Week of October 17-21

Dear 4A Families,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend despite the smoke!  Our retreat on Friday was inspirational and enjoyable. It was nice to be able to connect with the teachers at Our Lady of Guadalupe as well.  We have a busy and exciting couple of weeks ahead!

All Saints’ Day Preparations:

Hopefully you have started to plan your child’s saint costume. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you all for signing up to attend one of the weekend masses on the 29th and 30th with the Sign Up Genius. We will be selecting readers for the Masses later this week and begin practicing in the church next week.  Even though all students will not have an individual speaking part, all students take part in the service by processing in, standing during the Litany of Saints and coming forward to recite the Prayer of St. Francis.  It is a lovely service. Be sure to let us know if you have any questions about the saint project or upcoming masses.

Mid-Trimester Reports will be sent home on Friday, October 21st. These envelopes will also contain the Fall MAP test scores.  I ask the students not to open the envelopes until they get home.  I will have put a sticker over the flap.  Look for an envelope in your child’s filer.  Please sign and return the envelope only–keep the mid-tri.  Thank you.

Religion: 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!  All students need to be able to recite the prayer from memory by October 25th. All students will individually recite the prayer during class. Thank you!  We will be going over the details of the All Saints Day Mass with the students this week, and those students selected to read during the Mass will come home with their readings to practice. 

We will be having our Safe Environment lesson on boundaries on Monday. The students will come home with a worksheet Monday they should share with you to share/discuss what we covered in class.  Thank you!

Math:  The Chapter 2 test on addition and subtraction of large numbers will be on Thursday this week. We will be reminding students about the habit of striving for accuracy. The Tuesday and Wednesday HW will be test review sheets.  Thank you for checking over their work with them. 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 will move all students to multiplication on Xtramath this Thursday.  I would like them to visit Xtramath at least 4 times each week (in 7 days) until mastery is reached. Students are also encouraged to use flash cards and other practice strategies. It is great to keep flash cards in the car for quick review sessions.

Reading: As mentioned the students will be finishing up their Postcards from the Barn then and we continue on our journey with Wilbur and his friends in the barn.  The students are working on vocabulary, oral reading fluency and understanding character traits.

Spelling: Our spelling words this week all have the vowel-consonant-e pattern.  The test will be on Friday, October 21st.  

Language Arts: The students are hard at work on their saint reports and their postcard from the barn! We have some creative and clever writers in 4th grade. 

Social Studies: The students will be tested on the NE State locations and abbreviations on Thursday, October 27th.  Students should know both the abbreviations and the locations of these 11 states along with some added regional features (listed on the study sheets).  Last week I went over the states with the students and showed them the online practice sites I have created for both locations and abbreviations. They also have the study sheet in their filer.

Science: This week the 4A students will be finishing up the Weathering and Erosion lesson and both classes will be starting the Sedimentary Rock and Fossils lesson. We will go back in time and discover what life used to look like 100 million years ago!​ The students will gather evidence to describe how environments on Earth have changed over time. Students will explore the process of sedimentary rock formation preserves a record of those past environments. The activity is called Canyon Explorer where students will observe fossils found within a model canyon. The characteristics of those fossils provide evidence to support the explanation that the landscape has changed numerous times. 

Remember to check your child’s filer for corrected tests.  This week you should find a religion open book test on Saints, Charlotte’s Web chapter 3 reading assessment, subtraction timed test, an addition and subtraction quiz and the spelling test.

Let’s pray for some rain to put out those fires!