Dear 4B Families,
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spring vacation.
We now are in the final stretch of the year—hard to believe. Hopefully the students are rested up and ready to go! As we head into these final weeks and the weather gets nicer, it can be easy to lose focus and dream of summer, but so much important curriculum remains which will set the stage for 5th grade. Thank you for your support in keeping your child focused and attentive to projects, test preparation and homework. Be sure you check your child’s filer regularly for corrected papers and remove them. Students are asked to put corrected work in the front pocket, but I often find it in other sections.
Lunches of Love: 4th Grade is signed up for Lunches of Love during the month of April. This is a cherished Holy Rosary tradition, and we are honored to continue it this month. Items that make good lunches include nuts/trail mix, fruit cups, protein bars, individually packaged chips/crackers, Vienna sausages, jerky, Ritz cheese/crackers (shelf-stable only), and a plastic spoon/fork. Water is the drink of choice. We also encourage students and families to write an encouraging and positive note with each lunch (no names, please). Students can bring in lunches whenever they are complete. Students are highly encouraged to take part in the purchasing and packing of the lunches! All students will come home with a decorated bag for their first lunch on Monday along with a list of suggested items. Thank you.
Oral Biographies: The oral biography presentations are fast approaching! If you have not yet signed up for a day/time for your child to present, please do so this week. Over the next two weeks. I will provide some dedicated class times for oral bio project work in class. Students should plan to have their books, note cards and anything else they can use to work on at school on April 15th and 16th this week. Students should be making good progress with their notes, and practicing portions each night. The more practice they have speaking out loud—either in a mirror or to family, the better prepared they will be. Next week, we will be completing the bibliography in class. Make sure students have their big bio books and information on the websites or videos they used to assist them when citing their sources.
Some important reminders for Oral Biographies:
- Students need to have a costume and at least two other props that are used during their presentation.
- Note cards should be neatly written or typed, not too many words per card, and numbered. Highlight reminders like when to use a prop, or pause her and bow my head, etc.
- Plan a brilliant beginning to catch the viewer’s attention such as a pivotal moment in their life.—No saying. “Hi my name is” or “Oh, I didn’t see you there…” We will go over ideas and look at some samples of great beginnings this week.
- The conclusion is in the student’s own words. They need to give specific examples of what they admire and why…how has this person made the world a better place? What can we learn from this person–how does this person inspire you to be better, etc.
- Remember to work to include elements of PVLEGS
- Do not hesitate to reach out with any questions!
Religion:This week we will be reflecting on the Easter Season and making Easter Candle Crosses to decorate our classroom and hallway as well as continue our study of the 10 Commandments. The students will need to be able to fill in missing words from the Ten Commandments for a test on April 16th
Reading: Students will be reading the story A Drop of Water by Walter Wick. The essential question is, What can you discover when you look at something closely? We will read expository texts that focus on looking at things closely, use text evidence to understand the story and answer comprehension questions, and learn new vocabulary words. It is important that students stay attentive and participate during reading to understand the story and do well on the tests.
Also on Tuesday this week we will have individual reading goal setting meetings with each student. During the meetings we will be looking at the Reading MAP scores from fall to winter, as well as reading habits at home and school. We will fill out an action plan to support both reading growth in class and on the MAP tests. We will send home a copy of the action plan so that you can also support your child’s goals at home.
Math: Our new chapter in math focuses on operations with fractions. Students will use their skills with simplifying fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions as they learn to add, subtract and multiply fractions. Thank you for checking over your child’s homework for accuracy.
Science: In the third lesson, students delve further into the workings of the eye, exploring the function of their iris and pupil. In the activity, Pupil Card, students add a smaller pupil to the eye model that they created in the previous lesson. Then they observe how the changing size of the pupil controls how much light enters the eye.
Social Studies: This week we will delve deeper into the Oregon Trail. The students will gain background information as they complete a QR Code Scavenger hunt that will
Flat Stanley: Hopefully the flat people had a fun spring break! All students should have their journals, directions and interesting word lists (on Yellow Paper) in their filer/journal. Be sure you have your child talk with you about the directions, as well as reading the directions yourself for the homework part of the journal. Let us know if you have any questions. Students should write rough drafts before they write final drafts in their journals.
Spelling: This week’s words are vowel diphthongs /oi/ and /ou/. Lists should be in your child’s filer. .
Have a wonderful week everyone. I know I will see many of you this Friday for the Bingo Bash.