Week of January 12th

Dear 4A Families,

I hope you all had a nice weekend. It was a great game on Saturday—very exciting to watch our Seahawks do so well. The students had a great first week back and worked hard! On to a new week…

mlk3Reading: Look for corrected tests from the story Invasion from Mars that we read last week. This week the students will read an informational text on planet Mars. We will use the iPads to do some follow-up work on our reading.

We will then move into a unit of study on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement This unit will include reading, language arts, and social studies objectives. As we work through this unit we will be focusing on character traits. This unit is part of our larger unit on biographies that will culminate in the big Oral Biography Projects in March. This unit ties in perfectly with the Common Core Standards of reading informational texts. As we work through this unit the students will:

  • Focus on increasing the complexity of the texts students read and discuss, and developing skills in argumentative writing and research.
  • Emphasize speaking and listening skills as an avenue to evaluate, integrate and present information from many sources.
  • Use technology/multi-media to gather and publish information.

Language Arts: this week the students will use the information they gathered at home last week on an inspirational news story from 2014 to write an informative essay. We will work through the writing process to create well-crafted final projects.

Spelling:  The spelling list was sent home last Friday. Learning to make words plural is the focus. We will spend a good amount of time in class this week learning and practicing the rules for making words plural (also listed on the study sheet). After the main test on Friday, the students will also need to be able to make some non-spelling words plural using the same rules. This is an important and useful skill not only for the spelling words this week but in daily writing/spelling.

Social Studies: The 50 State test is taking place this Friday. Along with the 50 states the students will also need to be able to label the Great Lakes, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Gulf of Mexico, Mexico and Canada. Student can have a list of states to use while taking the test—but they do need to know the correct abbreviations from memory. Our classwork will continue to focus on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Religion: This week we will a study of the Seven Sacraments. We will also be covering Steps to Respect lessons on rumors.

Math: Look for corrected math tests from last week. The students did very well overall. We will continue to work with multiplication by two and three digit numbers. Accuracy is key to these larger math problems. Thank you for checking over your child’s homework and having them make needed corrections.

Catholic School’s Week this year is January 25-31.  It begins with Mass and Open House on Sunday the 25th.  There are many opportunities for students to participate in the Mass.  Look for an online sign up on the eFC later this week.  You might want to mark your calendar for Tuesday, January 27th. That is the day the 4th graders will be delivering certificates of appreciation to our local businesses. We will need drivers/chaperones for this fun service project. Permission slips will be sent home later this week.

Have a great week everyone—Go Hawks!

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