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Cheering on our Classmates at the Geography Bee Today!
Important Dates
1/9-1/20 Star Renaissance Testing Window
1/20 Field Trip to the Nursing Home - Drivers Needed!
1/22 SJA Choirs Sing at Elizabeth Seton Church
1/25 Spell-A-Thon
1/29 SJA Open House
1/31 Spelling Bee
1/31 Biography Book Report Due
Sneetches and Segregation
Yesterday in class we read the play The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. The students then read a non fiction article about a girl named Ruby Bridges who was the first African American girl to attend an all white school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The students compared these two seemingly very different texts, connecting the overall themes and messages. This inspired a rich discussion about civil rights, equality, kindness and friendship. Today the students got to learn about segregation on an even more personal level. Starting in the morning, the students were divided into Star Belly and Plain Belly Sneetches. The two groups were not allowed to sit together, play together, use the same restrooms, drinking fountains, trash cans etc. The Star Bellies got to sit in the front of the room, go out to recess first, use iPads, sit on bean bags, and have other special privileges in the classroom. (We switched roles halfway through the day) As you can image this stirred up a lot of emotion: sadness, anger, jealousy... I heard "That's not fair" a lot today. We ended the day with a class meeting where the students had a chance to share all of these feelings and discuss how they connected them to what we have been learning about Civil Rights. Overall, I think the students learned a lot from the activity and will hopefully apply it to their relationships in and out of the classroom. Please take a few minutes tonight to ask them about their day!
Geography Bee
The following students represented the fourth grade today in the geography bee today: Gavin, Noah, Connor, Layli and Emma. All of the 4th graders made it to the third round of the bee. I was so proud of them!
Star Testing
The students will take the math portion of their Star Testing this Friday. Please make sure they are well rested and fed before coming to school. If your child missed either of the Testing days they will be provided a make up time during the regular school day with one of our resource teachers.
Germs
Sadly, there is a cold going around the class. We are doing our best at school to give lots of reminders to wash hands, sanitize desks and the rest of the classroom .... some of the moms even come Weekly to do an extra super duper clean job THANK You. That said, please remind your child to wash hands, not share food, get lots of rest, etc.
Thank You!
Spell-A-Thon is coming up on January 25th. Please support your students in getting pledges for this important fundraiser! In 4th grade the Spell-A-Thon will be a graded spelling test because all of the words on the list are review words from this year.
Nursing Home Visit this Friday from 1:15-2:30
Thank you to my parent chaperones: Katharine Prosch, Chantal Kimberlain, Pam Liebig, and Denise Eakin.
Grammar Unit 2 test this Friday on Nouns - we created a study guide foldable in class yesterday and the students have review work in their textbook to do each night to prepare for the test.
Island of the Blue Dolphins Poster Project due date extended to Tuesday
We have been working on this in class for the past several days. Tomorrow will be the last day of "class time" to work on the assignment. Anything not complete in class will be homework. Directions and a checklist were handed out in class this week.
Replacement novels
I loaned each student a copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins for our novel study. Many students did not take care of their novel (cover bent, pages ripped, etc.) and will need to replace it. You can find the novel on Amazon or any book store. A note went home today with the student if they need to replace their novel. Please check in with your child, thank you!
Homework: Please continue to check in with your child each night about their homework. Some students are not completing their homework or are not correctly reading their homework planner. I do not assign busy work, it is important that students complete their homework each night.
Sunday 1/29 kicks off Catholic schools week. Please join us at our Open House where you can come see your child's hard work in school. This is also a great time to share our beautiful community with family and friends. If your child wears their uniform of mass that day and visits their teacher in the classroom they will receive a free dress pass for Monday.
Book Reports due 1/31
Students should be taking notes on their graphic organizer as they are reading their novels. If they are finished with the book they should go back and re-read while taking notes and recording the page number. The students need the app 3D Morfo for this project. We used this app for the animal adaptations projects so they should be familiar with it. Instructions went home a few weeks ago and are also on my website.
1/9-1/20 Star Renaissance Testing Window
1/20 Field Trip to the Nursing Home - Drivers Needed!
1/22 SJA Choirs Sing at Elizabeth Seton Church
1/25 Spell-A-Thon
1/29 SJA Open House
1/31 Spelling Bee
1/31 Biography Book Report Due
Sneetches and Segregation
Yesterday in class we read the play The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. The students then read a non fiction article about a girl named Ruby Bridges who was the first African American girl to attend an all white school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The students compared these two seemingly very different texts, connecting the overall themes and messages. This inspired a rich discussion about civil rights, equality, kindness and friendship. Today the students got to learn about segregation on an even more personal level. Starting in the morning, the students were divided into Star Belly and Plain Belly Sneetches. The two groups were not allowed to sit together, play together, use the same restrooms, drinking fountains, trash cans etc. The Star Bellies got to sit in the front of the room, go out to recess first, use iPads, sit on bean bags, and have other special privileges in the classroom. (We switched roles halfway through the day) As you can image this stirred up a lot of emotion: sadness, anger, jealousy... I heard "That's not fair" a lot today. We ended the day with a class meeting where the students had a chance to share all of these feelings and discuss how they connected them to what we have been learning about Civil Rights. Overall, I think the students learned a lot from the activity and will hopefully apply it to their relationships in and out of the classroom. Please take a few minutes tonight to ask them about their day!
Geography Bee
The following students represented the fourth grade today in the geography bee today: Gavin, Noah, Connor, Layli and Emma. All of the 4th graders made it to the third round of the bee. I was so proud of them!
Star Testing
The students will take the math portion of their Star Testing this Friday. Please make sure they are well rested and fed before coming to school. If your child missed either of the Testing days they will be provided a make up time during the regular school day with one of our resource teachers.
Germs
Sadly, there is a cold going around the class. We are doing our best at school to give lots of reminders to wash hands, sanitize desks and the rest of the classroom .... some of the moms even come Weekly to do an extra super duper clean job THANK You. That said, please remind your child to wash hands, not share food, get lots of rest, etc.
Thank You!
Spell-A-Thon is coming up on January 25th. Please support your students in getting pledges for this important fundraiser! In 4th grade the Spell-A-Thon will be a graded spelling test because all of the words on the list are review words from this year.
Nursing Home Visit this Friday from 1:15-2:30
Thank you to my parent chaperones: Katharine Prosch, Chantal Kimberlain, Pam Liebig, and Denise Eakin.
Grammar Unit 2 test this Friday on Nouns - we created a study guide foldable in class yesterday and the students have review work in their textbook to do each night to prepare for the test.
Island of the Blue Dolphins Poster Project due date extended to Tuesday
We have been working on this in class for the past several days. Tomorrow will be the last day of "class time" to work on the assignment. Anything not complete in class will be homework. Directions and a checklist were handed out in class this week.
Replacement novels
I loaned each student a copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins for our novel study. Many students did not take care of their novel (cover bent, pages ripped, etc.) and will need to replace it. You can find the novel on Amazon or any book store. A note went home today with the student if they need to replace their novel. Please check in with your child, thank you!
Homework: Please continue to check in with your child each night about their homework. Some students are not completing their homework or are not correctly reading their homework planner. I do not assign busy work, it is important that students complete their homework each night.
Sunday 1/29 kicks off Catholic schools week. Please join us at our Open House where you can come see your child's hard work in school. This is also a great time to share our beautiful community with family and friends. If your child wears their uniform of mass that day and visits their teacher in the classroom they will receive a free dress pass for Monday.
Book Reports due 1/31
Students should be taking notes on their graphic organizer as they are reading their novels. If they are finished with the book they should go back and re-read while taking notes and recording the page number. The students need the app 3D Morfo for this project. We used this app for the animal adaptations projects so they should be familiar with it. Instructions went home a few weeks ago and are also on my website.
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