The month of October has many important feasts in the Church. St. Therese, the Little Flower, begins the month of October, followed by our Guardian Angels, and St. Francis of Assisi. He is the patron saint of ecology and loved animals. We ate animal cookies

while watching a video of his life .He wanted to be so much like Jesus that he even received the five wounds in his side, feet, and hands that Jesus had.

We have been reviewing short and long vowel sounds in phonics.

In Science we learned about the life cycle of animals and plants. We made a bean book showing the parts of a bean seed and planted lima beans to see the seeds germinate.

Our class is almost finished with reading the Big Books in our reading series. We have read about fossils, interesting building shapes throughout the United States, the Big Fitz,

an immigrant from Europe, and are now completing our 7^th book. Then we will begin our leveled readers.

Right now in math we are learning about money and how to give change. We also learned about rounding and place value. This was a real challenge to us.Pleae keep reviewing addition and subtraction facts for speed.

In Social Studies we learned about the characteristics of communities, landforms, hemispheres, directions, and Paul Bunyan.

The third graders have been learning about the sacraments of initiation, how the Holy Spirit leads the Church, and how we show love for one another.

We are awaiting our first spelling bee for Lesson 6 and will announce the winners in our next newletter.

October 1t is also the beginning of the Book-It reading program. Third graders are asked to read 400 minutes each month until the end of March.

Blessings to all of you as we being another month of learning.