Weekly Update

This was another fun and special week with Grandparents and Special Friends Day on Thursday! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone's guests and seeing the proud look on the girls faces as they showed them around. They completed a 3WT together and we will look at those tomorrow and share them one another.

The girls did a fabulous job at the Maypole yesterday. All of their hard work paid off and it was special to see them in action.

We are working hard through decimals and I hope to wrap up the unit this week. When we work more on decimal computation, we will complete a fun shopping project, which I know the girls will enjoy.

We are all looking forward to a normal schedule this week! For one of our final writing labs, we will be doing something special for Mother's Day and Father's Day. If you could please email me either a picture of your whole family including your daughter, or individual mother/daughter and father/daughter pictures, I would appreciate it. If I could get the pictures by Wednesday, it would be great!

Reminders and Announcements

• Riley is our carpool helper next week
• Middle School visit is May 8 - the girls will get a bird's eye view of fifth grade 
• Lower School Book Fair (5/15 and 5/16) - more details to follow including fifth grade summer reading selections
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

Weekly Update

The Naturalization field trip is always a class favorite but this year was really special. The girls watched close to seventy new American citizens take their oath and among them was our very own Mrs. Dorion. It was such a privilege to be able to witness the event! The girls also learned about the US Marshal Service, toured holding cells, and visited Judge Lauck's chambers.

The girls are really getting into our novel study, Number the Stars. They are doing well on the comprehension checks. Pleas ask your daughter to log in to her Quia account so you can see the quizzes (both reading and Wordly Wise). For this weeks 3WT, they completed it as a collaborative Google slide document. We have completed it this way before but they tend to get more concerned with pictures and videos to include. This week, I instructed them to only focus on their writing and they did a much better job. Here is their work!


The girls enjoyed an edible math activity where they found decimals on different snack packages and then converted the decimals into fractions. We will finish this up next week and keep moving through our study of decimals.

 

Reminders and Announcements

• Alice is our carpool helper next week
• Grandparents' Special Friends' Day is on Thursday. We will enjoy time with our guests from 10:30-12:30. Box lunches will be served to all students and their guests.
• April is Autism Awareness Month - Details here.
• Final Assembly Information is here!
• Scavenger hunt

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