Dear 4B Families,
Happy Spring and 5th Week of Lent. I hope you all had a great weekend. If you have not done so already, be sure to check your child’s filer for an envelope with the winter MAP scores and a permission slip (on pink paper) for a field trip to the Pacific Science Center. Please return no later than April 3. Thank you for also signing and returning the envelope with MAP scores as we will use it for the final report card in June.
Lent/Religion: Thank you for your generous contributions to St. Martin de Porres and the Rice Bowl for our Lenten giving. This week the collections are as follows:
Fri. March 27th St. Martin de Porres:
Last Names A-L: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Last Names M-Z: Men’s deodorant (regular or travel sized) or Brown Bag Lunches (perishable OK)
Religion: This week will start to focus on Holy Week activities, which will include a walk through the Stations of the Cross with the students as we read reflections together. We will also spend time discussing Palm Sunday and the Passion story and the important days of the Triduum. We will incorporate Bible work, looking up passages that follow along with our Lenten readings. Just a reminder that all students need to be able to recite the Memorare from memory by April 3rd at the latest.
Language Arts: The students are writing their first Flat Stanley journal entry which is an introduction. Some are starting drafts of a second entry of Stanley at school. The students will receive their laminated flat person they created this week. If you are planning any kind of outing–even a Costco trip or getting an ice cream cone–take a picture with the Flat Person… Take lots of pictures. Even if a picture does not end up as part of a story, they can be added to the “appendix” at the end of the journal. Students should also take notes on things they want to remember, pick up brochures or keep ticket stubs of any “adventures” so they will have the information to write their drafts later. Let us know if you have any questions. Have fun with this!!
Oral Biography Project: Oral Biographies: The oral biography presentations will take place from April 23-May 1st. Nightly HW time should be devoted to oral bio work. I will plan to give the students some extra class time to start math HW at school when possible so there is more time for biography work. Students will get some extended class time at school this Tuesday and Thursday to work on their bio projects in class. They should bring in any supplies, books, note cards etc they will need to use this class time wisely. Each student will come home with some note cards they can use. If they already have some they can send back what we pass out. Also, we will be creating a bibliography of sources. Remember, each student should have a least 3 sources of information. One is their book of course, the other two could be books, internet sites, movies/documentaries, Brainpop, etc. Keep track of the names of any online sites used for the bibliography we will complete in class together
Spelling: This week’s words were passed out last Friday. The test will be Friday the 27th. These spelling words all have suffixes er or est. There will not be a spelling test Holy Week, March 30th – April 3rd.
Reading: Students are continuing to read the story, The Moon Over Star written by Dianna Hutts Aston. This story is a historical fiction that focuses on the essential question “How do inventions and technology affect your life?” We will look at the positive and negative effects. Students will use text evidence to support written responses through our discussions.
Social Studies: The River and Lake test will take place this Friday the 27th. We are nearing the end of our journey with Lewis and Clark. We will then move into our study of the Oregon Trail which will lead us to the early settlers of what will become Washington State.
Science: Students are continuing to discover the basics of how their eyes work, and figure out some of the causes of vision problems. In the activity, Eye Model, students develop a working model of a human eye. They use a magnifying lens as a model of the cornea to explore how the structure of this lens is related to the function of our eyes.
Math: We continue our unit on fractions. This week students will compare and order fractions as well as learn about mixed numbers and improper fractions. We will also continue to practice reducing fractions to their simplest form. As you know, reducing fractions involves multiplication and division! Keep up on that fact practice for automatic recall,
Have a wonderful week everyone. Thank you for all you do!