Weekly Update

This was our first "normal" week in some time since our production of Mary Poppins. I am moving quickly through curriculum and the girls are trying hard to stay focused in the midst of spring and fun activities. We had a blast at Zazoli's on Tuesday!

Here are some curriculum updates and reminders.

Math: We finished up our unit on measurements and the girls took a quick check on Tuesday. It came home in today's folder and the girls did well with this. We have started our decimals unit and will keep on working on these important skills.

Language Arts/Reading: The girls wrote a brief paragraph about themselves to share with students in Malaysia who are learning English. After they wrote their paragraph, they recorded themselves reading their writing to help the Malaysian students improve their English skills. These are the videos we have so far. This week we began our next class novel, Number the Stars. This is a fantastic story by Lois Lowry about a ten year old girl living in Copenhagen during the second World War. The story follows her life as well as her best friend, Ellen, who is Jewish. It is a great story and we will continue with it next week. We will read some in class and the girls will be assigned some pages to read for homework as well. In their Google Drive accounts in the share with me section, they have a folder that contains audio files of the book being read. They are welcome to listen and read along if they would like.

Social Studies: We started working in the 1940's decade since our class novel takes place in 1943. In pairs, the girls solved an EdPuzzle with an overview of the decade. We will continue working in the 1930's and 1940's over the next few weeks. Next week, we will continue researching our country for the immigration project.

Reminders and Announcements

• Wear red on Monday for our Palm Monday chapel
• On Wednesday, we have a field trip to attend a naturalization ceremony downtown. All of the details are here!
• Friday, April 12, is a half day for Good Friday. The girls will dismiss at noon and no lunch will be served.
• Grandparents' and Special Visitors' Day is Thursday, April 25
• April is Autism Awareness Month - Details here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

This week was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Reminders and Announcement

• To celebrate the class earning 100 compliments, we will visit Zazoli Sweets on Tuesday afternoon. Your daughter may bring in $5.00 to use in the store.
• Thursday, April 11, is the official conference day so there is no school for the girls
• Grandparents' and Special Visitors' Day is Thursday, April 25
• April is Autism Awareness Month - Details here.
• Everyday Parenting Solutions - program at St. Catherine's on April 10th. Details here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

via GIPHY

Most of our week was spent rehearsing as a grade level for our Mary Poppins musical. The girls are doing a great job and we look forward to the parent performance next Wednesday, April 3 at 9:45 in the Lower School Assembly Room. Costumes were due today so please send them in on Monday if your daughter still needs to bring hers to school. Details for the costumes are here and and here are the details for their hairstyle. We would like for your daughter to come to school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with her hair already styled in the designated style.

The girls are working well on the Greg Tang Spring Math Challenge and they are earning lots of math chicks for their nests. We are continuing to work on measurement as well.

This week, we started an immigration project. The girls explored their family names using this site: https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/. They will assume the identity of an immigrant and research that country. This project will span several weeks and will be completed in class. We will witness a Naturalization Ceremony as the culmination of our immigration unit. This is always a favorite field trip for the Fourthies.

More than 200 Newsela articles were read in celebration and appreciation of Women's History Month. Way to go Fourthies!

Reminders and Announcement

• Grandparents' and Special Visitors' Day invitations went home last week. There is still time to register. Our guests are joining us for lunch so we need an accurate headcount. Please click here to register.
• Spring Conference Sign Up 
• Rehearsal schedule for the Monday and Tuesday. 
• Girls may wear jeans on Monday in honor of April is Autism Awareness Month - Details here.
• Shepherd's Way Outreach Project- Fourthies are asked to bring razors and deodorant for the shelter. The collection ends on April 5! Thanks for what you have already sent in.
• Everyday Parenting Solutions - program at St. Catherine's on April 10th. Details here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

We had a great week back from spring break and I enjoyed hearing the girls share stories from their week off from school. We used a site called Mentimeter for the girls to share something about their break. Here is the word cloud they developed.

We have launched into unit 5 on measurement. This week, we spent some time converting between various metric and US customary units. We also learned how to add and subtract compound units. The girls are grasping these new skills well and seem to be enjoying something instead of fractions! For the next two weeks, we will not have a facts contract because of the play. Instead, I am asking them to work on the Greg Tang spring challenge and I would like everyone to participate and complete it by May 1. 

The Fourthies ushered in spring with haikus and used water colors to paint bamboo drawings. The haikus and bamboo drawings created a serene look on the bulletin board outside our classroom.

We finished reading A Song for Harlem. Not only does this novel teach about the Harlem Renaissance, it also explains and reinforces the elements of writing that we work on during language arts. Next, we will read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

Reminders and Announcements

• Abby is our carpool helper next week
• PE Bike Day is Monday. Details are here. Please contact Laurie Marshalek (LMarshalek@st.catherines.org) if you have questions. 
• Mary Poppins Costume Requirements 
• In the Friday folders, there are invitations for Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day. There is still time to register here.  Our guests are joining us for lunch so we need an accurate headcount. 
• 3D Design Project Form- Please respond. A hard copy is in your daughter's work folder. 
• Play practice is in full swing!  Rehearsal schedule for the next two weeks. All lines should be memorized by Monday.   
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Spring Conference Sign Up  
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

We all enjoyed the several days of sunshine we had this week and hope for more! There is nothing like outdoor recess for the girls. It is hard to believe that we have 4 1/2 school days left until spring break begins. If your daughter will not be at school next Friday, please let me know because we will be having our Innovations Day. Knowing ahead will help me in preparations for this event. As next Friday is a half day, lunch will not be served!

We are winding up unit 4 and the girls will have their final quick check for this unit on Tuesday. We will spend Monday going over some fraction of word problems. Here are three practice pages for the girls to use for a review, in addition to what we review on Monday.
Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3

To align with our study of the 1920's, we started a short novel called A Song for Harlem. The girls are enjoying reading about Lily Belle Turner and her experience attending a summer writing camp in Harlem in the 1920's. After a few chapters, the girls took a quick comprehension check on Quia. We will continue this as we read this book. On another note, the girls have almost finished their animal reports and I will update the blog with their presentations when they all finish.

Reminders and Announcements

• Juliet and Amelia are our carpool helpers next week.
• Graded papers will come home next Wednesday instead of today.
• Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 
• Maypole- A Fourthie Tradition!! All details are here (Fourthie site>Everything Else). 
• Please consider our play rehearsal schedule when making dental, doctor, etc. appointments for your daughter. Practice begins on 3/22.
• "Growing Up Healthy" ends next week. Please send in a toiletry bag for your daughter for Wednesday's class.
• The parent performance for Mary Poppins is Wednesday, April 3 at 9:45 in the Lower School Assembly Room.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

This was a great week! The class is enjoying their health class with Nurse Blanton and they are very open with me about what they discuss in class. They even asked me to attend class with them on Wednesday when they were discussing "big" things. It was a very entertaining 45 minutes! I encourage you to read the email summaries that Nurse Blanton sends because it gives you a clear idea of what the class is like and what the girls are thinking.

Overall, the girls did well with the second quick check on adding and subtracting mixed numbers. We moved to the next concept of multiplying a fraction by a whole number. I added a catchy video to the blog that they watched to help remember the steps. We have a few concepts left in this unit and I plan to finish up the unit by spring break. We will have one or two more quick checks and that will conclude the assessments for unit 4. The next unit covers measurement so it will be a nice change from fractions!

We did a fun activity this week using a site called Flipgrid. The girls access this site with a code and they have a picture or video prompt to which they respond. They respond by making a quick video of themselves and their job is to include some Wordly Wise words. They did a great job with this and asked for more next week. There are so many great activities we do to supplement the WW workbook, like Flipgrid. Here is one example:

We are wrapping up the 1910's decade with our discussion of the Titanic and we will briefly discuss WW1. I hope to finish the 1920's by spring break.

Next week, we will work more on our animal projects and write a report from the first person perspective of the animal they researched.

Reminders and important information:

• Selah, Addisyn, and Claiborne are our carpool helpers next week
• Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 
• Maypole- A Fourthie Tradition!! All details are here (Fourthie site>Everything Else). 
• Band Sweatshirts - order form. 
• Please consider our play rehearsal schedule when making dental, doctor, etc. appointments for your daughter. Practice begins on 3/22.
• Wondering about "Growing Up Healthy" class? Mrs. Blanton has all assignments, lessons, etc. on a website. Take a look here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

We had a fun week full of celebration! We started the week with our 75 class compliment celebration....slime was the most common fidget toy, which was interesting and fun. Valentine's Day was great fun and I loved seeing the girls show their creativity in their costumes. Check out what everyone wore!

 In math this week, we learned how to add and subtract mixed numbers. The girls did well with this new skill and applied previous fraction concepts into this new computation. I plan to give them another quick check on Tuesday. We will work through some word problems in the morning and then take the quick check in the afternoon. Today I gave each girl a front and back practice sheet to help review, and here it is electronically in case they misplace it. 😉 To keep with our Mary Poppins theme, the girls completed another musical moment on the song, Jolly Holiday.

The girls are reading about key events in the 1910's. They spent time reading and learning about the unsinkable Titanic. They examined the survival rates of passengers and crew. Working through math equations they found out that the wealthy passengers received preferential treatment. This inequality did not set right with the girls. They learned that the first crossword puzzle debuted in this decade. Each girl created her own crossword puzzle using last week's Wordly Wise words.

The girls continued reading articles in Newsela about the contributions of Black Americans. The quizzes are tough and the girls are doing well working through this month long project. In addition to the Newsela project, they are researching individual women and working with paraphrasing. This is a tough skill and we will continue practicing. The girls made paper dolls of the prominent women they are researching.

Reminders:

• Vivienne and Emily are our carpool helpers next week
• I finished all of the mini-conferences with the girls and loved that one on one time with each of them.
• Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 
• Maypole- A Fourthie Tradition!! All details are here (Fourthie site>Everything Else). 
• Band Sweatshirts - order form. 
• Please consider our play rehearsal schedule when making dental, doctor, etc. appointments for your daughter. Practice begins on 3/22.
• Wondering about "Growing Up Healthy" class? Mrs. Blanton has all assignments, lessons, etc. on a website. Take a look here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt