Dear 4B Families,
Happy October on Wednesday everyone!
This week the students will begin their Saint Report Projects as we prepare for the upcoming All Saints’ Day Masses. We will send out information/dates/times on the masses as soon as we have them set. Be sure to check filers on Monday for corrected spelling, math, continent and ocean tests, and two reading tests (vocabulary and comprehension.)
Special Saint Homework this week:
Religion/Language Arts: This Monday, September 30th, each student will be assigned the saint that they will write their report on as well as portray at the Mass. All of the work for this report will take place at school except for one homework assignment that is due this Thursday, October 2nd. Detailed directions for this homework assignment will be in your child’s filer on Monday, and will also be available on the website in PDF form. The students will be prepped fully with an example we complete at school. It is very important that families take time to carefully read through the directions of this assignment. We give the students three days to provide ample time to thoughtfully complete the task.. There will be no math homework Monday-Wednesday to provide extra time to complete this important work. Your assistance in helping your child read the materials and understand their saint is an integral part of the process. Please be sure the list of facts your child writes and all highlighted materials come back to school on Thursday—not sooner— when we will write the first drafts.
All students received two copies of the Prayer of St. Francis last week. Students should be practicing daily for memorization no later than October 29th. The students will recite this prayer at the All Saints Day Mass.
4B’s fall MAP testing is complete! I was proud of the hard work the students put into their testing.
Reading: Our essential question is:” How do your actions affect others?”. Our skill work includes making predictions, plot, conflict and author’s claim—opinion or position. Our main selection is a realistic fiction story involving a conflict that needs to be resolved. Our paired selection is an expository text called, “Speaking out to Stop Bullying.” This story ties in nicely with our Second Step/Anti-Bulling lessons which will include topics on bystander power and responsibility.
Spelling/LA: This week’s words focus on short and long “e” The study sheet was passed out last Friday and should be in your child’s filer. The test this week will be on Friday, October 3rd. The students will begin writing Halloween Haikus this week. Next week we will be typing them up in the lab and decorating them for a special bulletin board.
Math: Corrected math tests for the place value chapter will be returned on Friday. The students did very well on the test. We will be using the place value and rounding concepts covered in this chapter all year. Chapter 2 is all about addition and subtraction of large whole numbers. Students are continuing to work on developing good habits in math class and all subjects.The good habits of reading carefully, following directions completely, and checking over work for accuracy in both classwork and homework are ongoing areas of focus. XtraMath is an excellent resource to build fact mastery. Success with fact mastery requires regular, focused practice. Thank you for encouraging your child in this area with a goal of visiting Xtramath at home at least three times a week along with our school practice. Since most students are doing well with basic addition, we will be moving them into subtraction practice soon.
Science: We will be continuing the first lesson on volcano patterns. The students will explore the past and present pattern of where volcanoes exist on earth. They will also be mapping and plotting volcanoes. The students will be analyzing the maps and discovering that volcanoes form a “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean! We will also be starting lesson two which will allow students to investigate how differences in lava types explain differences in the shape and eruption patterns among volcanoes. In the activity, Bubble Trouble, students compare two different types of “lava” — thin and thick. They use this information to figure out why volcanoes have different shapes and how the type of lava explains why some volcanoes explode.
Social Studies: Your child’s corrected Continent and Ocean tests will be in filers on Monday. We have been learning about latitude and longitude and reading maps in Social Studies. The students will apply this knowledge as they locate places using latitude/longitude coordinates, as well as learning to read different types of maps including precipitation, population and elevation.
Here’s to a great week of learning ahead.