Weekly Update!

   VS

What an exciting week full of fun and friendly competition. The girls were so creative with their outfits for Spirit Week and the Cheer Rally was a huge success. Click here to see more pictures from this week. 

In math, we talked about adding and subtracting related fractions and adding mixed numbers with related fractions. Ask your daughter what a "related" fraction means. This unit is very heavy on word problems, which we will start discussing on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The girls took notes in their composition notebooks and played a dice/spinner game to practice these skills. I will be placing a greater emphasis on taking detailed and accurate notes. The ultimate goal is for the girls to actually use their notes to help them study for tests or quizzes! Hopefully, you will start to see an improvement in your daughter's notes over the next few weeks. Also, there will be more frequent assessments for each unit moving forward. The units in Singapore Math are VERY long, and I think this will help me (and the girls) get a better feel for how well they understand the concepts long before the review week. 

These are the concepts, which will be covered on this Friday's quiz: 

1. Adding and subtracting related fractions

2. Adding and subtracting mixed numbers with related fractions

In Language Arts and History, the girls continued working on their persuasive essays. I added a fun twist and introduced a project where the girls will be choosing a form of persuasive advertising to go with their papers. We read about the Women's Suffrage Movement, and looked at several primary documents depicting that time period. The girls saw examples of skits, picket lines, persuasive letters, banners, billboards, songs, parades/marches, petitions, buttons/ribbons, political cartoons, posters, speeches, and much more. They chose a form of advertising, and they will read their essays and present their advertising to the class. The girls are incredibly excited about this project. 

We have a new winner this week in the Prefix/Root Word Challenge! Congratulations to Elizabeth Thurmond!! She found 59 words that contained the prefixes: dis-, anti-, de-, com, con-, co-, contra-, and counter-. Way to go Elizabeth! 

We also reviewed parts of speech. The girls took notes in their composition notebook and we listened to a fun song. 

The girls had their first two Spanish classes this week. Please see below for a link to the projects the girls completed with Mrs. Dorian. She is very proud of their efforts.

1. Maeve Connell: 

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/98WkLJSNQpaxr2imZpt38g

2. Sirena DiGiacomo:

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/rG4SU9_IS0yaKyZ6p4soow

3. Paige Durand

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/ysl_kxmER3mh_H7x8Wz6dA

4. Serpell Edmunds

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/wWbiUjBDQb-LMPWYFN9kgQ

5. Harper Guare

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/4D6jh31XR2uSFB_eHCW8ng

6. Ruthie Huffman

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/1ksxZmD7TBmYqBiCBdZnRQ

7. Sophia Iuorno

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/HNN0Cmi0Rju04arQjV1LyA

8. Julianna King

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/LL3lsi2YTQ6Y3CkxavEvug

9. Chloe Kurzawa

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/-tM0ThPHTAGYLwUn3ZIrFQ

10. Annabel Mayer

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/0dJjvgC1QyCuvZjsn9Z3Ng

11. Abigail McKay

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/BlH3rezuQiyN7AemJvC5Dw

12. Mary Mitchell

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/8q1m__I-RzOCRZWqeUouSg

13. Grace Morrell

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/fSFSEQjmQVGSKa6dz-kTpw

14. Ava Jane Orecchio

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/wt7Hn909RLGnrnXVULgvBQ

15. Mary Michael Spiller

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/ntbmfzovRJKHAKSJpwGDSQ

16. Ryann Sutton

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/OtkJQYwsSXi-w9VkEkaBYg

17. Elizabeth Thurmond

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/CsOTfWclQbGWMV3LnZxe9g

18 Holt Williams

https://read.bookcreator.com/TRyBW8Ou6Pgkw3uHbVBXRw4qlaC2/XrvnCLceRU-YMXX_EcEQrg

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

**Parent How-To Videos for accessing Quia, Newsela, and That Quiz!

**Please bring your food donations for Shepherd's Way to school between 2:30-4:00 on Tuesday. Nira has graciously offered to take it downtown that afternoon. I was able to go and deliver food for Mrs. Cavallo's class last week, and I am really looking forward to spending time there on Wednesday.

**The Family Life class will be taught by Nurse Blanton in February. Here is the letter from Dr. Kapetanis, which outlines more information about this event. 

**Homework- for family planning

**Carpool Helper(s)-  Serpell will represent our class.

**Special Week- Paige 

Class Leadership Week of 1/28/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Paige and Mary

Girls: Your blog question is...what concepts does the math quiz on Friday cover? Also, who won the Prefix challenge this week? Put both answers in one response. Post your answers here.

Weekly Update!

We have been studying the prefixes in-, im-, il-, ir-, non-, and un-, so I thought this was a fitting image for this week. The word is also referenced in our class read aloud "Fish in a Tree". The girls should be very proud of their hard work in preparation for the math test this past Wednesday. They are currently working on their Error Analysis sheet and the tests will come home in their Friday papers this week. We will be moving on to Unit 4, which covers adding related fractions and mixed numbers, finding fractions of a set, and multiplying a whole number and a fraction. We will also spend quite a bit of time working on word problems that contain fractions.

The girls are really enjoying writing their persuasive essays.  I completed my individual writing conferences and the remainder of the girls set goals for the next few weeks. I am seeing a lot of progress in their writing, and the peer editing process is going well. We will be making some connections between History and Language Arts in the coming weeks as we examine Primary Source documents depicting events from the Women's Suffrage Movement. The girls will be creating their own persuasive advertising for the topics they chose to write about in their recent essays.

Many of the girls are close to finishing their Personalized Learning projects. As each group finishes, they will be presenting their projects to the class. I can't wait to see the finished products.

There will be a change in the Wordly Wise and Spelling homework for the coming week. We are a list behind the other classes, so the girls will have only one week to study their current lists. I discussed the changes at great length with the girls, and they asked questions. There won't be any Wordly Wise choice board or Spelling contract this week. The only homework will be 3x's each and sentences for the words they missed on the Spelling pretest, and possibly a workbook page for Wordly Wise. The Spelling test will be this Thursday, and the Wordly Wise test will be on Friday. Since the girls have less time to study their words, they can use their workbooks and flashcards for both of the Wordly Wise Quia and Cloze tests.

In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the girls will be doing a fun Reader's Theater project and will complete a Webquest to research information about his life. I'm hoping to include a fun Art project as well during the coming week.

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

**Parent How-To Videos for accessing Quia, Newsela, and That Quiz!

***If your daughter has a change in dismissal, please send an e-mail notifying me (and attendance) of the change as soon as possible. Also, it might be helpful if you included "Dismissal change and what day the change is for etc..." in the subject heading, so I know to open it right away. Thanks so much!

** The Family Life class will be taught by Nurse Blanton in February. Here is the letter from Dr. Kapetanis, which outlines more information about this event. 

**Shepherd's Way Service Project- January 30th. Thank you so much to those who have volunteered to bring in food. Please bring your food items to school on Tuesday, January 29th between 2:30-4:00. Click here for more information. Your daughter was given a paper copy of this sheet. More information to come on job assignments for this exciting project. 

 ** Spirit Week- Wednesday is Holidays; Thursday is Decades; Friday is Gold/White

**Gold/White Cheer Rally- January 25th at 10 am. There will be one more rehearsal on Wednesday, January 23rd at 7:30-7:55. Gold meets in the LSAR and White meets in the LSMP. 

**Spanish begins this week.

**Homework- for family planning

**Carpool Helper(s)-  Mary will represent our class.

**Special Week- No Special Week girl for the short week.

Class Leadership Week of 1/22/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Elizabeth and Harper

Girls: Your blog question is...Do you have a Spelling Contract and WW Choice Board for homework this week? Post your answer here.

Weekly Update!

Stuffed Animal Pyramid

It was nice to have a full week and get back into a regular routine! The girls earned a class reward and celebrated by choosing where they wanted to sit for the week. The comfy chairs were a hot commodity. We wrapped up the week with bagels, O.J. and other breakfast goodies on Thursday, and the girls brought in their favorite stuffed animal. We connected this to History by reading about Teddy Roosevelt and how the teddy bear got its name.

In math, we reviewed subtracting fractions from whole numbers, how to convert an improper fraction to a mixed number, and a mixed number into an improper fraction. The remainder of the week was spent reviewing for the test that's coming up on Wednesday, January 16th. I was happy to see several girls join me for an extra review session during recess on Friday. Make sure to visit the math page on my blog for additional practice for the test.

In Language Arts, at the beginning of the week. we discussed the prefixes il-, im-, ir-, in-, non-, and un-. We did a word splash to see how many words we could think of that begin with these prefixes, and then the girls glued in notes in their composition notebooks. The girls were given a challenge to find as many words as they can, which contain these prefixes. They can find words in their pleasure books, posters on the wall or in conversations. Annabelle Mayer is our winner this week...she found 41 words! Way to go Annabelle! On Friday, I introduced the prefixes dis-, anti-, de-, counter-, contra-, and the roots "graph" and "photo".  The girls glued in more notes in their composition notebooks. We also took took notes and discussed examples of simple, compound and complete subjects and predicates, and the girls completed three Google forms to practice these skills.

During our Writing Lab on Wednesday, we talked about Persuasive essays. To develop a better understanding of persuasive writing, we came up reasons why St. Catherine's is THE best school in the Richmond area. Next, the girls started thinking about topics they would like to write about individually, and they completed a graphic organizer.  For this lab, they will read background information about a topic on the Fourthies website (or they can pick another topic of interest), and then they will develop at least three reasons to support their position/argument about that particular topic.

Just an fyi...the Gold/White assembly is fast approaching! It will take place on January 25th at 8am. There will be cheer practices from 7:30-7:55 on January 16th, 18th, and 23rd. The Gold team will practice in the Lower School Assembly Room (LSAR), and the White team will practice in the basement in the Lower School Multi-Purpose Room (LSMPR). 

A huge thank you to Nira for helping coordinate volunteers and food items for our Service Project at Shepherd's Way. It looks like all of the slots are filled for food items! I am so appreciative for all of your help with this amazing project. The hope the girls will find this to be a meaningful experience as they give back to our community!

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

**Parent How-To Videos for accessing Quia, Newsela, and That Quiz!

***If your daughter has a change in dismissal, please send an e-mail notifying me (and attendance) of the change as soon as possible. Also, it might be helpful if you included "Dismissal change and what day the change is for etc..." in the subject heading, so I know to open it right away. Thanks so much!

** The Family Life class will be taught by Nurse Blanton in February. Here is the letter from Dr. Kapetanis, which outlines more information about this event. 

***Shepherd's Way Service Project- January 30th. Please bring your food items to school on Tuesday between 2:30-4:00. The girls can wear jeans for this field trip. 

***Gold/White Assembly January 25th at 8am. 

**Please read the message below from Mrs. Irving:

Author Russell Ginns is coming to St. Catherine's School on Monday, January 28th. He is visiting to celebrate both the paperback release of Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans and the upcoming March release of the next book in the series, Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs. bbgb, our local bookshop, is offering the opportunity to purchase autographed copies of Russell's books.

Order online to pay with a credit card at  http://bbgbbooks.com/book-buzz/. We are receiving a 15% discount on the books. When ordering online, use coupon code cat15.  Please place your order by Friday, January 18th. Note: the new Samantha Spinner book (Samantha Spinner at the Spectacular Specs) releases on March 12th, so Russell will sign customized book plates during his visit and these books will be delivered to your child's classroom on release day. You may call bbgb with any questions at 804.353.5675.   

**Homework- for family planning

**Carpool Helper(s)-  Paige will represent our class.

**Special Week- Harper is our Special Week girl this week!

Class Leadership Week of 1/14/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Sirena and Mary Michael

Girls: Your blog question is...Who won the Prefix Challenge and how many words did she find? Post your answer here.

Weekly Update

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break! Is it just me, or did those two weeks fly by really fast? I really enjoyed some quality time with my family, but it's great to get back into a more normal routine. 

The 4th grade boys from St. Christopher's joined us on Thursday to listen to Pastor Sigmund Collins, the founder of Shepherd's Way Relief Center, speak about his experiences with the center and how important it is to have compassion for those in need. I think the boys and girls really got a feel for some of the obstacles these people face and how rewarding it is to help those less fortunate then us. I am very excited for the opportunity to take the girls there to serve breakfast on January 30th. Click here to access the Sign Up Genius for this event.  I believe Nira is still in the process of putting together a list of volunteers, so look for more information about that coming home soon. A huge thank you to those who have already volunteered to bring in food. If it would be helpful to partner with another parent and split up the remaining items, please feel free to enter more than one name for each slot. Also, if you are donating food, please bring it to school between 2:30-4:00 on the day before (January 29th). Mrs. Hiscock has offered to take the food down to the center for us on Tuesday, and they will start warming it up for us on Wednesday morning before we arrive. The girls may wear jeans for this field trip. We will leave school at 8:15 and return by lunch. 

In math, we continued to work on adding and subtracting like fractions and threw in some mixed numbers as well. The girls learned how to show their work using number lines, bar diagrams, and number bonds (see below for some examples of problems the girls completed in class using their personal whiteboards and math composition notebooks). We also touched on improper fractions and how to convert a mixed number to an improper fraction and then convert it back to an improper fraction. We will continue to work on these concepts this coming week. The girls once again impressed me with their insightful questions and with how quickly they can grasp challenging math concepts. The test over Unit 3 will be on Wednesday, January 16th.

Solve: 

2/3 + 2/3 = _1 1/3__

Solve:

1 2/5 - 3/5 = ___

5/5 - 3/5 = 2/5

2/5 + 2/5 = 4/5

Solve: 

1 - 3/8 =____

We know that we can only subtract fractions that have the same denominator. We also know that 1 = 8/8. Therefore, if we rewrite the number 1 as 8/8, we can then subtract 3/8 from 8/8 to get 5/8.

8/8 - 3/8 = 5/8

https://tinyurl.com/y8pqo4qg

In History, the girls completed Job #2 for the 1900's. They watched a video of the Wright Brothers first flight and answered some higher level thinking questions in their composition notebooks. We will wrap up the 1900's this week and jump right into the 1910's and 1920's. We all enjoyed the movie "Mary Poppins Returns", and the girls were beyond excited when they found out they will be performing Mary Poppins for the Seniors in April! We discussed how the original story of Mary Poppins was set in 1910 and talked about some of the events that were going on in the United States during that time as well.

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

**Parent How-To Videos for accessing Quia, Newsela, and That Quiz!

** The Family Life class will be taught by Nurse Blanton in February. Next Thursday, January 10th, she will host a parent information session. Here is the letter from Dr. Kapetanis, which outlines more information about this event. 

**Homework- for family planning

**Carpool Helper(s)- Elizabeth and Grace will represent our class.

**Please read the message below from Mrs. Irving:

Author Russell Ginns is coming to St. Catherine's School on Monday, January 28th. He is visiting to celebrate both the paperback release of Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans and the upcoming March release of the next book in the series, Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs. bbgb, our local bookshop, is offering the opportunity to purchase autographed copies of Russell's books.

Order online to pay with a credit card at  http://bbgbbooks.com/book-buzz/. We are receiving a 15% discount on the books. When ordering online, use coupon code cat15.  Please place your order by Friday, January 18th. Note: the new Samantha Spinner book (Samantha Spinner at the Spectacular Specs) releases on March 12th, so Russell will sign customized book plates during his visit and these books will be delivered to your child's classroom on release day. You may call bbgb with any questions at 804.353.5675.   

Class Leadership Week of 1/7/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Ryann and Holt

Girls: Your blog question is...When is your next math test? Post your answer here.