Dear 4A Families,
I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day Weekend.
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.
Most of you have let me know what email address(es) you want on our 4A group email list. I am in the process of compiling the 4A email list. I will be sending out a test email later this week to test it out. If you have not sent me your email preferences you will find a note in your child’s filer to remind you! T I will begin sending the newsletter is up email beginning next Sunday. It will include a link to take you right to our class page.
Thank you for filling out and turning in the green student profile by this Thursday.
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.
This week Fr. Oakland will be visiting all of the classrooms to talk with the students. His plan is to be in the classrooms monthly. He has a lot of wonderful knowledge of Saints and the Catholic History of Washington State which will both be wonderful discussion points in the future.
Religion: We will begin our formal religion lessons this week as we explore our religion texts. The students will also receive their Bibles. We will 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. This Friday the Opening School Mass will take place at 8:45. Since this is a Mass day, perfect uniform is required. No gator wear. The 4th grade students will have their Bibles blessed by Fr. Oakland. Join us if you are able.
Spelling: Each student should have the spelling words for the week in their filer. These words were passed out last Friday. This week’s words focus on the short and long a sounds. In class we will be working with the words and completing activities to support this skill.
Reading: Last week Ms. Corrigan began administering an oral reading assessment to the students, which will be completed Tuesday. These assessments, along with the silent reading and vocabulary inventories the students will completed last week will help us to better understand the individual reading needs of each student, and in turn, assist us in our planning for the year. We will also move into our first lessons in our anthology.
Language Arts: The class will be working on some beginning of the year writing samples this week. These samples, which will include a variety of writing forms, will help me plan skill lessons based on specific needs. They will also serve as great examples to show the students how much they were able to progress in their writing during the school year.
Math: Our lessons this week will focus on place value and comparing/ordering numbers. We will be introducing the students to the Mathletics site and signing them up. Look for login information in your child’s filer on Friday so you can access the site at home.
Social Studies/Science: –Ms. Walder and I will be switching classes for science and social studies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this year. This week we will be meeting our classes and doing some introductory lessons. In social studies, our initial lessons will focus map work. We will review the continents and oceans as well as learn about latitude and longitude. In science Miss Walder will be focusing her initial lessons on lab procedures and introducing the EIE solar oven project.
The magazine sale catalogs and information were sent home last Friday. This Friday we the always exciting magazine sale assembly will be taking place in the afternoon. The first “Tally Tuesday” will be September 15th. Thank you so much for your support of this important school fund-raiser.
That should be about all for now.
Have a great week.