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Math This week in math we continued our work on Chapter 7: Fractions! We have realized that despite multiplication and division being behind us, we will still need to memorize those facts 🙂 Next week we will continue working through the chapter, play some fraction review games (Quizlet Live being a favorite), and take the test on Friday.  Geography Our latest social studies unit is geography! We have been learni

Poetry Pals This week we had the opportunity to read the “I Am” poems from the first week written by participants from other faiths. The kids were asked to find commonalities between themselves and the other participants on their team. Students then wrote “Odes” about the commonalities they found and posted to share them with their teammates. It was a fun day!  100th Day of School!  This Thursday we had our

Catholic Schools Week We had an amazing week celebrating Catholic Schools! The kiddos looked amazing in PJ’s, dressed up for picture day, wacked out in red, white and blue, supporting Brier the Brave in purple, and then throwing it back on Thursday! We had a fun filled week of trivia, art projects, and gratitude. I would like to send a huge THANK YOU to all the families that made my week perfect. The small gifts, flo

Return to in-person learning!  It was such a blast to be reunited with all of your children in person this week! It almost felt like we never left. We enjoyed being back in our space, playing games, working in groups, learning all sorts of things, and playing in the snow all week long.  Music is BOOM-TASTIC This week Mr. Pancratz taught our class how to play another fun instrument, Boom Whackers.  The

Remote Learning Wow! I cannot compliment you and your children enough on a successful return to e-learning this past Monday. The kids joined in on Zoom this week eager to learn and happy to see their friends. They have been focused, engaged, and participating well–all of which have really made the whole experience a positive one so far!  Poetry Pals Permission Slip If you have not done so, please complete

St. Nicholas Day On Monday we walked into shoes filled with a fun surprise from St. Nicholas!  Door Decor The Student Council set up a Holiday Door Decorating Contest. The third grade submitted a joint entry, with each of the three doors representing some of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Here is our entry!  Warm Hugs This past Thursday we enjoyed a “warm hug” of hot chocolate from the HSO. We also got a spe

E-Learning Reminders E-learning will hopefully look a little different this time around as we are definitely more prepared than we were last spring! As it quickly approaches, please be thinking of a learning space for all children. I would love my 3rd graders to be seated at a desk or a table in a secluded, quiet location. I will be sending the daily schedule to my kiddos (and you) each day through SeeSaw.  Stud

Food Drive Thank you to all who supported our Thanksgiving Food Drive. While we didn’t win the school wide prize, we did an awesome job in supporting a wonderful cause!  Pajama Day Thank you to everyone that participated in Pajama Day. We loved being comfy and cozy in the classroom!  Social Studies In social studies we are continuing to learn about economics. This week we used The Giving Tree, Little Nino’s

On Thursday, our 3rd and 4th grade students participated in an author webinar with children’s book authors Kate Messner and Traci Sorell. Ms. Sorell is one of the authors of the book Indian No More, which is our Global Read Aloud book for 4th grade. The webinar was titled “Rethinking Thanksgiving,” and offered a thought-provoking author visit based on their books about the real histor

Rethinking Thanksgiving On Thursday Mrs. Sawyer set us up with a very informative author visit! We were able to hear from Kate Messner (author of History Smashers) and Traci Sorell (a Cherokee and author of We Are Grateful). These two authors brought to light several myths we all thought true about Thanksgiving. Did you know pilgrims didn’t always wear black? We also learned about all of the myths painted in The Firs

All Souls Day Prayer Service On Monday we learned a little bit about All Souls Day, which ties into what we’ve learned about Dia de los Muertos. We also had a prayer service for some of our important family members, friends, and pets that have passed away. It was a very powerful, enjoyable service.  Reading This week we started a unit all about Nonfiction books. So far, we have talked about how nonfiction readers rev

Happy Halloween We had so much fun celebrating Halloween in our costumes on Thursday. What an awesome crew! I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe time trick-or-treating on Saturday!  Door Decorating Contest Our class put together an entry for the school-wide Door Decorating Contest. It involved elements of Dia de los Muertos (which we learned about from Senora Rocha) and creepy Halloween masks. It was re

Starting this month, during my weekly designated library time with our 1st-4th grade students, I have launched the 2020 Global Read Aloud initiative. Information about Global Read Aloud can be found at https://theglobalreadaloud.com. The program allows schools throughout the world to connect through designated children’s books that raise awareness. I am happy to share we are connecting with schools in

Dia de los Muertos Zoom On Friday we had the opportunity to Zoom with an SFX former teacher–Senora Rocha, the Spanish teacher! She talked to us about Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican tradition that is coming up soon. It was a lot of fun to see her! Fun Run Our class will participate in the Boosterthon Fun Run on Tuesday 10/27. Students are allowed to dress down and wear SFX spirit clothing! So far we have raised $

Boosterthon FunRun The Boosterthon began this week! This fundraiser helps us earn money for our school, and it has also been teaching us some character traits. This past week we learned and talked about teamwork, care, and courage. Thank you to all the families that have logged onto funrun.com and have gotten pledges for our class. Currently we have raised $19.67 per a lap–which is wonderful! Our class goal is

The Bluestem Award is an Illinois Readers Choice award for students in grades 3-5. The nominee list is created by librarians and educators from across the state and I have been fortunate to serve on this committee for the last three years. Any SFX 3rd-5th grade student who reads all of the 20 Bluestem nominees by May 1st and turns in this Bluestem Reading Challenge form to me on or before May 1st will get to attend a

Build-A-Plant It was so much fun to see all of the creative, colorful plants that your children brought into school! I am incredibly impressed. We were true botanists on Tuesday and did a gallery walk, sketching and recording our observations of these fascinating new plant discoveries.  Math This week in math we began chapter 2, which is all about mental addition. We started with strategies on how to mentally add one

Science In continuing our unit on living things, we studied and talked about what a seed is and even dissected a lima bean! The students were incredibly careful and observant, and it was a fun way to see and learn about the different parts of a seed.  Math This week we had our first math test! Leading up to it, we talked about ways to study and practice for it (which many of us got really good at!) and we played

The last two weeks I have been speaking with all 3rd-5th grade students  encouraging them to take the Bluestem Challenge. The Bluestem Award is an Illinois Readers Choice award for students in grades 3-5. The nominee list is created by librarians and educators from across the state and I have been fortunate to serve on this committee for the last three years. Any SFX 3rd-5th grade student who reads all of the 20 Blue

Back To School Zoom Thank you to all the families that joined me Wednesday night for our Back to School Zooms.  It was nice to connect with all of you and show you a little bit about what our days at SFX look like.  If you missed the zoom, or if you have any follow up questions, please feel free to reach out to me by e-mail. I am looking forward to conferences, in about a month, to really talk about your ch

This week was a success!  We have moved on from learning rules, procedures, and routines to hitting the books. Math Over the past two weeks we have been working on place value of numbers up to 10,000.  We have reviewed the different forms that numbers can be written in, we have compared and ordered numbers, as well as rounded to the nearest 10 and 100.  Science This week we kicked off our first science

Wow, it has been a GREAT first two weeks at SFX in our classroom! The first week we spent a lot of time getting to know all our new classmates and the routines of our room. We played games, shared our “All About Me Bags” and created puzzle pieces that include some of our favorite things and fun facts. Check out the photo—they came out great!  We also spent a lot of time learning and practicing the new safet

You have been subscribed to receive classroom news through our SFX blog system. Please note what this looks like, by grade, below: 1 – Kindergarten will use See Saw to share classroom news and updates this year across both the SJ and SFX campuses. Watch for an update here soon! 2 – Grades 1-4 will continue to share weekly updates and overviews through the SFX blog system. You are automatically subscribed