Sunday, January 28, 2018

Week of 1/29: Catholic Schools Week!

Happy Catholic Schools Week 2018! This week we get a chance to take a step back from our normal routines, and spend more time in prayer, service, and gratitude for the blessing of being apart of a Catholic School! Take a look at the exciting events we have planned this week.

Daily Themes:
Monday: Celebrate our Nation- 4th grade students will get the opportunity to visit the National History Fair, and observe and learn from their fellow schoolmates!

Tuesday: Celebrate our Call to Service- In the morning, we will be making fleece blankets which will be delivered to the pediatric unit of University of Maryland Hospital. In the afternoon, students will work with their buddies to tend to the school grounds and sprinkle a little bit of kindness around with their creation of "kindness rocks". 

Wednesday: Celebrate our Community- Students will visit the travel fair today to learn and ask questions from their fellow schoolmates.

Thursday: Celebrate our Students- We have an exciting day of basketball games in the morning, followed by the student dance in the afternoon! 

Friday: Celebrate our Families- Please join us for Mass at 9AM to end our celebration of Catholic Schools Week 2018!

In addition to our school wide activities, 4th graders will be presenting their Saints Projects to one another, and fellow schoolmates this Friday! I can't wait to see their unique and creative ideas come together! 

We will also be continuing on with topics we were focusing on last week. Towards the end of next week, students will take their Topic 7 math test, as well as their Midwest Region social studies test. Be on the lookout for review and study guides coming home with your child in the near future! 

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Week of 1/22

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: This week we move into Topic 7. We are continuing to build a strong multiplication foundation. Using what we learned from Topic 6, Topic 7 will focus on multiplying by 2 digit numbers. We will start with using arrays to help us build our understanding, and move onto multiplying by multiples of 10 this week. 

Religion: This week in Religion we move into Chapter 9: The First Commandment. In Chapter 8, students learned about God's covenant with the Israelites and the Ten Commandments. Chapter 9 will focus on the First Commandment, which teaches us that there is just one true God. 

Reading and Language Arts: We continue to explore our essential question from last week: How can one person make a difference? We will read biographies of inspirational people who helped to make a change in the world, whether that be big or small. 

In Writer's Workshop we are moving into the revising and editing stages of our persuasive essay rough drafts! 

In Class Novel, we continue to read Because of Winn Dixie- the students are really enjoying this one! Be sure to ask your child questions about our novel! 

Science: We begin our last topic in our Energy unit this week, Properties of Matter! Students will explore the different forms matter can take on such as solid, liquid, and gas. 

Social Studies: Our travels through the Midwest Region continue! 

Announcements:
  • Last Friday, students had the choice of participating in our Classroom Spelling Bee. I was SO proud of all the students who joined in, and tried their best! 4th grade is the first year that students have the opportunity to participate in the Spelling Bee, and it can be an intimidating experience for many. I was touched by the students encouragement and support of one another throughout our class bee. A big congratulations to our top 4 finalists who will be moving on to the School Spelling Bee this week: Porter Taylor, Josh Piazza, Anaiya Bennett, and Eugene Agbor-Enoh! Way to go everyone! 
  • The School Spelling Bee is open to parents as well, and will take place Wednesday 1/24 at 1:30 PM in the school hall. 
  • In more exciting news, our field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium has been rescheduled for Monday, February 5th. Be on the lookout for a new permission slip coming home this week! An email will be sent out to gather a couple more chaperones due to conflicting schedules of some of our previously chosen chaperones. 
Have a blessed week! :)
Mrs. Drury

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Week of 1/16

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: This week in math we will be reviewing our Topic 6 concepts and skills. Students will practice using the expanded form as well as standard form for multiplying 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. Our Topic 6 test will be this Thursday! 

Religion: We spent more time celebrating the Epiphany last week than planned! It was so wonderful to capture the beauty of the season with the students #worthit ! So this week we will wrap up Chapter 8: Learning About God's Law with review, and an open book test. We also are giving a warm welcome to Deacon Tom who will be joining us during Religion class once a week! We are so grateful to have him join us! This week he will be focusing on discussing Adoration with the students. 

Reading and Language Arts: Our essential question this week in RELA is: How can one person make a difference? We will be reading nonfiction pieces of text that focus on the fight for Civil Rights, and we will highlight on the efforts and difference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made for our world. We will even take a look at King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Through our readings and discussions students will learn new vocabulary words such as boycott, protest, and injustice. 

Science: This week in science we are continuing our weekly five topic of Natural Resources! Students will explore renewable, nonrenewable, and alternative forms of natural resources. 

Social Studies: Along with our readings and activities related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we will also continue to explore the Midwest Region. We will focus on learning the states and capitals, as well as popular attractions in the Midwest! 

Have a great week! :)
Mrs. Drury

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Week of 1/8

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: This week we will continue to build our understanding of the standard algorithm of multiplication. We will multiply 2 digit, 3 digit, and even 4 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers. If students are grasping this skill this week, our Topic 6 test will be next week. 

Religion: Happy Epiphany! This Sunday the Church celebrates one of it's most important feast days! We will spend some time discussing and celebrating the Epiphany in our classroom! We will also continue Chapter 8: Learning About God's Law. We will continue to focus on the Ten Commandments as God's Law. Our Chapter 8 test will be later this week. 

Reading and Language Arts: This week we will continue to explore our essential question of: In what ways can we help our community? We will keep reading our realistic fiction stories that explore this question. 

In Writer's Workshop we are moving on to working on how to write the best conclusions for our persuasive writing pieces. We will put together all the pieces this week and create our rough drafts! 

In Class Novel we are just beginning our new novel, Because of Winn Dixie! We will explore character traits this week of the characters we are introduced to, and make inferences! Be sure to ask your child what we are reading about in our novel, and if they are enjoying it! 

Science: This week we wrap up our topic of Electricity! Students had a blast building series circuits where they made a light bulb light up, and made a motor spin. They were also able to create electromagnets! Our next topic in our Energy unit is Natural Resources! 

Social Studies: This week we travel to our next Region of the United States- the Midwest! Students will be introduced to the geography, and important features of the Midwest Region! 

Announcements:
  • As you are aware, unfortunately we had to cancel our field trip to the Aquarium last Friday due to the delay. We are working on rescheduling this trip, and I will keep you all updated as soon as we finalize a new date! We may need some new chaperones so stay tuned! 

Monday, January 1, 2018

Week of 1/2

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas, and a wonderful break spent with family! 

We have so much to look forward to in this new year, and it starts this first week back! 

This Week in Fourth Grade...

Math: This week we begin Topic 6, which will build off of the foundation of multiplying by 1 digit numbers we learned in Topic 5. We will explore the use of arrays and learn an expanded algorithm for multiplying, before making the connection to the standard algorithm.

Religion: We start our new year off with a new unit in religion class! Unit 2 is all about learning how the commandments can help us to love God. Our first chapter in this unit focuses on learning about God's law. We will read about God's covenant with Moses and the Israelites, the promise God kept by sending his Son, and finally Jesus' teaching about God's law. 

Reading and Language Arts: Our Essential Question in RELA this week is: In what ways can we help our community? We will read realistic fiction as well as expository texts that explore this question. While reading, we will focus on the comprehension strategy of identifying the author's point of view. 

In Writer's Workshop, we are continuing to work on our persuasive writing pieces! This week we focus on building strong supporting details and evidence to back up our opinions. 

Before break, students completed our closing activity for James and the Giant Peach. I was SO impressed with how our projects turned out! They are hanging up in our hall, and I hope you get the chance to stop by and see our amazing work! 

I am excited to share we will be starting a new class novel this week! Our next novel will be Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. This is a GREAT one! I am so excited! This week we will preview and make predictions for our novel!

Science: Our new unit in science is Energy! Our first science weekly five topic to kick off this unit will be Electricity! This will be an exciting topic, as students will have an opportunity to build series circuits and electromagnets! 

Announcements:
  • Be on the lookout for our January Math Enrichment packets going home this week. This an optional math resource for students to complete during the month of January, to reinforce concepts and skills we will be learning. 
  • Genius Hour T2 starts this week! Students are excited to vote and begin a new Genius Hour class! 
  • Our class field trip to the aquarium is THIS FRIDAY! Students will need a nut free, disposable, snack and lunch to bring with them for the trip. Students should wear their SAS uniform and the proper outerwear.