Dear 4A Families,
I hope you all had a nice weekend despite the rainy weather. Last Thursday I send out an email and hard copy of a letter about the upcoming All Saints’ Day Masses. Please turn in the form or email me with your response by Wednesday so that we can proceed with planning the Masses. Thank you! Also, if you have not yet turned in the pink permission slip for Pike Place Market please do so right away.
Thank you all so much for your support of the Magazine Sale. We will have the final assembly on Friday at 2:00 to find out how we did and who the top sellers are.
This Tuesday we have an All-School Mass at 10:15. Students should be in perfect uniform. Please join us if you are able.
Standardized Testing
The 4th grade testing window this year will be October 17-28th . Homework will be light during testing weeks. There will be a spelling test this week, but not the following two weeks. Students should continue work on math fact mastery with XtraMath and nightly reading. Be sure students get plenty of sleep, eat a good protein packed breakfast, and come with a healthy snack (protein encouraged). We will take plenty of “brain breaks” so the students will be able to do their best on the tests!
Along with the IOWA tests, students in grade 4 and 7 take the CogAT or Cognitive Ability Tests. This three-session test will be administered after our completion of the IOWA tests. The CogAT measures reasoning and problem-solving skills in three different areas: verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal. Reasoning skills develop gradually throughout a person’s lifetime and at different rates for different individuals. Reasoning abilities can be good predictors of success in school. CogAT does not measure such factors as effort, attention, motivation, and work habits, which also contribute importantly to school achievement.
Touching Safety Program: Holy Rosary School, along with all the schools in the Archdiocese, will be teaching the second year of the sexual abuse prevention program called Touching Safety. This program is provided to us by the Archdiocese of Seattle and is part of our ongoing effort to help create and maintain a safe environment for children and protect all children from sexual abuse. We will be teaching two lessons again this year. The first will be this month (October), the second in March. For more information I am including this linked detailed program overview. The topic of the October lesson is Boundaries: Students learn about personal boundaries and how identifying and honoring those boundaries can give a child or young person the self assurance needed to speak up when someone tries to step over the line.
Social Studies: The NE state test will take place this Tuesday the 11th.. Thank you. Just a reminder, students need to know both the locations and correct postal abbreviations of the states. We will be wrapping up this portion of our latitude and longitude studies this week, but we will continue to reinforce the use of latitude and longitude throughout the year. The students will be doing some final activities and assessments related to our class work.
Science:
Math: Look for math homework each night this week. Thank you for your continued support checking over your child’s work for accuracy. Just a reminder when answering story problems; Students should always properly label answers to story problems. For instance, if a problem asks, “How many more children liked Skittles than M&M’s?” their answer could be worded: 354 more children liked Skittles. When answers to story problems are correctly labeled it shows they truly understand the question and what they are computing. Students are encouraged to read aloud story problems and underline important information. Wednesday’s homework will be a practice math computation test to give the students some familiarity with the format of this portion of the test.
Reading: We are enjoying getting to know the characters in Charlotte’s Web. The students have written their own Postcards from the Barn which they will share with you at their conference. The vocabulary words that we are focusing on from the story are also on Vocabulary/Spelling City. Students can review the words and their meanings which will help them prepare for a final vocabulary test when we finish the book.
Spelling: Spelling list for Unit 25 were sent home last Thursday. This week the words are contractions. Along with proper spelling and apostrophe placement, the students should know what words the contraction stands for. All students will have a worksheet on which they are to write quality sentences using the spelling words. This is due by Friday.
Religion: Next Monday or Tuesday the parts and readers for the All Saint’s Day Mass will be selected. Even though all students will not have individual speaking or singing parts, they will each play an integral part in the Mass as a representative of their Saint and reciting the Prayer of St. Francis following Communion. In the past I have had students ask me if I will be making their saint costumes! If only I were so talented—and had that much time! Yes—that means the costume making it is up to you all. The costumes do not need to be elaborate. In the past students have used sheets, bathrobes, Halloween capes, etc. It is amazing what a bit of material can do! Past students are also great resources. I have posted some pictures of past saints for ideas. The students are off to a great start on their Saint Reports. Your child will show you his or her report during their conference. The students are doing well with their memorization of The Prayer of St. Francis. All students need to recite the prayer from memorization by October 27th at the latest. Thank you for continuing to practice the prayer at home regularly.
Have a great week everyone. During these fall days when the weather is unpredictable, students should always bring a raincoat (preferably with a hood) for recess. We do live in Seattle and drizzle happens! Also, if you have not done so already, all sweatshirts and coats should be labeled with the your child’s name. Thank you!
~Ms. Simpson