Dear 4A Families,
Happy second week of Advent. I hope you all had a nice weekend. Report cards will be emailed this Friday, December 12th. Please let me know if you have any questions about them. All of the 4th grade students have so much to be proud of this trimester. Mass is on Monday this week as December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception so students need to be in uniform on Monday.
This Friday the 4A students will lead the Prayer Service at 8:30. The theme of the service will center on St. Lucy Day (Santa Lucia) day. Join us if you are able. I will send the link later in the week for the prayer service to view online if you are unable to attend. We will begin about 8:35 in the School Hall. The students have a copy of their part to read (unless they are in the skit). Please have them practice reading slowly and clearly…pausing at punctuation. Thank you!
Advent Outreach: We invite all families to participate in our school-wide Advent diaper drive in support of Prepares, a ministry of our parish family. Prepares, a program of Catholic Community Services, walks closely with young families in our local community during the early years of a child’s life. Diapers are one of the most needed—and least available—items in food banks and community agencies. Prepares are especially in need of sizes 4, 5, and 6 diapers and size 5 and 6 pull-ups, but diapers of all sizes and wipes are gratefully accepted. Donations can be brought to school and placed in the front hallway. Thank you in advance for your generosity. Let’s see if we can fill the hallway with hope and support for those in need in our West Seattle community!
Religion: Our religion lessons are focusing on the Season of Advent and the Corporal Works of Mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy test will be on the 16th. Students will need to be able to name the Works of Mercy from memory. The students will have a study sheet in their filer on Monday and we also have a fun song that really helps We are practicing with a fun song at school that helps the students remember them. We are also incorporating some special prayers and activities around the Season of Advent.
Reading: We continue on our journey with Charlotte’s Web. This week Charlotte weaves the first of her words to help save Wilbur. We work each day to learn and understand the rich vocabulary from the book and transfer that understanding into original sentences and even into our Reindeer writing.
Language Arts: The students are busy working on their Reindeer stories this week! They are crafting creative paragraphs with topic sentences, supporting details and wrap up sentences. The paragraphs will also include real reindeer facts, figurative language and vocabulary from Charlotte’s Web!
Spelling: The spelling words this week all have long or short “e” vowel sounds. The test will be Friday, December 12th. There will not be a spelling test the week of December 15-19.
Math: We are wrapping up chapter 4 next week with a test on December 17th. Students are working on communicating different strategies to solve multiplication problems. Please continue to practice multiplication facts at home with XtraMath or any other method that works for you! Also, please continue to check over your child’s math homework and reinforce the habit of striving for accuracy. Thank you!
Social Studies: The Midwest State test will take place this Thursday, December 11th. Students need to know both the locations and abbreviations as well as four of the Great Lakes–Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie.
Science: The students will be continuing to work on exploring how digital devices encode complex information so that it can be transferred over long distances. In the activity, Secret Snacks, students generate their own codes in order to transfer information across the classroom. Then, they compare their codes and evaluate which worked best given the criteria and constraints. We will then be moving on to Lesson 2 which focuses on sound, vibration, and engineering.
