Dear 4th Grade Families,
I hope you all had a nice weekend. Happy May! I was so happy to return to school on Thursday and see my wonderful students. To kick off the 
class/grade project online auction, Mrs. Horton has authorized a Hawaiian free dress on Tuesday this week! Students can come in colorful Hawaii-themed dress.
Thank you so much for the Lunches of Love that have already come in! We will continue collecting lunches for the next couple of weeks.
May is the Month of Mary, the mother of Jesus. On Wednesday grades K, 4 and 6 wil bel attending Mass in person which will include the May Crowning. We are asking each student to bring in a flower on Wednesday that we will combine to make a bouquet to bring forward during the Mass. Please be sure all students arrive to school by 8:30 on Wednesday so we have time to take attendance and get over to the church promptly.
Math: We will review chapter concepts on Monday and Tuesday and take the Chapter 9 test on Wednesday. The focus is on using operations (add, subtract, multiply) with fractions. The homework Monday/Tuesday nights will be a test review to go along with our classroom review. The students will do the odd problems on Monday night and the Even problems on Tuesday night. It is still important to keep up with daily multiplication and division fact practice. Want an extra challenge? Time your child on converting mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa. This will sharpen their fractions skills and help them be ready for fifth grade concepts
Language Arts: Students learn about diamanté poems and how to use good word choice in order to include nouns, adjectives and adverbs in their poems.
Spelling: The spelling words for the week were sent home with the students last Friday. The words this week all have suffixes of “er” or “est” and the test will be this Friday, May 6th.
Flat Stanley: Final entries (Spring Break adventures) were originally due this Monday, May 2nd. Some students have already turned in these entires. Since I was out Monday through Wednesday last week, I am extending the due date to May 6th. Thank you for supporting your child through this creative writing project. The children really learned a lot of new skills–both in writing and in time-management. Students should bring back their entire Flat Staley folder, including the final drafts as well as pictures. If you need more time to print out pictures, that is OK, students can bring the pictures in next week. We’ll assemble the entries into a book and use the pictures to decorate. We will also add another entry here at school to wrap things up. This will all be accomplished over the next couple of weeks here at school.
Big Bio Projects: Students are getting close to presenting their oral biography reports. They’ve had several class periods to work on reading, researching and note-taking. Many students have been practicing using their note cards throughout this process. Don’t worry if your child is still preparing–there is still time. Presentations will be from Thursday, May 11-Wednesday May 18. Students will be able to choose any one of those days with the caveat that we’d prefer not to have more than 5 students present per day. If you foresee a problem with your child being ready to present on one of these days, just let us know in advance and we will work with you.
The best oral biography presentations include PVLEGS: poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures (or props in this case) and appropriate speed. As your child practices at home, focus on one of these each time they practice or it will be too overwhelming. We want this to be fun! The costumes (even something very simple) and props make it special for the kids, so take a few minutes to help them brainstorm some ideas if they haven’t already. Presenting like this can be a little scary, but we know everyone will do their best.
Reading: Students read chapters 7 & 8 in The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Our target comprehension skills are: inferring and predicting, determining importance. Students respond to what they’ve read through oral discussions and journal writing. Students practice these skills by choosing and defending what they think is the most important sentence in each of these chapters.
Religion: This week we will begin Ch. 7 which explains the eight Beatitudes. The Beatitudes teach us what we need to do to be truly happy. They guide us in the ways we can live the Great Commandment and love one another.
Science: Students continue to learn about energy as they explore how high the hills of a rollercoaster can be and how this relates to energy.
Social Studies: Look for corrected WA State River and Mountain tests in your child’s filer on Monday. Last week the students learned the amazing Mother Joseph who was known as “The Builder,” Mother Joseph designed and/or supervised construction of 29 schools and hospitals, including the first hospital in Washington State in Vancouver and Seattle’s first hospital. We will continue our wonderful Washington history this week learning about the Denny Party!
Google Classroom Access: Some of our upcoming social studies tests will be taken on Google Classroom. It is important that all students can access Google Classroom from their iPads. If they have been logged off and do not know their password, this will need to be resolved. Thank you for checking this with your child, and making sure they have their Google Classroom password written in their assignment book.
Be on the lookout for a special project the students will bring home on Friday for Mother’s Day.
Wishing all of the wonderful 4th grade moms a very special day on Sunday!