Dear 4A Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. What an excellent first week of school with my wonderful new 4th grade students. It is clear to see that this will be an amazing year—with such a bright, kind, creative and fun group of children. Remember, if you have questions, suggestions, concerns, please contact me! We are partners in your child’s learning.
I plan to complete our class group email list this week. Next week you will receive one final hard copy newsletter, and I will also send a test email to the group on Sunday the 17th. Beginning the week of September 25th the newsletters will only be accessed online. Thank you!
Magazine Drive
It is time to kick off our first fundraiser of the year! The Magazine Drive site is ready for registrations and sales. This year’s theme is “IN THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY”.
Our Goal is $125,000 Raised!
DETAILS
A few notes for this year’s Magazine Drive:
- Registration is per family, register under your oldest child.
- Each HRS K-8 child, in your family, will receive the prize at the level reached, through 50 sales.
- Subscriptions $50 and over are worth 2 subscriptions, $99 and over are worth 4 subscriptions and $189+ are worth 8 subscriptions!
- Top Seller chooses a prize first, in a DEAL OR NO DEAL style game!
ONLINE FAMILY REGISTRATION WITH AP MAGS
- Go to www.funderworks.com
- Click on I’M A PARENT/GUARDIAN OR STUDENT
- Enter ROSARY in the code field and submit
- Follow the steps to create the account
- Once an account is created, familiarize yourself with the various selling tools available. These include avatars, email blasts, printable flyers, social media, etc.
- Complete all steps needed to qualify for the bonus incentive!
Spelling: Each week, we will introduce a new set of spelling words. Students will generally receive the new list of words on Fridays. The first spelling words are number words. This list will support our upcoming math lessons and objectives. On Fridays, all students will take a written spelling test. The first is this Friday the 15th.
Reading: Last week Ms. Finney started administering a beginning of the year oral reading assessment to the students, and she will finish up this week. This week, we will begin our regular reading routine starting with a wonderful tall tale in our anthology called “Stormalong”. We will focus on understanding characters and the figurative language concepts of hyperbole, simile and metaphor. Just a reminder, students are expected to always have a chapter book they are reading at home and in class. Students will have library time this year to be able to check out books. In addition, our classroom library is open for borrowing.
Language Arts: The students will be completing a beginning of the year writing sample this week. They will also start to review cursive forms and review editing and grammar skills. All students will receive a “Quick Word Handbook” that contains high frequency words to assist with spelling when writing. This will be stored in the spelling section of the filer. Students are encouraged to use this resource at home as a homework helper, as well as at school. The Quick Word Handbook should be kept in the filer so students can use them both at home and at school.
Math: Last week, students took a baseline math assessment. This information will assist us in planning our math lessons based on the needs of the students. We will be doing daily review of skills as well as following along with the MyMath Curriculum. This week, students will dive into their My Math workbook, starting with Chapter One: Place Value. Get ready to read, write, and say numbers into the millions! Expect to see daily math homework that mirrors our class lessons. I am working on getting Xtramath set up–ho
Science: The science lesson this week will focus on learning about the six steps of the scientific inquiry. The students will receive a small box with a variety of items inside to observe, problem solve, and make a hypothesis. This lesson will segue into our first lesson about the earth’s features specifically regarding volcanoes! In the following week, students will be recording their scientific inquiry as I model a volcano eruption.
Social Studies: We will begin our year with a review of the continents and oceans. All students will be expected to memorize a “Continent Poem” and be able to name and label the seven continents and five oceans. All students will be given study sheets for the poem and map test. The test will take place on Friday, September 29th. Continent poems need to be recited no later than September 29th as well. Along with the continents and oceans, the students will be learning about latitude and longitude and how to locate places on maps with coordinates.
Religion: Our religion lessons this week will focus on our Steps to Respect lessons and social skills. We begin our lessons with the concept of empathy. When our class norms clearly support SAFE, RESPECTFUL & RESPONSIBLE behavior, unkind/bullying behaviors are less likely to happen. These lessons will help reinforce norms by connecting words and actions to class rules and expectations for social and learning behavior. We will also begin chapter one in our religion book, God’s Providence: God loves and cares for all creation. God has a loving plan for all of us and it is revealed in many ways.
Thank you all for your patience, support and encouragement.
Have a great week!