Welcome back!!! I pray you all enjoyed your Christmas break. I thank you all for the Christmas gifts. You have been so kind and generous to me. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I have truly been blessed. I did write out thank you’s, but I left them in Iowa…..so, my mom is sending them to me! I apologize. You will get them, but they will be a little late. Please take note of the following reminders:

There will be a science test this coming Monday, January 11th. A study guide was sent home on the 4th. Be sure to have your child fill it out and study it. We have reviewed in class.

Today was the end of the quarter. Report cards will go home next Wednesday, January 13th.

Our class picture day is Wednesday, January 20th. Our picture will be taken around 9:15 a.m.

Here’s what we have been up to this week:

Religion: In religion this week we talked about Jesus’ baptism. Jesus lived a perfect life, so why did He get baptized. Jesus did this as an example for us. He did all the things we should do. Jesus took our place in perfect obedience to God’s will. He is our perfect example. We all receive forgiveness through faith in Jesus. But baptism is one of God’s special ways that he touches our lives with His forgiveness and grace. Baptism is a gift God wants to give us. We also talked about Jesus calling His first disciples. When something special or exciting happens in our lives we want to tell others. That is exactly what Andrew and Philip did. When they saw and heard Jesus they rushed to tell their family and friends. We too can share the good news of Jesus with all people. We can remind people who already know Jesus of His love and we can introduce Jesus to those who don’t yet know Him as their Lord and Savior.

Math: This week, we reviewed place value. We now know that HTO stands for hundreds, tens, and ones. The ones place is always to the far right, no matter how large the number. We also used base ten blocks to show place value. In addition, we practiced telling and showing time in five minute intervals. The kids seemed to pick up on this pretty quick because they are very confident in counting by 5’s. We tested over our subtraction by 3’s facts and began learning our subtraction by 4’s. Again, subtraction is not coming as easily as addition, so you may need to take extra time at home to practice.

Reading: In reading this week, we started a new story entitled “Ruby the Copycat.” We went over the following vocabulary words: write, copied, matching, and both. The class was tested on their comprehension of the story. We also discussed cause and effect. I asked the kids to give real life situations where they could identify a cause and effect. Finally, we reviewed plurals and the vowel pair “ou.”

Science/Soc. St.: In science this week, we talked about how people can protect natural resources. The class discussed various ways to reuse and recycle items, and well as reduce the use of some natural resources. We also reviewed for the test. Remember the test is this coming Monday, January 11th. In social studies, we started a unit entitled “Governing the People.” We defined some of the terms we will be using throughout the unit. Our first lesson talked about our role as citizens in a community.

Language Arts: This week was a little confusing for the kids. We have discussed action verbs, but now we are getting into other types of verbs. Action verbs were easier for the children to identify. We tried to memorize the following “be verbs”: am, is, are, was, and were. We also went over helping and linking verbs. Finally, we practiced putting commas in the names of places.

Spelling/Phonics: In spelling this week we studied words that end with nd, ng, and nk. In phonics, we talked about the digraph “kn.” In addition, we talked about silent letters, for example, the w is silent in “wr.” Finally, we reviewed the following high frequency words: your, once, two, bought, new, and believe.

God’s blessings on your week!! Be excited to tell about Jesus!!

In Christ,

Miss Rempfer

Spelling Words: dishes, dresses, bells, boxes, beaches, days, bikes, wishes, things, names, children, cups, frogs
Challenge Words: coins, classes

Extra List: evening, fighting, already, track, growing, finger, blocks, hose, tape, sharp, seals, mouth, arose, bunch
Challenge Words: juice, carefully

Memory: Salvation is found in no one else. {For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.} Acts 4:12