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Welcome Back!   We hope everyone had a peaceful and relaxing break.  We are ready to jump back in and get this new year started!   New Spaces When we returned on Monday we were greeted with a wonderful new surprise, a gorgeous new space!  We started Monday off with a prayer service in our new gymnasium to bless our new spaces. We then had a surprise guest speaker, Mr. Moser, Loyola Rambler Basketball Coach.  He

We would like to wish all of our families a Merry Christmas.  We hope you all have a peaceful and relaxing break, full of love and quality family time.   Poetry Pals On Wednesday we visited Solomon Schechter Day School with Poetry Pals.  The students enjoyed meeting their new friends. The fan gear they wore was amazing and definitely started the conversations.  On our trip we wrote group poems about where we com

Saint Lucia This week we learned about St. Lucia of Syracuse, the patron saint of the blind, whose name also means “light”.  We celebrated St. Lucia day through discussion and a short reading. We then learned how to weave a woven paper heart basket, a traditional craft from Scandinavia.  Hopefully when your third grader came home they hung it on the Christmas tree.   Field Trip Please do not forget about our tri

Before we leave for winter break, your child will bring home a reading log from the Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Program. This program is open to children in grades K-6. Any child who independently reads or is read to for 6 hours and completes the reading log will earn one free admission to Great America. Completed forms should be returned to the school library no later than February 15, 2019. A replacement read

We are happy to share that our RED campaign for the 2018-2019 school year will feature the theme “We are Changemakers.” The Respect Each Difference (RED) campaign, now in its 4th year, serves to help our students understand that our differences are to be celebrated and not judged. On Tuesday, December 18th, Erin Marie Nolan-Tella (pen name Erma Note and SFX’94) returns to Wilmette from her home in M

EPIC Math This week we “Raced to Zero” using dice and regrouping skills.  The students love playing games to help practice newly learned skills.  We also revisited subtraction bowling, subtracting all pins from 1,000 using both paper/pencil and calculators. Math Homework FYI On Friday students brought home their Chapter 5 Math Review.  This review homework assignment is due on Tuesday, the day on which we will have o

  Conferences We would like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone for making the time talk with us during conferences.  We loved having a chance to share all the growth we have seen over the few short months of 3rd grade. The kids are making big strides academically and socially and it is so nice to be able to share the successes and small stories from the classroom.  We can’t wait to see you all again i

Poetry Pals This week we began Poetry Pals on Wednesday.  We started off by taking a Pre-Program Survey that asked students about any friendships they may have with a person of different faiths.  The survey also questioned if students could name anything that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have in common. We then played a game, Who? What? Where?.  In this game students learned about different words, items of clothin

Poetry Pals This year third grade students at SFX will be participating in an interfaith and arts program called Poetry Pals.  The goal of this program is to help children of different faiths (Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim) learn more about one another.  Students will have the opportunity to learn a little about each faith, see the different holy spaces, and spend time with one another.  This program will encourage ch

    Halloween What a beautiful Halloween day with the bright sunshine and cool breeze! We loved seeing all of the creative costumes and smiles all around SFX.  It was fun teaching a stickman, gorilla, Christmas tree, wizards, and unicorns all day long! Thank you to our room parents for providing amazing snacks to go along with our viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. All Saints Day All Saints Day Ma

On Friday, October 29th, all students should have brought home a copy of their Saint Report that they have completed in class.  This report has been sent home so that students can practice reading it aloud.  Hopefully your child’s Saint costume is safety stored in his/her locker.  We will be using these costumes next week for a dress rehearsal. After Mass on Thursday, November 1st, all parents and family members are

All Saints Day On Thursday, November 1st, all third graders will march into church and lead Mass.  After Mass all parents and family members are invited to join us back in our classrooms for refreshments and reports.  Students will read their reports aloud and share all they have learned about their chosen Saint.   Religion Extra Credit (Optional) On Thursday students brought home a fun extra credit assignment t

We are very excited to have the opportunity to host award-winning author/illustrator Laurie Keller here at SFX on Thursday, Nov. 8. Her visit is made possible by our partnership with the Book Stall of Winnetka. Ms. Keller will be here promoting her hilarious new picture book, Potato Pants. She will be speaking with our Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classes sharing how she generates the ideas for her books and

Another BUSY Week… Religion Congratulations!  You and your third grade student have successfully completed all the research for the Saint Project.  Now all you have to do is get a costume together! Remember costumes are due st SFX on Friday, October 26th.  At school we will be busy turning that research into a report that will be read aloud after the All Saints Day Mass back in the classrooms on November 1st. &

Hi!  We have a short week again next week so I thought it would be fun to turn our Crusader of the Week board into a Halloween Memory board.  Next Monday, October 15th, I am asking each child to bring in a picture or two of a past Halloween.  It can be of a past costume, pumpkin picking, carving Jack-O-Lanterns, basically anything that brings a smile and a fun memory to share.   I can’t wait to see all the

Blue Ribbon Award! What an exciting week at SFX!  As I am sure you have heard, we are once again recipients of the Blue Ribbon Award!  We celebrated with a school wide assembly on Monday afternoon full of blue ribbons, beads and blue glowing jewelry.  On Tuesday the celebration continued with “New Blue” shirts. Thank you to all of our parents! Being an amazing school takes a lot of work from administration, students,

What a great time we had on Tuesday with author/illustrator Jon Agee! The students were enthralled by his ability to draw while telling them the story of his new book, “The Wall in the Middle of the Book.”  He was such a nice man and really spent a lot of time talking with our students. Much thanks to the Book Stall for making this event possible. If your child would like an autographed copy of one of Mr.

There are many resources available to complete your research for your saint project! In addition to books available at our school library and the Wilmette Public Library, here are several links with age-appropriate information. Happy researching!   Saint Stories for Kids   Saint Fun Facts   Christian Kids TV (YouTube channel with saint biographies)

Happy (ALMOST) October   Field Trip Don’t forget we have our first field trip Thursday, October 4th, to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  This field trip will take place outdoors, so please dress your child for the weather. We will be eating a picnic style lunch at the gardens, don’t forget to pack a lunch for this trip. The following parents were drawn to chaperone.   Cummings – Patrick Henn & Danny Hesbu

The Book Stall is hosting two wonderful picture book author/illustrators this Friday, Sept. 28. At 4pm Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes will be at the Book Stall in Winnetka reading from his new book and autographing books. Mr. Henkes is a delightful person and fans of his books won’t want to miss this opportunity to meet him. No registration is necessary. More information can be found on the Book Stall’s

Thank you to all the parents that came and checked out our classrooms on Back To School Night.  We loved getting to see everyone and show off our plant projects. We hope you enjoyed seeing the progress on the construction as well as getting a little insight into your child’s day.   Field trip Next week your child will be bringing home a permission slip for our first field trip!  On Thursday, October 4th, we are

Through our partnership with the Book Stall, they are bringing us children’s  author/illustrator Jon Agee the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 2. I got a chance to meet Mr. Agee this summer at the national library conference and he is very engaging and fun so I am very excited that our students have the opportunity to meet him.  He will be talking with our 1st-3rd grade students.  Ms. Taubensee and I are collaboratin

3rd Grade News Math This week we completed our first math test!  Students played Name That Number in class to help review the place value skills we have been learning.  On Monday we will be starting chapter two. In this chapter we will continue to work on building number sense by comparing, ordering and rounding numbers.  Just a little warning, rounding is a new concept to many 3rd graders and it will take awhile for

What a wet week we have had!  Due to all the rain we had a chance to do indoor recess and get some energy out by dancing to Go Noodle!  We hope the upcoming week is full of fall temperatures and sunshine!   Math Next week we will be wrapping up our first math chapter.  On Tuesday night students will be assigned a review homework to help them prepare for their Chapter One test on Wednesday.  They will also bring

Happy 4 Day Weekend!  I hope everyone has some fun activities as well as some relaxation time planned for the long weekend.  Here at SFX we have been busy starting our year off on the right foot.  We have been practicing routines, learning the rules and discovering new things about our classmates.  Below you will find some general information about our class and how it runs.  Special Area Schedule Monday – Musi