Hello 4A Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was a pleasure to meet with you during conferences last week! It is easy to see why I have such wonderful students—-they have wonderful families! Be your child completes and returns their goal sheet (received at their conference) by Friday, December 1st. If you have misplaced the sheet you can access one to print here.
Advent begins this coming Sunday, December 3rd. The 
signs of the season are beginning to appear. As we prepare, we are asked to look for ways we can serve others. Every year we engage in an Advent service project to assist students with developing their understanding of Catholic Social Teachings and the obligation we have as Catholics to be of service to others.
This year we are having a JOY Drive to support WestSide Baby.
We will be collecting diapers, pullups, wipes, and new or gently used coats and kids clothing for Westside Baby and other local organizations that support families in our Seattle Community.
The tree lot is open! Be sure and stop by to shop for a tree or wreath and support HRS as well as local charities!
We are in need of jam/jelly jars for a special project. Preferably the jars are less than 5 inches tall with no labels. We will need them by December 5th if possible. No worries if you do not have any–we have some extra stock as well. Thank you!
Reading: We are continuing with Charlotte’s Web this week. Students observe the plot structure as the rising action builds. As we build comprehension through inference and drawing conclusions, students learn how characters change and evolve as the story develops.
Language Arts: The students will begin a creative writing project called “The True Story of Santa’s Reindeer” this week. This project will reinforce paragraph skills, perspective/point of view, strong leads and conclusions, along with descriptive word choice, vocabulary and figurative language..
Spelling: This week’s spelling words are vowel diphthongs–with /oi/, /ou/ sounds. The test will be this Friday, December 1st.
Religion: Our religion classes are focusing on the Corporal Works of Mercy. The students will need to have the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy memorized for a test this Wednesday, December 5th. Along with our lessons on the Works of Mercy we will also focus on the Season of Advent, with Bible readings and activities to support this special time of year.
Next week (December 4-8) we will be teaching the 4th grade Circle of Grace lessons. The 4th grade focus is on safe use of social media, a very important topic. This Monday we will be sending home a hard copy overview of the Circle of Grace program that Mrs. Horton sent out a few weeks ago. After we teach the lessons, you will receive another letter that includes the main points of the lesson we taught at school. We ask you to go over that with your child, sign and return by December 14th.
Social Studies: The students did well on the NE/SE combination map. The next map test, on December 14th, covers the Midwest States and 4 of the Great Lakes. Our class work this week is focusing on the Plateau People then we will move into a study of the Explorers by Sea to our area.
Science: We are starting Lesson 2 which focuses on Sound, Vibration, and Engineering. Students will learn about the connection between sounds and vibration in the activity called “Paper Cup Telephone.” The students will be making telephones using cups, string, and paper clips. They will have a chance to modify their design of a telephone using different types of supplies to see if they can improve the sound quality.
Math: This week, we will continue with chapter four; understanding multiplication and practicing the algorithm for multi-digit multiplication. Please make sure your child is continuing to practice their basic multiplication facts (0-12) through XtraMath, flash cards, playing cards, or any other methods! Thank you for checking over your child’s homework for accuracy.
