Dear 4A Families,
Happy October on Tuesday everyone!
This week the students will begin their Saint Report Projects as we prepare for the upcoming All Saints’ Day Masses. Ms. Tyler and I will be meeting with Fr. Phuong and Mrs. Horton on Thursday to start planning for the masses. We will send out information/dates/times on the masses as soon as we have them set. Be sure to check filers on Monday for corrected spelling, math, continent and ocean tests, and two reading tests (vocabulary and comprehension.)
Special Saint Homework this week:
Religion/Language Arts: This Monday, September 30th, each student will be assigned the saint that they will write their report on as well as portray at the Mass. All of the work for this report will take place at school except for one homework assignment that is due this Thursday, October 6th. Detailed directions for this homework assignment will be in your child’s filer on Monday, and will also be available on the website in PDF form. The students will be prepped fully with an example we complete at school. It is very important that families take time to carefully read 
through the directions of this assignment. We give the students three days to provide ample time to thoughtfully complete the task.. There will be no math homework Monday-Wednesday to provide extra time to complete this important work. Your assistance in helping your child read the materials and understand their saint is an integral part of the process. Please be sure the list of facts your child writes and all highlighted materials come back to school on Thursday—not sooner— when we will write the first drafts.
All students received two copies of the Prayer of St. Francis last week. Students should be practicing daily for memorization no later than October 29th. The students will recite this prayer at the All Saints Day Mass.
4A’s fall MAP testing is complete! I was proud of the hard work the students put into their testing.
Reading: Last week, students began a figurative language bulletin board project “Sailing the Seas of Hyperbole.” Each student is creating her/his own sail with figurative language chosen from one of the many seafaring tall tales that we read in class. I will send a picture when it is complete.
This week we will begin our unit of study on E.B. White’s masterpiece, Charlotte’s Web. Even if your child has read this book before, we will delve into themes and vocabulary that will both inspire and challenge the students. Charlotte’s Web is a beautiful expression of true friendship. The story is also masterfully written to reinforce and build advanced vocabulary and comprehension skills. The book lends itself perfectly to our reading standards and target skills—and never ceases to enchant! (You can probably tell the 4th grade teachers love this book!)
Spelling/LA: This week’s words focus on short and long “a” vowel sounds spelled a, ai, ay. The study sheet was passed out last Friday and should be in your child’s filer. The test this week will be on Friday as usual. The students will be writing Halloween Haikus this week. Next week we will be typing them up in the lab and decorating them for a special bulletin board.
Math: Corrected math tests for the place value chapter will be returned on Monday. The students did very well on the test. We will be using the place value and rounding concepts covered in this chapter all year. Chapter 2 is all about addition and subtraction of large whole numbers. Students are continuing to work on developing good habits in math class and all subjects.The good habits of Reading carefully, following directions completely, and checking over work for accuracy in both classwork and homework are ongoing areas of focus. The students have been logging into Xtramath at school regularly. XtraMath is an excellent resource to build fact mastery.. Success with fact mastery requires regular, focused practice. Thank you for encouraging your child in this area with a goal of visiting Xtramath at home at least three times a week along with our school practice.
Science: This week, we will move on to Lesson 3 about Weathering and Erosion! Students will explore how solid rock breaks apart into smaller pieces through a process called weathering. The activity is called Sugar Shake where students will receive sugar cubes to model rocks. They will perform an experiment with this model to understand the process of weathering and how this process explains why rocks at the tops of mountains are jagged, while those at the bottom are rounded. On Friday, the fourth graders will also be able to observe the lava experiment we conduct outside!
Social Studies: Your child’s corrected Continent and Ocean tests will be in filers on Monday. We have been learning about latitude and longitude and reading maps in Social Studies. The students will apply this knowledge as they locate places using latitude/longitude coordinates, as well as learning to read different types of maps including precipitation, population and elevation.
Here’s to a great week of learning ahead.