Dear 4A Families,
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spring vacation. We now are in the final stretch of the year—hard to believe. As we head into these final weeks it can be easy to lose focus and dream of summer, but so much important curriculum remains which sets the stage for 5th grade. Thank you for your support in keeping your child focused and attentive to projects, test preparation and homework. Hopefully the students are rested up and ready to go!
Class pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 25. Please have your student wear Perfect Uniform, which includes a red sweatshirt, sweater or vest—no ripped knees! Thank you.
Curriculum and Homework:
Religion: This week we will be reflecting on the Easter Season and making Easter Candle Crosses to decorate our classroom and hallway. We will wrap up our study of the Beatitudes with a test on Thursday. On Monday we will also spend some time talking about Earth Day and caring for God’s creation.
Math: Our upcoming math lessons focus on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions, which will lead us into decimals in the coming chapter. Look for math homework each night this week. Thank you for checking over your child’s work for accuracy.
LA/Spelling: The list for Lesson 21 was sent home before the break. The test will be this Friday as usual. We will be writing friendly letters to our pen pals from Italy this week, and getting them sent out by Friday.
Reading: We will be moving forward with our reading of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler. Each student is also required to select a mystery book to be reading at school and home. All selections for the mystery book need to be selected by this Friday, April 28th. Mrs. Harris will go over the mystery section in the library, and I also have quite a few mystery books in my classroom to choose from. There will be some “book report” type activities associated with the mystery books–most of which will be completed at school.
Flat Stanley/LA: Hopefully your child’s “Flat Stanley” was included in some fun spring break activities and is writing about those outings in his/her journal. I would like the students to bring in their journals for me to check over. I will just be giving some feedback, compliments and suggestions as needed. Just a couple of reminders about the journals:
- Journal entries must be neatly and thoughtfully A well- written paragraph that includes a topic sentence, at least three-five descriptive sentences and a conclusion is expected.
- Each entry needs to have at least one example of figurative langague
- Word choice is important. Avoid repeating words like “fun”, “great”, “cool”, “then” etc.
- You can find examples of both figurative language and word choice on the Flat Stanley direction page.
Social Studies: The students will be bringing home a map study sheet labeled with Washington rivers, mountains, and other bodies of water. This will be the study sheet for a test on May 9th.
Mark you calendars!
4th Grade Charity Bake Sale on May 17. We will be needing parent volunteers to help set up, price and monitor/assist with the selling from about 10:00-1:00. You can sign up to come in at any point during these hours. Please email me if you will be able to help out. All families are asked to send in some delicious baked goods to sell. More info coming!
Our end of the year field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, June 7th. This trip has two parts that focus on our Washington State History and celebrate a wonderful year. First, we head down under to the Underground Tour and learn about the early history of Seattle. Next we head to Alki Beach, where the Denny Party first landed to have lunch and play in the sand. We will be sending out permission slips later this week. Remember, if you want to drive/attend the on field trips your Called to Protect obligations need to be updated.
Homework:
- Spelling Lesson 21. Test will take place on Friday.
- Review mountain ranges and rivers of WA state for the May 9th test.
- Select and have a mystery book approved by Friday the 28th
- Practice recorders.
Have a wonderful last week of April.