Week of 12/18

This Week in Fourth Grade...

We have an exciting and festive week ahead of us! There will be a lot of Christmas cheer in the air!

Math: Last week we finished up Topic 5, and students were assessed on the mental math strategies we learned in multiplication. This week we will spend some time focusing on our math facts, before moving into Topic 6 when we return from break. Topic 6 will dive deeper into multiplication, so we want to prepare by reviewing and practicing our facts! 

Religion: This last week of Advent, we will begin to turn our focus to the Christmas story and read about the birth of our Savior. It never gets old, and I find each year, as we get older, we gain new insight and wonder into the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus! 

Reading and Language Arts: Last week we finished up our class novel James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl! The students and I loved our time reading this novel! This week we will be working on a culminating project to close out our study of this novel. Students will get a chance to practice their summarizing skills, and show of their creative and artistic abilities! 

Social Studies: Students have been doing a lot of exploring of the Southwest Region of the United States! On Wednesday, students will take their Southwest Region test. 

Announcements:

• Tomorrow is the last day to bring in gifts for our family we have adopted this Christmas! Thank you all so much for your support and contributions! This family will be greatly blessed this Christmas!
• On Thursday, 12/21, we have our Polar Express Day! Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas and bring in a pair of cozy socks or slippers to celebrate this last day before break! We will cozy up with hot cocoa and watch the Polar Express! Our Jingle Bell Dash is also this day, so please be sure to have your child come to school in tennis shoes. They will be able to change into slipper afterwards :) 

Merry Christmas and God Bless! 

Mrs. Drury

Week of 12/11

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: We have been working hard and practicing our mental math strategies for multiplying by 1 digit numbers. This week we will continue to practice and review the strategies of breaking apart, compensation, and rounding to estimate. Our Topic 5 test will be this Thursday, 12/14. 

Religion: Our Advent celebrations continue! This week we will have a special focus on Mary, and looking at her role in our lives as we continue to wait and pray this Advent season. On Tuesday we celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and we will ask for Mary's intercession in our lives! We are so blessed to celebrate the true reason for the season in our classroom! 

Reading and Language Arts: We are moving into Unit 3 this week in our Wonders Reading Program! Our essential question this week in reading is: How can we make new friends feel welcome? We will be reading fantasy genre stories this week to explore our question. We will also focus on the author's point of view while reading. 

In Writer's Workshop we are continuing the brainstorming and prewriting stages of our opinion pieces! Students will narrow down their ideas, and choose a topic this week!

Science: Our Waves Unit test will be on Tuesday, 12/12. Students were sent home with their study guides last week. The test will be on the topics of light and sound, force and motion, and magnets. 

Social Studies: We will be summarizing our explorations of the Southwest Region this week! Students will be working in their booklets and taking those booklets home at the end of the week. On the horizon... our Southwest Test will be next week on Wednesday 12/20 ( we don't want to forget all our information over break! ) 

Announcements:

• If you have not done so already, please be sure to return field trip permission slips by 12/20. Our trip to the Baltimore Aquarium will be the week we return from break on 1/6!
• Grandparents Day is THIS Monday! Grandparents/ Special friends are welcomed to SAS tomorrow morning for breakfast and a sneak peak at our Christmas program! Breakfast begins at 8:15 AM, and the program should run to about 9:30 AM.
• On the horizon... Our last day before break, Thursday 12/21, fourth grade will be having a Polar Express Day! Students will be allowed to wear their pajamas and bring in their favorite cozy slippers or socks. We will celebrate Christmas together with Polar Express themed activities and then watch the movie with some hot cocoa in hand! Our annual Jingle Ball dash will also be this day, so students should still come to school with appropriate running/walking shoes, and then they can change into slippers afterwards. A reminder note will be coming home as we get closer to our special day! It is going to be a fun day! 

Have a Blessed Week! :)

Mrs. Drury

Week of 12/3

Happy December and Happy First Week of Advent! This is such a beautiful season to celebrate with the students, and we have so many wonderful celebrations to look forward to! 

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: This week in math we will continue to build our foundation and understanding of multiplying by 1-digit numbers. We will explore some mental math strategies such as breaking apart and compensation to solve more difficult problems. 

Religion: The season of Advent has begun, and we will be in full swing preparing our hearts and minds for the birth of our Lord! We will be focusing on the meaning of this season, and identifying the meanings of all the different symbols we see during this season as well. 

Reading and Language Arts: Our essential question in RELA this week is: How are writers inspired by animals? We will be reading some poetry involving animals to explore this question. While reading, we will also focus on the point of view of the narrator. 

In Writer's Workshop we will be beginning our next unit! Students will be introduced to the features of opinion writing.We will begin to develop our opinion writing skills this week, and brainstorm ideas for our next writing piece! 

Science: We are finishing up our Magnets weekly five topic this week, and with that our Waves Unit! We will begin to review our Waves unit, which consisted of the topics: light and sound, force and motion, and magnets. Be on the lookout for a study guide coming home with students this week. Our Waves test will be next week! 

Social Studies: Students did a great job on their Eastern Region travel brochures! We enjoyed a gallery walk among the brochures, and discussed interesting facts we learned and where we want to travel next! It was a great way to wrap up things in the East! Students are eager now to continue their travels, as we move West! Next region up: the Southwest! 

Announcements:

• Our December Math Enrichment packets will go home with students this week! Remember, this is an optional packet for students who would like more practice with math concepts we are covering this month!
• Be on the lookout for the Waves Science test study guide coming home with students this week.
• Last week students received a field trip letter and permission slip for our upcoming field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium! Please make sure to have students return permission slips no later than December 20th. 

Have a blessed week! :)

Mrs. Drury