Dear 4A Families,
I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Happy Leap Day and third week of Lent. It looks like an excellent week of learning ahead, along with the special treat of attending a performance of the drama elective production of Snow White. Read on to find out more about the play and the evening performance times.
From the Drama Elective:
Snow White!
Mark your calendars! At 7pm on Wednesday March 2nd & Thursday March 3rd, the Holy Rosary Drama Department will be debuting its performance of Snow White! This delightfully magical fairy tale will feature an all-star cast of top-notch 7th and 8th grade actors. Additionally, our entire student body has worked in collaboration to design a beautifully intricate and fanciful set! Come feast your eyes and indulge your imagination in an evening filled with fun, humor and whimsical entertainment!
When: Wednesday March 2nd & Thursday March 3rd @ 7:00pm
Where: Holy Rosary School, Main Entrance: School Hall
Cost: Donations warmly accepted at the door
*Delicious treats & refreshments will be available from our very own, Dunkin’ Diamonds!
Flat Stanley: I will be having the students bring in their journals between March 8th and 16th for me to look over. I will give the students compliments, encouragement and advice on their progress and entries.
Slide in some similes! Varying word choice, using great descriptive words and figurative language are great ways to spice up journal entries. All students will be expected to include 4 or more similes into their Flat Stanley entries. A simile is a figure of speech that compares two things or persons, which are not similar. Similes generally us the words “like” or “as” in the comparisons. “Hungry as a bear” or “Hot as a frying pan” are two examples. We have been working with similes at school, so the students are familiar. This site is a good place to get more information on similes. I would ask the students to underline their similes in the final drafts.
I am also sending home lists of adjectives and adverbs that I encourage students to incorporate into their final drafts. As your child shares his/her entries with you look for words that are repeated often like “nice”, “fun”, “awesome” and encourage them to use the lists to find alternative words. Thank you for your help in supporting good writing at home!
Oral Biography: Some of you might be wondering about the time line for the Oral Biography Project. We are usually well into the project at this time of the year, but because of where Easter break lands this year we have decided to do the project a few weeks later this year. Here are some dates you might want to pencil in:
Week of March 14th: We will be introducing the project. Complete directions and guidelines will be sent home. Mrs. Harris will also be doing an overview of the biographies in the library on the 15th.
March 23rd: All biography topics and books need to be approved (on or before).
May 16-20: Presentations
Please do not send in requests before the directions/guidelines are sent home. Thank you!
Reading/LA: This week we will talk about classic stories and ask the question “How are performances similar to and different from written stories?” We will read a scene from the play Invasion from Mars based on the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. We will also read an informational text called The History of Radio. Our target skills are story structure and infer/predict.
In language arts we will focus on adjective and adverbs and figurative language in in our writing. We will also begin a unit, which focuses on writing an opinion essay. The spelling word list for lesson 9 were passed out last Friday.
Math: Look for corrected math tests from last week. We have started our unit division of larger numbers. Look for nightly math homework. Thank you for checking over your child’s work for accuracy.
Social Studies: Look for corrected river and lake tests in your child’s filer. We are wrapping up Lewis & Clark this week, and beginning our journey on the Oregon Trail. This will bring us to the early settlement of Washington State.
Religion: The Ten Commandments will be our focus along with our Lenten Bible reflections. As we learn the Commandments we will be focusing on how they relate to our lives today and we can follow them more consciously.
Lenten Outreach
LENTEN BROWN BAG FRIDAYS FOR ST. MARTIN de PORRES SHELTER: Each Lent, Holy Rosary students provide brown bag lunches to the men at St. Martin de Porres shelter. Students are asked to bring a lunch or two and a personal item on designated Fridays during Lent. These lunches can be kept cold, so perishable food is fine. Please keep the personal items separate from the lunches. Thank you!
- March 4 – disposable razors/shaving cream (sample size)
- March 11– travel size toothpaste and disposable toothbrush (singles)
Grade 4 Outreach Focus: St. Vincent de Paul Society
Just as we did during Advent, the 4th graders will focus their outreach with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We will be collecting monetary donations and personal hygiene items beginning this week, until our outreach day on March 24th. I talked with the intake department at St. Vincent and they are always in great need of the following:
- Socks
- Toothpaste and toothbrushes
- Soap
- Deodorant
- Blankets
- Any other personal hygiene items
Thank you in advance your your generosity. All students in all grades are also asked to bring in non perishable food items for the food bank. We will have a box in our room to collect these items.
Check your child’s filer regularly this week. I am getting caught up on my grading from my days off. I was able to get a lot done this weekend. Look for social studies/Lewis & Clark assessments and some reading in the next couple of days.
- Math: Look for homework each night.
- Spelling: Lesson 9 was passed out last Friday.
- Flat Stanley
- Recorder practice
- Nightly reading
Have a great week everyone! March, here we come.
