Dear 4A Families,
What an excellent first week of school with my wonderful new 4th grade students. It is clear to see that this will be an amazing year—with such a bright, kind, creative and fun group of students. I so enjoyed talking with you on Parent’s Night. Remember, if you have questions, suggestions, concerns, please contact me! We are partners in your child’s learning.
The Magazine Drive officially kicked off with the opening assembly last Friday. This year’s theme is “Stay on Target”. If we meet our fundraising goal, over $60K will come back to Holy Rosary! The annual Magazine Drive is one of Holy Rosary School’s largest fundraisers. In lieu of purchasing a magazine a donation may be made to Holy Rosary School. Every $25 donated equals 1 magazine. Thank you so much for your support of this important fundraiser! Please share this link with family and friends. Donations accepted via check or credit card at https://holyrosaryws.org/give/magazine-drive/
It looks like I have most of the email addresses for our 4A email list. I will be sending one more paper copy of the newsletter on Monday, but I will have sent a test email to all of the families that have provided me their email addresses so far on Sunday afternoon. Please let me know if you did not receive the email, or if you would like to change any of your email choices. You can expect a weekly email from me with the “Newsletter is Up” link and occasional emails with important reminders. I promise not to abuse this list! Thank you.
If you have not yet returned your pink student profile and green iPad user agreement, please do so by this Wednesday the 13th. Thank you
As we move into our second week of school, we will continue to practice the routines and expectations of 4th grade. The time we spend on these procedures now help to set the stage for a successful year. Our regular curriculum schedule will also start to move into place.
Spelling: Each student should have the spelling words for the cardinal numbers in their filer. This list will support our upcoming math lessons as well. These words were passed out last Friday. We will also be using a site called Spelling City this year. The site has many activities that will help the students review and practice their weekly lists. Your child’s password for the site will be in the zipper pocket of your child’s filer on Monday. For most students this password is the same as the reading site password that you received in the Parent’s Night packet. (I meant to include the Spelling City info in your Parent’s Night packet but forgot. L) Spelling homework will occasionally be assigned from this site, but we will mostly use it at school. You can always use the site for extra practice however.
Reading: Last week Ms. Corrigan began administering an oral reading assessment to the students, which will be completed Tuesday. On Wednesday we will begin our regular reading routine. We will start with a wonderful tall tale in our anthology called “Stormalong”. We will focus on understanding characters and the figurative language concepts of hyperbole, simile and metaphor.
Language Arts: We will be finishing up some introductory Venn Diagram getting to know you presentations this week. Along with our spelling and vocabulary work, we will be reviewing cursive forms and paper headings. The students will also be completing a beginning of the year writing sample that will help me with planning of future writing lessons.
Math: The students will be taking a beginning of the year math assessment on Monday that will help me to better plan for upcoming lessons and meet individual needs. Our lessons this week will focus on place value and comparing/ordering numbers. Measurement work will also be included in our math/science/social studies lessons. As a class we will visit the Mathletics site and set up some expectations for use of the site. Look for math homework on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Religion: Our religion lessons this week will focus on our Steps to Respect lessons and social skills. We will also be doing some introductory activities on the parts of the Bible, how to look up verses, as well as learn a bit about the history of the Bible. Lastly, the students will be making personalized bookmarks for their Bibles. During this Wednesday’s Mass Fr. Oakland will bless the 4th grade Bibles.
Social Studies/Science: –Mrs. Podell and I will be switching classes for science and social studies on Mondays and Thursdays this year. This week we will be meeting our classes and doing some introductory lessons.
In social studies, our initial lessons will focus on map work. We will review the continents and oceans and begin a study of latitude and longitude. Next Thursday, September 21st, the 4th graders will be tested on the Seven Continents and Five Oceans. All students will have study sheets in their filers on Monday. You can also access a study sheet on the 4A webpage under the tab at the top of our page called Map Study Sheets. The students will also need to have the Continent and Ocean poem memorized by September 21st.
In science, the students will be doing an introductory lab. This lab will be a great way to introduce lab procedures that we will be using all year long. Next week we will begin our first EIE kit, “Catching the Wind.”
Be on the lookout for information on our “gritty” classroom in next week’s newsletter. Grit and Growth Mindset fall into the same category. This short video is a good introduction to growth mindset and is one I will be sharing with the class. These are the traits we will be forcing on this year to become gritty!
COURAGE, TENACITY, HARD WORK, OPTIMISM, RESILIENCE, SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE, GRATITUDE, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, PERSEVERANCE, DELAYED GRATIFICATION, PERSISTENCE, SELF-CONTROL AND OPEN-MINDEDNESS.
Remember, this Friday is a half-day due to West Fest set up. Maybe I will see you there!
“Every Kid in a Park” Program: For those of you that enjoy visiting National Parks, your entire family can get free passes all year because you have a 4th grader! Check out this site for more information.
Have a great weekend!