Dear 4A Families,
Happy Monday and first week of November everyone. I was so proud of the wonderful job the students did at the All Saints’ Day Mass last Friday, and again at the Sunday Mass. They really were little “saints”! Thank you all for everything you did to help prepare your children for these two special Masses.
I also want to send out a huge thank you to all involved with our very fun Halloween Party last Friday. Special thanks go out to wonderful room parents Christina Kline and Kristin Bentler as well as all of the additional parent support that made this fun event possible. A great time was had by all!
It will be nice to get back to a more normal routine. The ITBS and CogAT tests are finally complete! We have lots of great learning ahead.
Veterans Day HW Project: On Monday the 2nd each student will be bringing home a flag pattern on which they will write a thoughtful paragraph to honor a Veteran. Complete directions for this project will accompany the flag. Flags are due by next Monday the 9th, but can be turned in early if they are ready. We will have a class prayer service to honor these Veterans on Tuesday the 10th.
Almost Time for the Market!: On Monday the 2nd, Scott Davies from the Pike Place Market will visit the 4th graders to help us prepare for our upcoming trip to the Market. The students will learn how the Market came to be and how it has grown and changed over the years. This is always a great preview for the trip. Mr. Davies will leave us with some materials to use in class as well to further our knowledge of the Market.
On Tuesday, November 17th 4A heads to the Market. The students get a special tour of the Market, meeting vendors and seeing a few behind the scene sections of the Market as well. This wonderful field trip is provided at no cost to us (other than parking). The Pike Place Market runs a large food bank that feeds thousands of people each week. We are asking every student in grade 4 to bring in donations for the Pike Place Market Food Bank before our field trip on the 17th. We will bring the donations with us on the day of the trip. Last year the students got to see the food bank as part of the tour—and hopefully that will work out this year as well. The food bank also accepts cash donations to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. Thank you so much for your generosity. Students may bring in donations any day prior to the field trip.
Religion: Our Steps to Respect Lesson this week will focus on friendly behavior, joining groups and dealing with frustration, anger and conflict in productive ways. Our religion lessons will focus on the Corporal Works of Mercy, which ties in well with our upcoming food drives and service projects.
Social Studies: This Wednesday the students will be tested on the NE and SE states. Hopefully the students have been reviewing regularly at home to prepare for the test. In class the students will be comparing and contrasting the Coastal and Plateau people of Washington State using our texts and other resources. We will also be doing some follow-up lessons related to Pike Place Market.
Science: We had great success last week with our solar ovens and were able to test them outside using the sun. We are now going to compare the results from the cloudy day and sunny day. We will also be analyzing the insulation used in our solar ovens and its effectiveness. As our solar oven project comes to a close we will be tying in what we have learned as we move forward in our unit on energy. We will be looking at other forms of renewable energy as well as a range of energy types.
Math: Look for math homework each night this week. The students are making good strides improving their mastery of multiplication and division. Dedicated nightly practice should be a part of the homework routine until facts are mastered. Thank you for your continued assistance in checking your child’s homework for accuracy. We will be finishing up lessons related to addition and subtraction of large numbers this week. When completing story problem questions—short or long—students are expected to label their answers. For instance in the problem: Sally has 964 beads to make jewelry. If she spills 278 beads how many will she have left? The answer should be 964-278 = 686 beads left. This seems like a small thing, but being able to label these types of problems correctly is an important skill that shows that the problem is clearly understood. Thank you for checking for clearly labeled answers as you look over your child’s homework.
Reading: Check your child’s filer for corrected Charlotte’s Web tests. The test has three sections; multiple choice, written response and a reading section on spiders. Each section is scored separately. The themes of friendship, understanding, patience, caring and helpfulness will tie in both with our chapters this week, as well as with our Steps to Respect lessons.
Language Arts: Spelling lists for Unit 6 will be sent home on Monday. This week’s words focus on short and long “u” sounds. Our coming writing lessons will focus on quality paragraph construction with clear topic sentences, supporting details and wrap up sentences. We will also be doing some writing and language arts activities related to our Pike Place Market visit.
Homework
- Veterans Day flag
- Nightly math homework
- NE/SE State test on Wednesday
- Recorder Practice
- Read from a book of choice nightly
Have a wonderful first week of November!