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Final Week  Oh my goodness it is so hard to believe that we only have five more days left together! What a crazy, challenging, unique, humbling, and unforgettable year we’ve had. I am endlessly grateful for you all (and your wonderful children) for making this year as great as it was.  Adopt our Class Fish (please!) As you may or may not know, our classroom is the home to Mr. Bubbles Burke, the class betta

All Kindergarten through 3rd grade students met earlier this month with Jahkil Johnson, a school-aged activist from Chicago. Jahkil founded Project I Am, a non-profit organization designed to help the homeless in Chicago through the distribution of blessing bags to our local homeless population. Jahkil is living out God’s call to serve the poor and less fortunate.At Jahkil’s invitation, we continue t

Scholastic Virtual Book Fair  This weekend wraps up the Scholastic Book Fair. I hope that you and your child have looked through the options and picked out some fun reads for the summer–it’s so important that your kids keep reading every single day while we aren’t in school! Here’s my page if you would like to help build my classroom library for next year! https://shop.scholastic.com/ewallet/fund?lang=en_U

Poetry Pals In continuation with Poetry Pals, this week we reflected on our guiding question, “How can I build a world that values all human beings?” and discussed “leading by example”. We also learned about writing couplets by using perfect rhyme and near rhyme. By the end of the session each student wrote a “Vision of the Future” poem. Some were funny, while others had a more serious tone. Science In science we tal

We led Tuesday’s Mass!  I hope you were all able to tune in and join us for Tuesday’s Mass. It was a lot of fun and the kids did an amazing job! We had ten readers who got up in front of everyone, which is a huge accomplishment! In case you missed it, the ceremony was recorded and is on the parish Youtube channel (skip to 10:15ish to watch!)  Religion Diorama Project Your children did a fantastic job comple

Reconciliation This Monday we all participated in Reconciliation. We reviewed that Reconciliation is a time to say sorry to God for our sins. For many of us, it was our first trip back to Reconciliation since last year! Thank you to Monsignor Mayall and Father Watts for offering the sacrament for us. Science This past week small groups prepared and presented presentations about the different climates across the globe

St. Patrick’s Day We had an amazingly fun St.Patrick’s Day!  Our class was dressed in green from head to toe with flags, shamrocks, fun socks, sunglasses, and scarves!  During Spanish we made hats and danced an Irish jig! Then, we ended our day with a warm hug from the HSO with a school wide game of BINGO and a yummy treat. Poetry Pals This week we participated in session #6 of Poetry Pals. The first half o

Good-bye and Good luck, Mrs. Halaburt! We honored our wonderful principal yesterday with a personal Clap Out! We wish her all the best in her new journey as a mom! Thank you! It was wonderful to meet this week for conferences. Please remember that we are always an email away with any question or concern. 3rd Grade Calendar March 12 – No School March 30 – Stations of the Cross Project due April 2 – S

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