Dear 4B Parents,
I hope you all had a nice weekend. March is finally here and hopefully it will bring with it a change in the weather. Please be sure to continue to have your children bring jackets or coats with hoods on days when it looks like rain.
Lent: Grade 4 Lenten Outreach Overview:
- Collecting money for Uganda. Please send in at least one dollar (or more). Our overall school collection goal came up quite short last month.
- Rice Bowls (brought to school the last week of March)
- St. Martin de Porres Friday lunches. These can be perishable as they will be distributed same day. The remaining extra items are as follows: March 9th: Travel size toothpaste and toothbrushes, March 23: Men’s socks.
- Each grade also selects an addional organization to support. Grade 4 has been supporting St. Vincent de
Paul Society for many years. This year we are collecting socks (Men’s, women’s and children’s) and blankets. Blankets can be gently used. These items need to be to school no later than Thursday, March 29th. Thank you for your support.
Religion: We will be wrapping up our work on the Sacraments this week. Lent remains at the heart of all of our religion lessons. The students will be introduced to the Ten Commandments as our next religion unit. We will focus on how the Ten Commandments apply to our actions and the choices we make in 4th grade. Our Second Step lessons will focus on joining in and showing compassion.
Math: Our classwork will be focusing on divsion of larger numbers (long division). This is a skill, like multi-digit multiplication, that takes focused practice to master the algorithm. Just as important is the problem solving piece of our classwork. Students will need to be able to identify the operations that are needed to complete multi-step story problems especially as realated to multiplication and division. Check your child’s filer for corrected tests from last week.
Social Studies: Corrected river and lake tests will be in your child’s filer on Monday. I was so proud of how well the students prepared for this test. Knowledge of the rivers will be important as we move forward in our studies. We are wrapping up our study of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and moving into our unit on the Oregon Trail.
Science: This week we are learning about soil. We will be focusing on the different types of soil, comparing and contrasting them, and the different soil layers or horizons.
Reading/LA: We continue with our study of myths and folktales. Students are learning about adages and proverbs along with the elements of the Hero’s Journey. This week we will be comparing the myth Hercules with a traditional folktale.
Oral Biography Projects: Students should be finished or close to being finished reading their books at this point. Note taking should be the main goal as they re-read portions of their books. Organizing notes into sections like; childhood, young adulthood, adult/main accomplishments/ later years can help with planning. Focus on one section at a time, plan and write notes, then practice that section before moving on. Remember, these are the areas that need to be included in the presentation. I realize not all of the biography choices will have all of these sections, for example, Anne Frank will not have an adult section, fill in the information that applies to your individual person.
Framework of the Presentation:
- Brilliant beginning that catches the audiences attention. This is often an exciting or important moment of the person’s life
- Childhood/family information
- Schooling/occupations
- Important accomplishments and how they were reached—be sure to include times of struggle and how challenges were overcome
- Later years
- Final thoughts when the student speaks in his or her own voice explaining what they most admire and how this person has positively impacted our world and what we can learn from this person.
This week I will be going over brilliant beginnings with the students and sharing a few examples. I will also be answering any questions they have. The students will also learn about bibliographies and how to write them. Please make sure they have at least one book at school tomorrow to practice writing their bibliography. Students will come home with an instuction sheet to create their bibliographies with their sources of inforamtion. Remember, at least three sources of information are required for this project.
Spelling: Lesson 18 spelling words were passed out last Friday. The test will take place this Friday as usual.
- oral biogarphy preparations
- math homework most nights if not completed at school
- studying Lesson 18 spelling words.