Happy Monday 4A Families,
We made it through the first week back at school. It was so nice seeing the students. They came back to school with positive attitudes and they had a very productive week! Hopefully this week will bring us less rain, more sun. Either way I look forward to an excellent week ahead!
Reading: A study of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez will highlight our reading work in January. This unit includes reading, language arts, and social studies objectives. This unit is part of our larger unit on biographies that will culminate in the big Oral Biography Projects in the spring. This unit ties in nicely with the Common Core Standards of reading informational texts.
Spelling: The spelling words are the months and days of the week. This test will take place this Friday. The students will also be expected to memorize and recite the Month Poem on Friday. I am adding a second requirement for the students on this date as well. It came to my attention last week that the majority of the students were not able to recite the months of the year in order. So, they will also be asked to do this when they recite the month poem!
Language Arts: This week the students will be assigned a writing activity called Cool School News. This activity is a follow-up to our study of the Works of Mercy. The directions for this assignment came home last week. Thank you for your assistance with the note taking portion of this assignment. Please make sure the completed assignment comes back to school in your child’s filer on Monday.
Religion: Our classwork this week will be learning about the Liturgical Year. All students will have completed study sheets in class to prepare for the Tuesday, January 25th assessment. Online practice sites for learning the liturgical year are linked PDF versions of the study sheets can be accessed here and on google classroom.
Social Studies: The NE/SE/Midwest State test is this Friday. I will include support for the abbreviations on this test, so the students should focus on mastering the locations. These are not new states, but the states the students have already been tested on. After wrapping up some Lewis and Clark activities we will change gears and explore Washington State Symbols and features before we move into our next unit on the Oregon Trail. Students will receive the final region of states to study for (West/SW) on Friday. This test will take place on January 28th.
Science: We continue to learn about the interesting patterns of volcano locations and what they tells us about the earth as well as cone-shaped and shield shaped volcanoes. We experiment with thin and thick lava and learn the terms: ring of fire, basalt lava & felsite lava. We hypothesize which volcanoes are more likely to explode.
Math: Students will be practicing multiplying large large numbers using estimation, area models and the Distributive Property. We will move into the algorithm for multiplication for multiplication with a two-digit multiplier later in the week. Look for math homework each night. Students are expected to practice multiplication and division facts nightly (Xtramath or flash cards) until all facts are mastered. Thank you for your support with this important skill.
