Dear 4A Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Our fall MAP testing continues this week with reading. We will test on Thursday at 8:45 again. All test information will be posted on Google Classroom right before the test begins. I am proud of the hard work and attention the students gave to the math portion of the test last week. Thank you all for your support getting the students going as well.
We are thrilled to be able to participate in the All Saints Day Masses this year. It will look a bit different, but we want to make sure this is still a meaningful experience for fourth graders, even during a pandemic. Here is a repeat of the information we sent home via email last week.
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The students will participate in an All-School Mass dressed as their Saint, either on Wednesday, October 28th, or Wednesday November 4th. Twenty-two students (and their families) will attend each mass. Here is a link to the Sign-Up Genius to select the Mass you wish to attend. Please make your selection before October 19th. Thank you!
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We will also ask for some 4th grade saint participation at the 10:30 Sunday Mass on November 1st. This will include a separate sign up and more information will come later.
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Students will be selected to do readings at each Mass.
What we need from you at this time:
1. Start planning a costume for your child. Costumes do not have to be fancy. Many students use robes, graduation gowns, or just material that’s laying around. Look up pictures of your child’s saint for ideas. We also encourage some type of symbol that relates to the saint, like a cross, bible, flowers, basket, etc. I have included some pictures at the end of this email of past saints. There are also pictures in the tab above called Saint Report and Mass Info.
2. Once you have your costume created, we ask that you take pictures for us. We will be creating a slideshow of the saints that will play at the Masses. We are asking you to take three pictures:
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One portrait (head and shoulders)
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One full body (include the symbol if you have one)
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One action shot—this could be imitating the saint for something he/she is known for: writing, teaching, helping the poor, praying etc.
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We ask that these pictures be sent to us by October 22nd, so we can create the slideshow in time for the first mass on October 28th.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time. We are looking forward to it!
Math: We are wrapping up our chapter on addition and subtraction of large numbers. We are working towards Striving for Accuracy with math computation, which means reading questions carefully, and double-checking work as needed. Most of the errors on classwork have been with basic computation or rushing through the steps of adding and subtracting without thinking carefully. Students should always properly label and write sentences for answers to story problems. For instance, if a problem asks, “How many Skittles does Karla have altogether?”, their answer should look like: Karla has 341 skittles altogether. When answers to story problems are correctly labeled it shows that the problem is clearly understood. Students are encouraged to underline important information in story problems to focus their reading. We will be doing a full test review on Thursday, and the Chapter 2 Assessment is planned for the following Monday. Please take some time to check in with your child about the current math topics. Thank you for your assistance.
Social Studies: The students had practice looking up locations using latitude and longitude coordinates for locations in the United States. We will continue to practice this skill, along with reading population, elevation and rainfall maps. The students will take an open note quiz on Thursday to show what they know about latitude, longitude and the map skills we have been working on. Next Tuesday, October 20th, the students will be tested on the locations and abbreviations of the 11 NE States. They will also need to be able to label the locations of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Atlantic Ocean, Canada, Cape Cod and Long Island. All students should have a study sheet we created and you can also access additional study sheets in the Map Study Sheet tab above.
Science: Students will be going through sense stations this week. Each station will test the students’ senses as well as help them to think about the ways in which the brain sends messages throughout the body. Normally, we would include all senses in the stations at school. Because of the pandemic, we will do modified versions of taste and smell. This is a great opportunitThis is a great opportunity for you to set up your own science experiment at 
home! For taste, you can have your child blindly taste something edible, describe the taste, and guess what it is. The smell station can be similar. You can get creative and use candles, essential oils, food, drinks, lotions, etc. This is a fun way for siblings/families to create their own experiments and test them out on each other!
Reading: This week, we will begin our first novel, E.B. White’s 
masterpiece, Charlotte’s Web. Even if your child has read this book before, we will delve into themes and vocabulary that will both inspire and challenge the students. Charlotte’s Web is a beautiful expression of true friendship. The story is also masterfully written to reinforce and build advanced vocabulary and comprehension skills. The book lends itself perfectly to our reading standards and target skills—and never ceases to enchant! (You can probably tell I love this book!)
Spelling: The words for Lesson 4, short and long o. are in your child’s filer. The test this week will be on Thursday!
Language Arts/Religion: Thank you all so much for your hard work at home with your children to read and prepare the notes for the saint report last week. This week the students will be completing their first drafts, and begin the process of editing and revising. The students will also get to start on some of the artistic sections of their project. Remember to also keep practicing the Prayer of St. Francis. All students need to be able to recite this prayer from Memory by October 26th at the latest.
Spelling: The next set of words for spelling can be found in the spelling packet that came home in the latest pick-up. This week’s words are vowel/consonant/e. The test will take place on Thursday this week on Spelling City. You can access the spelling words on Google Classroom and in the Spelling tab above.
Have a wonderful week everyone. Remember, there is no school on Friday due to a teacher inservice. . Enjoy the extended weekend.