Welcome to Third Grade
Mrs. Bourne and Mrs. Christensen

A Little Bit About Us:
May

Much to our amazement, we are down to the last month of school! May is an exciting month in third grade because we will be going on our long awaited field trip to the baseball game. The Seeno family has generously donated the tickets, not only for St. Isidore third grade students, but also for third grade students at our sister school, St. Anthony’s in Oakland. We will be attending the game on Thursday, May 21, when the A’s play Tampa Bay . Go A’s! We will begin our study of baseball as an integrated unit including language arts, math, and social studies on May 5. What fun!

We invite all of you to join us in prayer as St. Isidore School honors Mary at our May crowning ceremony on Friday, May 2 at our 8:10 liturgy. During this month of Our Blessed Mother, we encourage your family to pray the rosary together. The focus in our religion classes has been vocations, our call from God to serve in His church as married, single, priests, or religious. We have begun to discuss the sacraments as a sharing in God’s life.

Language Arts class has incorporated the understanding of story elements to increase comprehension. Responding to the literature we have read helps us understand real life situations and how we can make the best choices and decisions when faced with difficult circumstances. Reading Little House on the Prairie has increased our understanding of the hardships of pioneer life. The characters also give us lessons in how to deal with both challenges and disappointments in life. As we begin to read Bobby Baseball followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we will again get the opportunity to learn from human nature as well as laugh and have fun. What excellent lessons to close our school year!


Math class has been challenging! We are now multiplying 3 and 4 digit numbers by one factor and have successfully learned long division. Solving word problems has become more intricate as we have introduced problems that require more than one step. Recognizing math in our everyday world will help students understand the importance of mastering math skills and concepts. Please identify these situations and help your child practice math at home.

We continued to travel west across the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe Trails with our pioneers. We have discovered the hardships pioneers faced as they cleared the land and built log cabins. Our visits to the One Room Schoolhouse and the Apple Valley simulations have also increased our understanding.

Working to appreciate the gifts of creation on Earth Day, as well as clarifying how the seasons occur in our world, has been the emphasis of our science lessons. Understanding the properties of matter and the physical and chemical changes that can alter the state of matter will comprise our science lessons these next few weeks. We are also studying the many forms of energy and the importance of conserving energy, especially fossil fuels, for future generations.

Our next five weeks will be filled with hard work and learning. Please help us keep the children focused and on-task, as we work to prepare our students for fourth grade and bring closure to our wonderful year together. Your children should continue to think and learn over the summer. Reinforcing skills learned in third grade will help them be ready for the challenges fourth grade. Please complete the Reading and Math Logs over the summer.

Finally, we extend to our moms happy Mother’s Day wishes. You are all very special and loving parents, dedicated to serving the needs of your children. May God bless you as you continue to do the challenging work of raising your children to be good Christians and citizens of this world.