Dear 4A Families,
Welcome Back and Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and that you are ready to jump into the New Year 2023! Thank you for the thoughtful Christmas cards and gifts I received. I so appreciate your kindness.
This week we will take time to share some favorite holiday events and consider how we will “Reflect God’s Love” as a type of New Year’s resolution. We will also take time to review and practice our classroom and school expectations and procedures all week. This review will help us build a strong, respectful and successful classroom community.
Religion: To celebrate Epiphany we will bless our classroom doors on Friday. The students will also work in groups to create posters of the Corporal Works of Mercy. Our next writing project will also tie in the Corporal Works of Mercy (See LA section). Finally will begin a study of the Liturgical Year next week. Our Second Step lessons will focus on understanding different perspectives.
Language Arts: The students will incorporate the Corporal Works of Mercy into a creative writing assignment using a newspaper article format called Cool School News. In class, the students will write an article about someone they know who cares for and loves people in need, thus living out one or more of the Corporal Works of Mercy. AT HOME: The students will need your help in gathering some information about a person (parent, friend, aunt, uncle, neighbor, etc.) that follows one or more Corporal Works of Mercy. Students will bring home an assignment sheet with detailed directions. We’re asking students to complete the interview/pre-writing portion of the project and bring their bullet list of notes to school no later than next Wednesday, January 11th. I will be going over the directions and sharing some samples so the students understand their task.
Reading: Students read, My Brother Martin and Langston Hughes: A Poet and a Dreamer. Our target comprehension skill is “identifying the author’s purpose.” Students learn to explain historical events while reading a biography and poetry. Our essential question asks, “What might lead a person to try to change the world?” In addition, students learn techniques to cite text evidence while reading a biography.
Important Reading Tests Coming Home! Before Christmas, students finished our Charlotte’s Web unit and completed our end of unit assessments. These scores will be included with the second trimester grade reports. This week, the following important assessments will be sent home: comprehension test, vocabulary assessment and study booklet, Charlotte’s Web quote quiz and ‘pink folder of quotes’. PLEASE check your child’s filer and take some time to review each of these assessments with your child. Thank you!
Spelling: Our spelling words this week are the months and days…proper nouns, which means they need to be capitalized! The test will take place this Friday. The students will also be expected to memorize and recite, by January 13th, the Month Poem. We will practice the poem daily in class–it is fun to learn and comes in handy!
Social Studies: The students were given a study sheet for the NE/SE/MIdwest combination test before the break. I will provide extra copies for the students on Tuesday as needed. This test will take place next Friday, January 13th. Online practice and review sheets for the tests can be accessed here. The students will be introduced to the early explorers of the NW in our class lessons this week.
Math: We will start off the week with a review of addition, subtraction and multiplication algorithms to refresh our skills as we prepare to enter our next unit that will focus on accurate computation when multiplying by a two digit number. Look for addition/subtraction review homework this week. Thank you for checking your child’s work and guiding them to make corrections as needed. Students should continue to practice their multiplication and division facts nightly. We will move into our next chapter of multiplication of larger numbers on Thursday.
Science: We will move on to Lesson 2 about Sounds and Vibrations. Students will explore the role that air plays in enabling a sound vibration to travel. In the activity “Act out a Sound”, students will do two short activities that explore sound vibrations. Students will experiment with sound to understand how it moves through the air and then consider what would happen in an environment like space where there is no air.
That is about all for this first week back. We have lots of great learning ahead. I am excited to see the students and jump into the New Year!
Happy Epiphany on Friday!
