Dear 4A Families,
Happy June and second to last newsletter of the year!
The Summer Letter was placed on the website last Thursday as promised. It is also attached at the bottom of this newsletter (and was also included in the email). Next week you will find tabs above where I have added the Summer Links for Math, Reading and Wriitng that I mention in the letter. Please use them if you are in need of ideas or inspiration for summer review.
Mystery Book Reports: The students will be making their mystery book report presentations this week. Students should be prepared to present with a clear order and organization to their talk. The rubric for the presenation is here. If you have Power Points or Google Docs send them to me, or send in a flash drive and I have them set up for the Smart Board.
Social Studies: The Washington Feature test will take place this Thursday. Last week we learned all about Mother Joseph and her role in the development of the NW and the Denny Party. This week the students will learn about the building of early Seattle and the crazy events that led to the reason we have an Underground Tour, which will lead us to the Great Seattle Fire and the Klondike Gold
Rush. Lots of great history!
Spelling: The final spelling test of the year will be on Friday. The words are contractions. Students also need to know the words that the contractions replace. For instance: she’ll replaces she will. The word list was passed out last Friday and can be accessed here.
Pray for sun!! Our final field trip of the year will take place next Wednesday June 12th. Hopefully the weather will cooperative and give us a rain free day. We will learn about the early history of Seattle on the very entertaining, and historical Underground Tour. For those of you that have been on the public tour before, please know that this tour is geared for school age students and very appropriate! Following the tour we will we will head to Alki to eat our lunches and have some playtime together on the same beach that the Denny Party landed on in 1851. I do encourage students bring a water bottle, especially if it is hot. If you signed up to drive/chaperone you will be getting an email later this week with some specific information.
Cleaning Days next Tuesday and Thursday! All students are asked to bring in a sturdy bag or two on Tuesday, so that they can bring home the contents of their desks, as well as some rags for cleaning. Thank you! . The majority of desk items will be sent home on Tuesday. I have been keeping a portfolio of some of the bigger and more “special” projects and assignments this year. These items will come home on Thursday in a separate large “portfolio folder” the students will make. Don’t throw away this portfolio without taking out what you would like to save!
Our classwork this week will consist of finishing up units of study and tasks. The work we do this week is important and will be included in their final grades. Thank you for helping keep your children rested and ready to do their best to finish out the year. Look for math homework each night this week that will be a reivew of tasks from the year to prepare them for a final math test on Friday. Homework page overview here.
Enjoy this first full week of June everyone!
Keep reading below for the Summer Letter:
Summer Letter
May 31, 2019
Dear 4A Families,
I wanted to take this opportunity to express how proud I am of the progress the fourth grade students have made this year, academically, socially and spiritually. Learning to take on big projects, work independently and be productive group members are all skills that will help make their transition into the upper grades successful. Your support this year has been tremendous as well. I will truly miss this class next year.
As you well know, the students have learned (and will continue to learn) many challenging and important skills this year. They have grown significantly in their reading, writing and math skills. I understand that it is often quite difficult to motivate children to dedicate time to reading, reviewing math skills or writing during summer vacation. The research is clear however; when students to not regularly read, practice math and writing skills over the summer, they lose a significantamount (up to three months) of the progress they made during the school year. This is especially true for reading and math skills.
Please note, I consider one of the most important aspects of summer to be time to play and be a kid! Being outside and taking advantage of all the wonderful adventures summer has to offer plays a very important roll in both physical and mental growth. Summer is “battery recharge” time and we all need that! The summer review I am encouraging is not intended to be long and laborious. In fact, the best practice sessions are short, but very focused and consistent. A regular skill practice routine will build and refine skills and work habits. What we do not want is a “low academic battery” when school begins next year. That being said, here are some suggestions for avoiding the “summer slide.”
To help you out with summer reading here are a few options:
Reading:
Building strong reading comprehension and vocabulary skills have a positive affect on all subject areas. Students should be reading dailyin books at their instructional reading level (not too easy—not too hard). Choosing books from a variety of genres, fiction and non-fiction is the best way to build strong, well-rounded reading skills. Don’t neglect oral reading! Opportunities to read orally to build fluency, expression and pace should be included in summer reading time. Reading a picture book aloud to a sibling is a great way to get some oral reading practice. What could be better than relaxing with an ice-cold lemonade and a great book on a warm summer day?
Summer Reading Packet from Ms. Corrigan:
Ms. Corrigan has prepared a summer reading packet and it is attached to this letter in the form of a PDF for your convenience. In addition to daily reading, students are encouraged to complete some or all of the included activities that can be printed out at any time–no matter where your summer takes you!!! These activities reinforce skills learned in 4th grade and will help students feel confident going into 5th grade. As a bonus, special prizes will be awarded to students who complete the packet and return it to Ms. Corrigan the first week of school in September!! If you have any questions, you can contact Ms. Corrigan at mcorrigan@holyrosaryws.org.
Gr. 4 Summer Reading Packet
Holy Rosary will be offering the annual Holy Rosary Summer Reading Challenge, which I highly recommend. The Summer Reading form will be in the report card envelope. Leslie Sumida from the Seattle Public Librarywill also be here next week to talk to the students about their summer reading program as well. Their summer reading program officially launches on June 15th. Leslie always shares some great book ideas to get the students excited about reading.
Math:
Every 4thgrade student needs to take time this summer to review and practice the many important skills we have learned this year. The students have worked hard on their math facts this year, and most have them mastered. All students must have their multiplication and division facts mastered for fluent recallas they begin 5thgrade, and those that do have them mastered should review so that they keep the facts fresh. All students will receive a math packet they are encouraged to work in this summer. Those students that complete most of the packet can bring it to me for some special treats during the first week of school in September J. There are several sites linked to our webpage where you can run off your own math practice sheets. One site I use often to get extra math fact and skill practice for the students is a site called commoncoresheets.com. Scroll down to “math drills” to run off time test sheets. Check out the other resources on this site as well. If you do choose one of the online programs I mention below, I do also recommended a mixture of paper/pencil and flash cards along with online work as the hand/mind connection is important when reviewing and building skills.
This summer once again Mrs. Heuer will be offering the Summer Math Challenge. You will find information about this program in the report card envelope along with the Summer Reading information.The math packet I send home can also count for time on the Summer Math Challenge.
Writing/LA:
Journal writing, pen pals, letters, creative stories, online programs like Story Jumperand Storybird are fun ways to include writing over the summer. I will be putting links to several fun and useful websites for writing ideas on the webpage especially for summer use as well.
For spelling, vocabulary and writing review, the students can continue to use Spelling Cityall summer. This site also offers self-paced lessons (learning activities and games) for grades 1-12, it is customizable, and you can review the completed grade or get a head start on the next grade!
Costco and Amazon both sell a very good workbook called Scholastic Success With 4thGrade. It has excellent review skills in all subject areas and is less than $8.00 for way more work than you can complete!
As mentioned I will have a Summer Practice Site on our 4A Webpage up and running at the end of the year that you can access all summer for great links to support summer practice. I will also be sending home all of the logins and passwords for the math and reading sites the students have used this year and will have access to over the summer.
It has been an amazing year, but we are not done yet. Your support in helping your child keep focused and on track during these last important days of the school year is very important—and appreciated. If you have any questions or ideas to help with summer studies, let me know.
Sincerely,
Mary Simpson
