Dear 4A Families,
I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Thank you all for your generous support of the Magazine Sale—it was a great success. If you have not yet gone over the Behavior/Work Skills self and teacher assessment that is in your child’s filer, please do so this week. Return it signed with the three goals your child selected to focus on. Thank you so much. Mid-trimester reports will come home on Friday, October 26th.
Religion: By the end of the week the reading and singing parts for the All Saint’s Day Mass will be selected. Even though all students will not be able to have individual speaking or singing parts, they will each play an integral part in the Mass as a representative of their Saint when they “March In,” stand when their name is called during the litany, and by reciting the Prayer of St. Francis following Communion. We will be practicing in the Church beginning next Thursday.
You will be receiving a hard copy of this note in your child’s filer on Monday. Please return it by this Friday, at the latest, to let us know if you will be able to attend the Sunday, November 4th Mass where the 4th grade “saints” will again participate, this time for the larger community.
Continue to practice the Prayer of St. Francis. It is a great bedtime prayer, and practicing right before you go to sleep helps with retention! This visual version might also be helpful for practice.
Reading: We are enjoying getting to know the characters in Charlotte’s Web. The students are finishing up their own Postcards from the Barn, which they will share with you at their conference in November. They will also be on display in the hallway. 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/LA: Spelling lists for Unit 3 were sent home last Friday and the test will be this Friday as usual. The students are doing lots of writing at school! In addition to the Postcards from the Barn, we are also created Halloween Haikus and are hard at work on our Saint Reports.
Math: Look for corrected math tests in your child’s filer. The students did quite well on the test. We are moving into our units on multiplication and division of larger numbers. We will begin with the basics, which also means getting back to mastery/quick recall of the facts. I have moved all students to multiplciaiton on Xtramath. I would like them to visit Xtramath at least 4 times each week (in 7 days). It is best to complete only one session each visit, rather than doing several sessions in one sitting. As we move into this next unit Mrs. Podell and I will begin flexible groupings duirng math classes. This means some students will be having math class with Mrs. Podell and some 4B students will come to 4A for math. We will be working on the same chapters and concepts but students needing extra support and time to master concepts will be able to move at a pace that best meets their learning style, and those students that would benenfit from extra challenge and the ability to move at a faster pace will get that opportunity. The groupings are fluid and may change from unit to unit based on progress.
All of the students will be introduced to an excellent online adaptive math program called Redbird that will support and build a deeper understanding of our math content. We are able to monitor their work in real time which will allow us to support their work and progress. The visual below gives a brief overview. You can also learn more and see some samples by going to this link. In coming weeks some homework may be given from this site. Stay tuned.
Social Studies: Look for corrected NE/SE State map tests in your child’s filer. The students did very well on this test! This week the students will bring home a study sheet for our upcoming Latitude and Longitude test. I have changed the date for the test to next Tuesday, October 23rd. We will review and practice the map skills in class that the students will use on the test. At home they should review the vocabulary on the study sheet. The next set of states will be the Midwest States. The Midwest State test will take place on October 30th.
Science: This week students will be completing part two and three of activity two in our PLTW module on energy. In part two of the activity students will watch a video on energy and learn about different forms of energy in the world around them and review energy conversion. In part three students will work together in groups to create a presentation based on one of the stations they visited last week in part one of activity two. The presentation will also contain information that they learned from watching the video in part two. They will then share their presentations with the class.
Homework Overview: Look for math homework most nights. Visit Xtramath at least 4 times (in 7 days). Spelling Unit 3, review for latitude and longitude test with study sheet that will come home Tuesday, and begin to review the Midwest states.
Have a great week everyone.
