March 18-22

Dear 4A Families,

Happy Spring (on Tuesday) and 5th Week of Lent. I hope you all enjoyed the sunny weekend. We have a wonderful week of learning ahead in 4th grade this week. 

Report Cards will be emailed home this Friday.  We are proud of the progress the students are making, and excited for a very successful final trimester ahead. Be sure you also check your child’s filer this coming Friday  for information about the guidelines for fifth grade math placement. It is on blue paper. 

Drop the kids for two hours (6-8pm) on Friday, April 12th for a fun evening of Bingo. This is for KIDS ONLY, so parents make dinner reservations and enjoy a dinner at one of our local eateries.

It’s back!  The always exciting and fun BINGO BASH! Kindergarten – 4th graders take over the gym.  5th – 8th graders will have the run of the school hall.Students are treated to pizza and snacks while playing bingo. Prizes are won and every student walks away with a free dress pass at the end of the night.  Don’t let your kids miss out, this is the EVENT OF THE YEAR at HRS…for the kids anyway–and also one of the biggest fundraisers of the Auction.  Thank you for you support.

Cost: $50 per student
Space is limited and this event WILL SELL OUT, so sign up today!  Here is the link to sign up!: K-4 

Lenten Outreach: This Friday is the last time to Donate To Father Dunstan’s School & Get Free Dress On Friday. Thank you for your generous contributions to St. Martin de Porres and the Rice Bowl for our Lenten giving. This week the collections are as follows:

Fri. March 22nd St. Martin de Porres:

Last Names A-L: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or  Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)

Last Names M-Z: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or  Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK

Religion: Just a reminder that all students need to be able to recite the Memorare from memory by March 27th at the latest.  Our classwork this week will focus on The Ten Commandments and Palm Sunday.

Language Arts: This coming week the students will start working on their initial entry for their Flat Stanley Journals at school.  Each student is creating a flat person that will be going on adventures with your family.  Our plan is for each student to have two similar flat people, so that one can perhaps be kept in the car—always ready for a great  photo opp, like a trip to Costco, the dentist, a haircut, bike ride, beach etc.  Anything can become a story.  More information about this project and what the students will need to create at home will be coming as a separate packet and will be in your child’s filer by this Friday as well. 

The laminated flat people will be coming home before spring break.  Be sure to think of opportunities for pictures/events that can be turned into stories later.  We will not send home the actual journals until after spring break–but students should jot down a few notes or things to remember for their writing later.  Taking lots of fun pictures is the goal for now!

Oral Biography Project:  Now that the students have their biography choices approved it is all about the reading.  Students should plan to read through their book twice during this initial phase.  As they read students use their sticky notes to mark pages/events that they plan to use in their talks.  They should jot down ideas/reasons like, “I will use this scene for my brilliant beginning”, or “Be sure to include this quote.”  When they get to the stage of writing their note cards they can use the stickies to help organize their thoughts.  Remember, along with their main bio, students should have at least two additional sources of information.  This could be another book, internet research, even a movie if applicable.  Please keep track of the sources so the students have them when we create our bibliographies in class. 

The students will also be coming home with some note cards later this week that they can use for their oral biography notes. If you are following along with the suggested timeline once the students have read through their books and completed sticky notes they should be starting to write out some notes: Next step: Focus on re-reading in sections. Start with “early years,” make note cards and decide on your brilliant beginning. Add props for this section that help you remember details and tell the story. As you write the note cards, practice speaking/presenting these parts. Use PVLEGS.

Remember, the goal is to write only as many notes as needed with the assumption that many parts of the talk will be partially memorized.  Students should be writing more bulleted lists with just enough info to help them remember the detailed facts.  There may be sections of the talk that need more detail written/typed out–and that is fine. We just do not want students to have their entire speech written on the note cards.  

Some other suggestions for the note cards:

  • Do not put too many notes on one card–and skip lines.  Highlight important things to remember like (pick up lamp prop here and walk around), (or pause here and look down.)
  • Cards should be numbered
  • Write neatly—not too small!
  • It is ok to type out notes and glue them to the cards.  
  • The pictures show some samples of cards from previous students.

Spelling: This week’s words will be passed out on Monday. The test will be Friday the 22nd. There will not be a spelling test the following week (March 22-30) which is Holy Week.

Reading:  Students begin the novel, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Prior to reading, we build background by learning about the great artist, painter and sculptor: Michelangelo. Students are exposed to the characteristics of Renaissance art, as well as Michelangelo’s early life.

Social Studies: Students should be practicing for their River and Lake test on the 22nd. In class last week we learned about the Whitman Mission. This week we will delve into the Oregon Trail- Using our texts and video links the topic will be introduced.  Next, the students will work through a QR Code Scavenger Hunt activity to gain additional background knowledge that will help them with a little simulation we will be doing.  

Science: Students will be finishing up the last lesson in Unit 3: Brain, Nerves, and Information Processing. Students will be able to learn how our brain works and functions. Students explore the brain’s role in receiving information from the senses, processing that information, and controlling the muscles to enable movement. In the activity, Think Fast! students test their reflexes with two very quick experiments and one more involved activity. They learn about how we process information in our brains and then respond to that information in different ways.

Math: This week we will begin our unit on fractions, starting with a review of prime and composite numbers as well as factors and multiplies.  We will then move into work with equivalent fractions using the terms: numerator (number on top of a fraction) and denominator (number on bottom of a fraction), and simplest form.  As you know, reducing fractions to the simplest form involves multiplication and division!  Keep up on that fact practice.

Have a wonderful week everyone. Thank you for all you do!