Week of September 21st

sunDear 4A Families,

Happy Monday and first day of fall on Wednesday. WestFest was great fun and the weather cooperated! So many HR parents and parishoners work so hard to make this event possible each year. It is a wonderful way to celebrate our community.

untitledPicture Day! Tuesday the 22nd is picture day. Students may enjoy free dress for their picture, or wear their uniforms. Order forms were sent home on the 11th. Extra forms are available in the office.

Religion: We are beginning our study of saints in preparation for the All Saint’s Day Mass, which will be held on Friday, October 30th. Each student has a copy of The Prayer of St. Francis in his or her filer. Memorization of this prayer is required before the Mass on October 30th. We will practice at school most days, but review at home will be necessary as well. This is a wonderful bedtime or morning prayer. You can access extra copies of the Prayer of St. Francis under the Religion tab. Please read the attached section of this newsletter regarding the upcoming Saint reports and All Saint’s Day Mass. The students will have a hard copy of this information as well.

Social Studies: This Wednesday the 23rd the students will be taking the continent and ocean test. The test itself will have a word bank. Students will also need to have the Continent Poem memorized this week. Our class work is focus on a group project we began last week. The students are creating large posters of the world continents. They will then work through a scavenger hunt of questions about the continents using their iPads and texts. The final step of the project will be to chart a course to Botswana with latitude and longitude coordinates.

untitledEvery Kid in a Park: Many of you already know about this program, but I want to also include a plug for this amazing offer.  Every 4th grade student (and their families) can have free access to National Parks for an entire year though this program.  Check it out!  They also have some great teacher resources that I will be incorporating into my SS lessons this year.

Science: This week the students will discuss the field of green engineering and practice asking and answering questions that help determine the environmental impact of a technology. Finally, we will distinguish between thermal conductors and thermal insulators and the materials that belong to each. I would like to send out a special thank you to all the parents who have offered to provide materials for our projects this year. As of right now I have all of the materials, but if that changes throughout the school year I will be sure to ask. Your generosity is truly heartwarming.

untitledMath: We will be wrapping up our first math chapter on Place Value this week. Thursday will be review day, and the Thursday math homework will provide practice/review as well. The test will be on Friday. The students have been exploring and enjoying the Mathletics site! If you are having any difficulties using the site at home, please let me know as I will generally assign homework at least once a week from the site.

The students were all able to show adequate mastery of their 2’s in multiplication. On Monday the students will be completing an oral/written “test” to assess their mastery of the facts from the 3’s to the 9’s. This will not be graded, but rather used to give me information to plan lessons/practice as well as give the students clear information on the facts they should focus on for their practice. Students will be making personal flash cards based on the assessment for their home pracatice. At school they will use an app to practice their specific facts. Using a variety of home practice approaches is encouraged. This can include flash cards, paper/pencil tests, computer/apps, music. The Mathletics site has a musical review site called Times Tables Tunes. Rainforsest Maths (also on Mathletics) has some basic fact practice as well. I have several sites linked at the bottom of the homework page where you can print out extra practice pages for math facts. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

untitledReading: On Monday and Tuesday the students will be exploring several wonderful tall tales/fables as a followup to the story Stormalong we read last week. The students will then create some artwork related to the stories and the figurative language they contain for our Tall Ship of Tall Tales bulletin boards. On Wednesday we will move into our first novel, E.B. White’s masterpiece, Charlotte’s Web! Charlotte’s Web is a beautiful expression of true friendship. The story is also masterfully written to reinforce and build 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! J)

Spelling: Lists for Lesson 5 were sent home last Friday. (Note, the lessons will not always be sequential). This week’s words are homophones.  Students will need to know both the spelling and meaning of the words. There will be a sentence dictation portion on the test as well.

Remember to check your child’s filer nightly for any notes, forms or corrected tests.  They should be in the School/Home section of the filer. Read below some important information about our upcoming saint report.

untitled Have a wonderful week!

Don’t forget to sell those magazines—GO BIG

 

 

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It is that time of year when we begin to prepare for our saint reports and the wonderful All Saint’s Day Mass. This week in class we will be doing some introductory work related to saints and give the students an overview of the saint project.

There are often questions as to how the saints are selected and if specific saints can be requested for this project. Hopefully the following will answer any questions you have.

Over the years we have created a large collection of “saint packets” of many wonderful saints. The packets contain kid friendly biographies/information on these saints that are perfect to use when writing the reports. Next Monday we will pass out a saint packet to each child—girls will have girl, boys will have a boy. Once each child has a packet they have the option of trading with classmates or selecting from the extras we have. Our goal is to have no duplicates in a classroom, but students in 4A and 4B can have the same saint. This process generally works well, and it is often very fun to learn about a saint you know little or nothing about. I do try to give students saints that have their name if possible.

If you have a particular saint you have your heart set on there are a few things we will need from you. First, email us (this week) and let us know your choice. If we have that saint as part of our packets-that should be easy. If we do not, it is important that we are able to access good, kid friendly material to use for the report. We will do our best to assist in this process, but you will need to locate information at home as well and have it to school no later than this Friday the 25th to be approved. All students will be assigned their Saint next Monday the 28th.

Please be understanding of our goal of having no repeats in each classroom. Every saint has a wonderful story—and it is a privilege to be able to honor them with the reports and the Mass.

So, to sum things up:

  • All students will be assigned a saint next Monday the 28th.
  • If you have a particular saint you would like to request, please do so no later than this Friday the 25th.
  • Thank you for being understanding—and supportive of the process.

Looking ahead…

1. Plan on being available to help your child with some saint report prep work homework next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (28th-30th) This is a pre-writing step that will help the students become “Experts” on their saint and more confident as they complete their reports at school.

2. The All Saints Day Mass is on Friday, October 30th. Each student will need a costume to emulate their saint. Look for more information in upcoming newsletters.

3. Please let us know if you have any questions. This is a very special project and event for the 4th graders!

Thank you!

Miss. Walder and Ms. Simpson