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. We have a busy week ahead! Many of you have sent me your email addresses for the group email list. Thank you! If you have not yet had a chance please send me an email with the address(es) you would like me to include. I will send an email each week alerting you that the newsletter is up on our webpage and include a link to take you right to our class page.
Thank you for filling out and turning in the student profile attached to last week’s newsletter by this Friday.
I look forward to seeing you this Wednesday at Back to School Night. It is a great opportunity to get an overview of life in 4th grade!
As we move into our second week of school, we will continue to learn and practice the routines and expectations of 4th grade. Students are expected to respectful, productive members of their classes—allowing their teachers to teach and classmates to learn without disruption. Knowing and following these expectations will help make our year both productive and enjoyable! Thank you for your support. Our Social Contract is posted on the website.
Our regular curriculum will start to move into place this week. Homework will remain light, but students will have some assignments each night to get them into the routine of completing and turning in homework daily.
Sacred Story: This week the students will begin regular meditations from the Sacred Story program. I have attached a parent letter explaining the program. The entire school will be doing these mediations. They have different lessons and programs for each grade. It should be a wonderful addition to our religion curriculum, and a great way for the students to calm their minds, relax and reflect.
Religion: Our lessons this week will include the first Steps to Respect lessons on making friends and joining a group. Look for information on our first lessons attached to the newsletter. This ties in perfectly with our first reading theme; How do Friends Help Each Other? The students will also receive their Bibles. We will do some initial lessons on the parts of the Bible and how to look up Gospel verses. This Friday, at our Opening Mass, Fr. John will bless the Bibles for the students. Join us at 8:45 for the Mass if you are able.
Spelling: This week the students will have a spelling test. The lesson 1 list will be in your child’s filer on Monday as well as on the website in a PDF format. We will complete and correct most of the spelling practice sheets at school this week. I will be sending them home for you to see, and perhaps review with your child if you like. That way you will know what to expect for the following week.
Reading: Last week Ms. Corrigan began administering an oral reading assessment to the students, which will be completed tomorrow. These assessments, along silent reading assessments 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 begin our first lessons with our new reading series. I am so excited to use this wonderful new program. Our first story is Because of Winn Dixie. Look for more information on the reading components each week. You will receive passwords and directions on how to access the Journeys website and resources during Back to School Night.
Language Arts: Our language arts lessons will be integrated with our new reading program. This includes grammar, vocabulary, spelling and more. Our first LA lessons focus on prefixes re, un and dis, simple and compound subjects and predicates, nouns, sentence fluency and word choice.
Math: I am very excited to move into our second year with the My Math program. Today the students took a pre-assessment so that I can get a feel as to where they are regarding place value. This information will help me plan lessons and provide additional support or challenge as needed. Tonight you should look for a little letter regarding our first chapter in math as well as a math homework sheet that is due on Tuesday. Passwords and login information will be shared at Back to School Night.
Social Studies: Our first lessons will focus on map skills. We will begin with a review of the continents and oceans. The students will also learn to use latitude and longitude to find locations on a map. The students will be tested on the names and locations continents on oceans on September 19th. This is a review from 3rd grade. New for this year, the students will be memorizing a little poem about the continents. It is quite simple. Students will have practice time in class and may perform the poem individually, or in groups of two or three. All students will have a copy of the poem and map study sheet in their filer. They will also be available on the website in the SS & Map Resources tab.
The magazine sale kicked off last Friday with a very spirited assembly! Turn-In Tuesdays begin on the 16th. Thank you for your support of this important fundraiser!
Just a reminder that we have Fitness and Health classes on Mondays and Thursdays. Students should come with appropriate, supportive, athletic shoes with non-marring soles. Slip-ons are not safe for physical activity. Tuesday is library day and students need to have their books at school to return or renew. Thanks!
Those students that participated in the Summer Reading or Math programs sponsored by Holy Rosary should be sure to turn in their progress sheets so that they will be able to enjoy the rewards. Thank you!
That should be about all for now.
I will see you Wednesday night!