Last Day of School

I cannot believe that it's already the last day of school. I have had such a wonderful year with your 3rd graders and will miss them all this summer. Thank you for making this year so special. I pray that each of my students will continue to grow in God's grace and love as they discover who they are becoming in Christ. Have a great summer!

RCS Celebration & Art Show

Last night's Art Show and Celebration of Christian Education was a big hit! Families enjoyed wandering through the hallway galleries and checking out the treasures in each classroom. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who made this night possible. And a HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Tuit for teaching the lessons that inspired each creation in the Art Show; supporting our artists throughout their projects; matting, firing, and touching up pieces as needed; helping to organize the event; and setting up all the displays. Thank you Mrs. Tuit!
You can check out a Photostory of our Divine Design posters at my website:
http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/BWerdon/index.cfm

The Pentagon

Mr. Fedrigo visited our class on Monday to share information about
The Pentagon.

Did you know that over 25,000 people work at The Pentagon?
Did you know that the building is so big it has four zip codes?
Did you know that even though The Pentagon is massive, it was designed to allow someone to get from any place in the building to any other place in under seven minutes?
Did you know that the Pentagon is the only building in the area that can be seen from space?

We learned a lot about The Pentagon from Mr. Fedrigo and we are thankful he was able to come in and share with our class!

Camp Roger Memories

We had so many wonderful experiences at Camp Roger this year! Our adventures at camp taught us so much about God's world. We learned how to read the woods, work together as a team, encourage one another, and become more effective earthkeepers. We have learned so much about our Creator by experiencing His world. We are so thankful for our time at Camp Roger!




Our Camp Roger Photostories are archived on our classroom website:
http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/BWerdon/index.cfm

Easter Buddies

We spent time with our Pre-School buddies to help them create special Easter baskets. Each egg told part of the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We love spending time with our buddies!

Solar System Books

Each student designed a planet poster and then groups put them together into "books". Check out the creative formats for our Solar System books, which were on display in our back hallway.

100,000,000!

At Family Time, we learned that there are over 100,000,000 children who live on the streets worldwide. We learned that there are kids, our age and younger, who find and prepare their food, create shelter, and fend for themselves. We discussed the causes of homelessness and how we can make a difference with a problem that seems so huge. We know that Jesus calls us to defend the orphan. In our classroom, we are thinking about what that could look like as we try to heal some of the brokenness we learned about during Family Time.

Bones Party!

We celebrated our No Bones About It...Reading is Great incentive program with a Bones Party in the Media Center. We assembled our skeletons, told bone jokes, did the Bony Hokey Pokey, and ate bone cookies. Thank you Mrs. McGinnis for planning this fun celebration for the 3rd grade! If you'd like to see more of our Bones Party, check out the photostory on our classroom website.

http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/BWerdon/index.cfm

Bone Presentation from Mrs. Triezenberg

Mrs. Triezenberg visited our class to teach us more about bones, how they grow, and how they heal. She is a nurse in the Orthopedic department of the hospital and had a lot to show us, including models of bones and x-rays. We learned a lot from her visit!

Dissecting Owl Pellets

We learned more about the skeletal system of mammals as we dissected owl pellets. Owls eat their prey whole but are unable to digest the bones, fur, teeth, and claws of its dinner. Within 24 hours, the owl regurgitates any material it was not able to digest in the form of a pellet. We dug through owl pellets this afternoon to discover the skeleton of the animal that had been eaten. This activity was optional as it did make a few of us a bit queasy. Look for your student in the picture. A thumbs-up signals "Owl pellets are cool!" A thumbs-down means "Owl pellets are gross!" One up, one down shows that "Owl pellets are cool...and gross."

Check out my classroom website for a Photostory for this cool, but gross, Science Investigation...

http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/BWerdon

100 Day!

Check out the Photostory below for a few highlights from 100 Day. It does not even begin to describe all the fun we had celebrating 100 days of school!

Valentine's Day With Our Preschool Buddies

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day with our preschool buddies. We decorated cookies, made Valentines for our Friends at Zuni Christian Mission School, played a game, and helped our buddies pass out their Valentines. We love spending time with our buddies!

The Starting Point Matters

We celebrated with a theme break this afternoon that focused again on the Truth that all people are valuable because all people are made in God's image. Today, we focused on cultural and ethnic diversity. K-5 teachers kicked off the afternoon with a performance of Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches to illustrate that while surface comparisons are silly, they can be very hurtful. The 3rd graders then worked in their classroom to create an All About Me Collage. I asked them to include their hobbies, interests, roles, favorites, learning preferences, and ethnic backgrounds. After our collages were completed, I asked them to point to the top 3 most important things about each of them. Many pointed to the label "Christian" or "3rd grader" or "daughter". We talked about how it's important we realize that while our cultural heritage is an important piece of our identity, it is not our only identity. We wouldn't want to be described only as a "Dutch-German-Irish" American without all the other pieces that make up who we are. In the same way, we should honor the complex identities of others by being wary of surface assumptions and stereotypes. We ended our day with the video version of You Are Special by Max Lucado, which reminded us that we are all special because we are made by God, and He doesn't make mistakes.

Mummies & Pyramids

Visit my teacher site on the RCS Wiki to see your 3rd graders painting mummy cases and constructing pyramids. Follow this link to the Mummies & Pyramids Photostory.
http://rockfordcs.pbworks.com/w/page/14026466/Mrs-Werdon

The Starting Point Matters

We had a theme break this afternoon to focus on how the Starting Point Matters when thinking about issues of diversity. Our Starting Point is that all people are valuable because all people are created in God's image. Our focus for the afternoon was on various learning styles. While each of us has different strengths and weaknesses, we are all created in God's image and therefore, we all have a place and purpose in His Kingdom. The 3rd graders worked in groups with the 4th and 5th graders to learn about how they learn. It was a fun afternoon!

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

1-27-11 Photostory

Fun in Hawaii with our Preschool Buddies

We traveled to Hawaii today to meet our Preschool Buddies who have been vacationing there. We helped them create underwater scenes using Kid Pix. We didn't have much time since they didn't want to miss their flight. We bid them farewell as they boarded Aloha Airlines for Grand Rapids, MI.

Mummies!

We learned about the process of mummification today as we created a virtual mummy in the computer lab. Check out the site below for more about Ancient Egyptian mummification.
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/mummy.html

You can access this site as well as other sites we use in our classroom at the RCS Wiki. Follow the Students link to 3rd grade and then visit the subject area for a variety of online resources that reinforce what we are learning at school.
http://rockfordcs.pbworks.com/w/page/14026436/FrontPage

Classroom Party at North Star Gymnastics

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

We celebrated the life and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday during Family Time and with a variety of classroom activities. Check out this link to hear the powerful words of
Dr. King as he reminds us of Jesus' call to serve.
http://www.thekingcenter.org/

Hieroglyph Centers

We explored ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing today with a variety of centers. Students painted hieroglyphs, sketched ancient Egyptian symbols, created a Cartouche name tag with hieroglyphic stamps, practiced their code-cracking skills, and went on a hieroglyph hunt. They also discussed language as they attempted to make a list of the 20 most important words for any civilization. Check out this brief Photostory for a taste of today's Hieroglyph Centers.

Here is a picture from our service-learning experience at Kids' Food Basket in November. Service-learning was the first of our theme breaks. In February, we will take a break from our regular schedule to focus on issues of diversity.

Welcome Back to Mrs. Werdon's Blogspot!

One of my New Year's resolutions will be to utilize this website in a more purposeful and frequent way. I will try to post more pictures and information about our classroom learning experiences. As always, the Werdon Weekly will have the most updated and thorough classroom information. Thank you for your patience in my attempts to keep you posted.