Week of March 12th

Dear 4A Families

I hope you all had a nice weekend, despite the lost hour of sleep! The extra daylight hours are always nice, but the time change can throw off the sleep schedules a bit.

St Patrick’s Day Green:  Since St. Patrick’s Day is on a Saturday this year and we do not have school on Friday the students will have a Wear’in O’ the Green on Thursday this week. Please follow all free dress policies in our handbook.

Lenten Outreach Reminder:

  • Collecting for Uganda. Please send in at least a dollar (or more).
  • Rice Bowls
  • St. Martin de Porres Friday lunches.  These can be perishable as they will be distributed same day.
  • Canned food for the Holy Rosary/St. Vincent Food Bank.
  • Each grade also selects an addional organization to support.  Grade 4 has been supporting St. Vincent de Paul Society for many years.  This year we are collecting socks (Men’s, women’s and children’s)) and blankets. Blankets can be gently used.  These items need to be to school no later than Thursday, March 29th.  Thank you for your support.

untitledOral Biographies: Please send in your requests for days/times for the oral biography presentations on the Google Doc. I included a new link in the email that you will hopefully be able to edit with.  If you are not able to sign up, please email me your requested day and time and I will fill it in for you.  On Tuesday this week (13th) the students in 4A will have an hour of class work time for their oral biography projects. Students can work on their notes, plan/practice any part of their presentation, ask questions or get advice from their classmates or me. Every student needs to bring in their main book for the project, and any other sources of information they have. I will be going over the bibliography format and we will start to write rough drafts of the bibliographies. Even if they have already started or completed their bibliographies, they will write them again—which is good practice. This is a checklist that I will be going over in class with the students of things to strive for when presenting.  You should use this at home as well as your children are practcing.  They do not have to do all of the items on the list, but they provide some good areas of focus as the presenations are being prepared.

All students need to come to school with a plan of what they will be working on during the hour—and the materials they will need to use their time well. This also gives me a chance to check in with the students and see if they need anything as they prepare to present.

Spelling/LA words for Unit 19 were sent home last Friday. The test will be this Thursday since we do not have school on Friday. The students have been working hard on their mini bio posters in class. They will get a chance to practice presenting in the style of the big biography project when they share their posters in the “voice” of the person they wrote their report on.

Math: The students have been working hard to master the long division algorithm.  We will continue to build this skill along with problem solving.  Interpreting remainders will be a focus with our problem solving this week

Social Studies: We are delving into our Unit on the Oregon Trail.  Next week the students will begin a Oregon Trail simulation activity that is both an excellent learning tool and a fun way to learn about life on the trail.

Science: This week we will be finishing our unit on minerals, rocks, and soil by looking at weathering and erosion. The students will be able to define both weathering and erosion and give examples of each.

Homework: The bulk of homework time should be spent on the Oral Biography Presentations.  I will give extra time to complete as much math and other homework at school as possible in the next two weeks.

Have a wonderful week and Happy St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday!