Dear 4A Families,
What a windy day on Sunday—and an hour less of sleep! I hope you all came through the storm with no damage. I see there were quite a few trees down and outages. March is sure off to a stormy start.
Report cards will be coming home this Thursday. I have asked the students not to open their report cards until they are with a family member. Grades should be personal and there here will be additional inserts in the report card that I do not want to get misplaced. Thank you for supporting this a home as well. The students are making such good progress and they all have much to celebrate.
This Thursday is St. Patrick’s Day. Students are encouraged to dress for the day with a “Wear’n ‘O the Green”. No face paint or hair dye, as there will also be an all-school Mass on Thursday at 8:45. Join us if you are able.
Oral Biography Information: On Tuesday the students will be introduced to the big oral biography project. In the library, Mrs. Harris will also be highlighting biographies during our library class this week. Check your child’s filer for a packet of detailed information explaining the project. The packet will contain the directions, due dates and grading rubrics. Please read carefully! Book/subject selections need to be made and approved by March 24th –but not before this Thursday the 17th. Please keep the directions in a safe place and remember you will also be able to access PDF versions of the directions on the website. Look for the tab above titled “Oral Biographies” This is always such a great project—hard work, but a big payoff in the end. The students are always so excited and proud of what they are able to produce and present.
Math: I am so proud of the progress the students are making with their long division work. This is a complicated algorithm, that requires plenty of practice to master. Your help at home checking for accuracy and having students make corrections is very important as well. Look for math homework Monday and Tuesday this week.
Xtramath: All of the students have been signed up for Xtramath. In lab last week the most of the students completed their initial activities. This site offers short, focused practice to build accuracy and speed with basic facts. I sent home a paper last week with sign in information for you to use at home. Even if you have already used Xtramath in the past, please use the sign in information on this sheet, as that is how I can track student progress. All students that have not mastered their multiplication and division facts for speed recall should visit this site nightly. It takes less than 10 minutes. It is important that students do their lessons in a quiet spot and remained focused. The site is intuitive, so it will individualize the practice sessions. Please sign up by Thursday. If you need any help let me know. Thank you!
Reading: The students are working hard on their “Podcasts” and will be recording t his week. We will then move into a biography called Jose, Born to Dance. The target skills are author’s purpose, genre and similes and metaphors. In the coming weeks the students will be reading several biographies to support our biography unit of study.
Language Arts: We have analyzed some sample opinion essays with supporting articles, both pro and con on a couple of different topics. This week the students will begin work on their own opinion essays.
Flat Stanley: I have already had the pleasure of previewing several of the student’s Flat Stanley journals. I would like to be able to look through all of the journals before spring break. Thank you.
Spelling: The spelling test will take place on Thursday this week due to the day off on Friday. The students brought home their spelling words for lesson 12 last Friday.
Religion: We will be wrapping up most our work with the Ten Commandments this week. Fr. Oakland will be visiting the class on Tuesday and this will be our topic. All students will have a Ten Commandment study sheet in their filer on Monday. The students will need to be able to fill in the missing words to complete the Commandments. The blanks will show the numbers of letters in the missing words. This fill in the blank test will take place on Thursday. Next Tuesday, the 22nd the students will take the chapter test on the Commandments. We will review in class this week and the students will bring their books home next Monday to do a final review for the test. Holy Week events and activities will round out our religion work next week.
Science: This week in science we will be looking at the effects weathering and erosion play on the Earth, its landscapes, and structures. We will be testing the structures we made last week and will be discussing why some were more successful than others. We will also see the effects of weathering and erosion first hand with our structures.
Remember, there is no school on Friday so that teachers can attend a professional development day. Have a great weekend, and upcoming Palm Sunday. Don’t forget our Lenten Outreach collections of food, blankets, socks, toiletries and money for the Rice Bowl and Uganda funds. Thank you!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday!
