Toy Drive on Friday!

Don't forget that Friday is the St. Ann's Toy Drive. If you'd like to participate please bring a new, unwrapped toy to school this week or on Friday morning. We will bring it to church to adorn our altar. At the end of weekend masses, the toys will go to families in need. Thank you for your generosity the season!

Box Tops

Our new Box Top Competition began yesterday! We will be collecting Box Tops for the class to turn in by December 16th. The top three classes get to have some Hot Cocoa!

Periodic Table of Elements

We have been studying the Periodic Table of Elements in Science class. Here is a great like to learn more about the Elements on this chart. 
Periodic Table Link

Jump Rope for Heart Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our annual Jump Rope for Heart Day! Students are encouraged to wear a Jump Rope for Heart shirt OR a Red Shirt with Jeans and school tennis shoes. Our grade "Jump Time" is from 2:00-2:30 and parents are encouraged to come watch or join in if you'd like!

Advent Sacrifices

We have been talking about Sacrifice this week in our daily Advent Prayer Services. Here is a list of suggested sacrifices your children can make during Advent. You can use this list in several ways. You may want to select a sacrifice for all of Advent, something to give up or an extra job to do. Or you can cut these ideas up into strips of paper and place them in a jar, and then everyone can take out one or several every day or week to do.

Ideas for sacrifices we can do to prepare our hearts, minds, and wills to serve God:

• Give up a special treat or snack. 
• No snacks, no dessert, no favorite food. 
• Give up TV, video games, computer time – at night, during the week, on weekends, you choose! 
• Do an extra chore without being asked. 
• Only drink water to become “thirsty for Jesus.” 
• Say an extra prayer like the Hail Mary or Our Father (especially good to say this prayer for a special intention). 
• Make a bowl of sacrifice ideas and pick one every day to perform. 
• Clean your room without being asked. 
• Help your parents the next time you see them cleaning. 
• Don’t complain about what is served for meals. 
• Give one of your siblings the choice of game or toy you are going to play with. 
• Serve younger children first at mealtimes. 
• Do a chore for someone else. 
• Let someone else choose the bedtime story. 
• Read a saint book (or two!) 
• Go to bed right away when you are told. 
• Say prayers every night for particular people – the Pope, friends, and family. 
• Add more family prayers – or learn a new prayer by heart by praying it at every lunchtime/every meal/every morning/every night (a great way to learn a Latin prayer or a song). 
• Kneel and say prayers after Mass. 
• Put your own money in the Poor Box. 
• Don’t push “snooze” when the alarm goes off in the morning! 
• Light a candle, pay for it yourself, and pray for someone. 
• Make a card for a sick person and mail it. 
• Go through your own toys and give some away to another child or to a thrift shop. 
• Everyone give away something nice to St. Vincent de Paul so that another child can have a Christmas gift. 
• Help your Mom cook dinner and clean up afterwards. 
• Gladly go to confession or to Mass when the time comes. 
• Go to daily Mass more – especially on feast days that are special to our family. 
• Say a prayer for your parish priest. 
• Instead of watching your favorite TV or video, do a job around your house. 
• Do your homework without being told. 
• Help a sibling. 
• Make a present for someone. 
• Help clean up after a meal. 
• Give cookies or small gift to someone that serves you (like your mailman). 
• The next time someone says something mean to you, say nothing in return. 
• Say a prayer for your family.
• Read a story to a sibling. 
• Tell your parents how much you appreciate all their work and love. 
• Call a grandparent or close relative who is lonely or who lives far away and tell them about your day. Pray for your deceased relatives. 
• Don’t yell for someone in the house to come to you, but instead go find them to talk to them quietly.

PTO Week at a Glance

Division

We've been working on division in 3rd Grade! Here's a recap of our division vocabulary.

We've learned to divide items equally in groups, but more importantly we've witnessed how our multiplication facts help us in division.

Here is a table much like our multiplication tables that might help with division. Hope it helps. Enjoy!

Celebrating Advent with the Family

When we think of New Year's celebrations, we usually think of party time. It's time to let the old year go. We anticipate the new year by making resolutions, promising changes in behavior.

As Christians, we celebrate the arrival of a new liturgical year differently. The new year that begins on the first Sunday of Advent is a quiet one. In the readings for the four Sundays of Advent, we remember the time when people waited in anticipation for the coming of the Messiah. And while we know that the Messiah has come in Jesus Christ, and we have remembered his life, death, resurrection and Ascension many times, we can still reflect on and celebrate the newness of his coming once again.
What is great about celebrating the coming of Jesus with children is that they help us approach the season with fresh eyes and insight. They present us with a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge they present is the way they soak up the values of the culture that has had them anticipating Christmas since the beginning of November. The opportunity they present is that we can introduce them to the timeless rituals celebrating the coming of the Messiah that will add depth to their spiritual lives.
There are a number of ways families can celebrate the season of Advent:

Make an Advent wreath and place it in the middle of the dining room table. An Advent wreath consists of a frame holding four candles placed inside a circle of evergreens. The greenery in the wreath symbolizes the promised new life in Jesus. The four candles denote the four Sundays of Advent. There are three purple candles and one rose candle. Purple is a sign of penance, and rose is the color denoting the anticipation of joy. Light a candle on each Sunday evening of Advent, saying a short prayer or singing a verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The light of the candles represents the light coming into the world as we prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth.

Advent calendars are available at many gift stores. The calendar consists of two pieces of cardboard on top of each other. Twenty-four doors are cut out of the top layer. One door is opened each day from December 1 through December 24, revealing a picture. 

There is a long tradition in Christian art of depicting the Jesse Tree, a symbolic tree or vine with spreading branches on which there are images depicting the genealogy of Jesus. There are several variations of the Jesse Tree. In one variation, each ornament has a picture on one side and a Scripture passage on the other. An ornament is hung on the tree every day during Advent.

With the celebration of Advent each year, everything old can be new again. Each year gives ourselves and our family an opportunity to remember and anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Busy Bag Donations!

We're Ready for Thanksgiving in 3A!

PTO Week at a Glance

$5 Jean Day on Thursday!

Bake Sale/Toy Drive

Thank You Veterans!

Called to Protect Permission Forms

Please return as soon as possible so we can begin next week

PTO Week at a Glance

Feathers for Food: Ends November 16th!

All of third grade is doing stellar job on their multiplication! We will begin to incorporate these facts into a fun memorization incentive beginning next week! Here are some tricks for memorizing some of the facts. Hope this helps for your test tomorrow and for our future incentive! :)

2× is just doubling the number. The same as adding the number to itself.

2×2=4, 2×3=6, 2×4=8, etc.

So the pattern is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20

(And once you remember those, you also know 3×2, 4×2, 5×2, etc., right?)

 

5× has a pattern: 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. It ends in either 0 or 5.

9× has a pattern, too: 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90

Now, notice how the "ones" place goes down: 9,8,7,6, ...? And at the same time, the "tens" place goes up: 1,2,3,...? Well, your hands can help!

Example: to multiply 9 by 8: hold your 8th finger down, and you can count "7" and "2" ... the answer is 72

10× is maybe the easiest of them all ... just put a zero after it. 10×2=20, 10×3=30, 10×4=40, etc.

11× is mostly easy: from 11×2 to 11×9 you just put the two digits together. 11×2=22, 11×3=33, ..., 11×9=99.

Congrats to Our Sweet Saints!

Here's a full page feature on our All Saints' Day Wax Museum! Thank you Midland Reporter Telegram!

 

Election Day!

How fortunate are we to live in a country where we have a say in who leads it! Hope all our parents and guardians go out and vote!

Find the Missing Factors

Here is a video that can help practice on finding missing factors. We are going to use strategies we've learned for multiplication memorization to find any factors that are missing. Hopefully this helps to prepare for your test on Wednesday!

Veteran's Day

Be sure to turn in your Veteran's Day information by November 8th! 😊

PTO Week at a Glance

MRT Pictures

So proud of our sweet Saints! Here is a link to the gallery of pictures that the Midland Reporter Telegram took!
All Saints Day Gallery

All Saints Day!

What a BEAUTIFUL celebration we had today! I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of all our "Saints." They carried out a lovely, respectful, and joyous celebration. They also did a fantastic job on their reports and presentation. Parents and families, a simple "thank you" doesn't even begin to cover what I'd like to say to you. You all helped with this project from start to finish covering everything from the research, to writing, to the costumes. I also want to thank all of you who not only came to watch, but helped us with refreshments, supplies, and clean-up. I just can't even fathom how lucky I am to work with such wonderful families! THANK YOU!

Garden City Tomorrow!

Hey Families! Don't forget that tomorrow is our Field Trip to Garden City. The bus will start loading promptly at 8:15 a.m. so please make sure we are all here on time. We will return around 3:30 p.m. so please park in the lot across the street from the church since we will not make it back in time to start carpool. We will all walk over to get our backpacks and belongings and then you may take your child home. If your child is going to afterschool, we will walk them over and send them to their afterschool teacher when we have completed the trip. We're looking forward to learning about agriculture tomorrow!