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. Hopefully the students are rested up and ready to go! As we head into these final weeks and the weather gets nicer, it can be easy to lose focus and dream of summer, but so much important curriculum remains which will set the stage for 5th grade. Thank you for your support in keeping your child focused and attentive to projects, test preparation and homework. Be sure you check your child’s filer regularly for corrected papers. Students are asked to put corrected work in the front pocket, but I often find it in other sections.
Lunches of Love: 4th Grade is signed up for Lunches of Love during the month of April/May. This is a cherished Holy Rosary tradition, and we are honored to continue it this month. Items that make good lunches include nuts/trail mix, fruit cups, protein bars, individually packaged chips/crackers, Vienna sausages, jerky, ritz cheese/crackers (shelf-stable only), and a plastic spoon/fork. Water is the drink of choice. We also encourage students and families to write an encouraging and positive note with each lunch (no names, please). Students can bring in lunches whenever they are complete. Students are highly encouraged take part in the purchasing and packing of the lunches! Thank you.
Group class pictures will be taken on Tuesday, April 26th. Students should come in perfect uniform. Red Holy Rosary sweatshirts or sweaters included. Thank you!
Oral Biographies: It was fun hearing about all of the great ideas the students have for their brilliant beginnings. We use our class work times to review expectations, answer questions, and do some work on notes as well as practice brilliant beginnings with a partner. For the next two weeks, students should be continuing to review the adult/later years and take notes using the sticky notes and notecards. It is helpful for students to practice this section aloud as it is completed. For most biographies, the adult/later years contain many of the person’s achievements and accomplishments, so be sure to highlight those rather than smaller details that don’t matter as much. Be sure to explain any struggles, challenges or obstacles that the person overcame and which character traits are revealed as a result.
Religion: This week we will be reflecting on the Easter Season and making Easter Candle Crosses to decorate our classroom and hallway. We’ll review the Lunches of Love service project and get things started by decorating one paper bag in class. Feel free to decorate and fill up more than one bag at home. This is really nice to do as a family.
Reading: Students read chapter 6-7 in The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Our target comprehension skills are: mood, theme, summarizing. Students use the “Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?” questions to retell main events from the chapter.
Math: This week the students will be learning to add, subtract mixed numbers and multiply fractions by whole numbers. Look for homework each night. Thank you for checking over the homework with your child and having them talk to you about operations with fractions..
Science: We begin a new unit on energy. Students learn that we use the energy from food to make our bodies move just like cars use the energy from gasoline to move. Students build paper models of an amusement park ride called the Twist-o-Matic. The ride stores energy in rubber bands and spins around when the energy is released. Students compare the speed of the spins when they use a thin rubber band versus a thick rubber band.
Social Studies: We will start our week off with some Earth Day history activities. We will then move into the early history of Seattle (a lot of which happened in our own backyard!) The students will be tested on the major rivers, lakes and mountains of our state this Friday, April 29th. All students have a study guide in their filer and they can practice online here. The test will have a word bank.
Flat Stanley: Hopefully all of the Flat People had a fun spring break. The “Spring Break” journal entries are due Monday, May 2. These are going to be the best ones yet!
Spelling: This week’s words all have final /j/ and /s/ sounds. Lists will be in your child’s filer and the test will be this Friday the 29th.
Have a wonderful week everyone.