest and read a different story.

Math

The class continues to learn about the process of multiplication. This week, students used a number line to skip count and solve problems. Students also made arrays to model multiplication problems. The Commutative (Order) Property of Multiplication was also introduced to the class. An example of this is 4x5=5x4.

Class Meeting

The third grade class is scheduled to have weekly class meetings on Wednesday afternoons. The discussions and activities that the class does will focus on social-emotional learning. Enclosed in the take home folder is an interview form for your child to complete. Your child needs to interview a parent about he/she got their name, The child should be the one writing down the answers. During our class meeting on Wednesday, September 10th, the children will be sharing information that was learned from the interview.

School Picture Day

School picture day at St. Malachy is scheduled for Thursday, September 11th. Order forms were sent home in last week's take home folder. I have received a few order forms back. Please let me know if you need a new one sent home.

September Book Order

Included in your child's take home folder this week is a Scholastic Book order.  Scholastic offers books at affordable prices for parents to purchase for their children's reading interests. All ordering is done online. The closing date for ordering from the September catalog is Friday, September 19th.

Green Valley Field Trip

A field trip to Green Valley State Park has been planned for the students at St. Malachy School. The students in grades kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth will have their trip on Monday, September 15th. There is paperwork in the take home folder that needs to be completed and returned to school. Students will need to bring a sack lunch on this day. Also, please have students wear tennis shoes. There will be some walking on the trails.

Parents are more than welcome to meet us at the park. Please note that if you plan on joining, please make sure your background screening is completed. This is required by the Diocese for all adults who attend field trips. Please contact Mrs. Simmons with any questions pertaining to this.

Important Dates

Friday, September 5th-Spirit Day $1 (Iowa Hawkeyes/Iowa State Cyclones)

Wednesday, September 10th-1 Hour Early Dismissal

Thursday, September 11th-Picture Day

Monday, September 15th-Green Valley Field Trip