Weekly Update!

It's almost showtime! The girls have been hard at work perfecting their lines and dance moves for the 4th grade musical Mary Poppins. I'm confident you are going to thoroughly enjoy it! See below for an updated rehearsal schedule.

We managed to sneak in some academic learning this week among the many play rehearsals. In math, we started our next unit on decimals. The girls have really enjoyed this unit so far. We will compare and order decimals this week as well as discuss decimal numbers to the hundredths (and review how this relates to money).

Please note: In your daughter's papers, which were sent home this past Friday, you will find the recent test on measurement. We did not have time to do the error analysis in class, so I'm asking the girls to complete it at home (without the help of humans or electronic devices😁). I'm hoping to have the tests back by Tuesday if at all possible. However, I will be very flexible on the due date for this!

In Language Arts, the girls did a fun activity called a "dramatic reading". This comes from Whole Brain teaching, which emphasizes the importance of using multiple modalities (i.e. auditory, visual, and kinesthetic/movement) during learning and ultimately deepens student's comprehension. One girl read from Scraps of Time while another girl acted out the story. The girls had so much fun with this! Click here to see some pictures from this activity.

In addition, the girls were given a lot of time to work on their Glogs, and we will start presentations next week. Also, we discussed what should be included in a good narrative and critiqued a student example piece of writing. Many girls have started typing their Spring Break stories, and I'm hopeful we can get those finished next week.

Here is the updated rehearsal schedule for the play. The highlighted times are extra rehearsal times recently added by Mrs. Ivens.

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

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

**St. Catherine's will be hosting a parenting panel on April 10th. Click here for a picture of the flyer that was sent home this past Friday.

**Shepherd's Way Outreach Project- Fourthies are asked to bring in deodorant and razors for the shelter. The collection ends April 5th. Thanks for what you have already sent in. 

**Autism Awareness Month- Click here for details. 

**Maypole- A Fourthie Tradition!! All details are here (Fourthie site> Everything Else)

**Click here to see the required hairstyles for the play. Please have your daughter come to school with her hair already styled, so the moms who are volunteering can focus on makeup and costumes. Thank you so much for your help with this!

**Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 

**Final Assembly information is here!

**Click here to sign up for spring conferences.

**Click here to see the letter from Mrs. Ivens regarding costumes for the play.
***UPDATED 3-25-19The girls will NOT need shoes. They will go barefoot on stage. 

**Homework calendar for family planning. 

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

**Special Week- Holt is our Special Week girl this week.

Class Leadership Week of 4/1/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Mary Michael and Ava Jane

Attendance- Ruthie and Sophia

Girls: Your blog question is...What days this week should you come to school with your hair already styled for the play? Post your answers here.

Weekly Update!

Annabelle Haiku Poem

Mrs. Coughlan's Bamboo

The girls enjoyed writing Haiku poems and painting their Bamboo. Mrs. Cavallo shared a video that makes the process very easy. We will be putting these up out in the hall for our spring bulletin board. Art is definitely not a strength of mine, but I embraced the challenge and my first try is shown above. I think we all struggled to keep our bamboo straight!

To celebrate National Women's History Month, the girls were assigned a famous woman and we read Margaret Wise's book The Important Thing. Then the girls wrote a poem including a few important events from her life. You can see these poems out in the hall as well.

Paige's Glog

The most recent book report projects are coming along nicely. I think the girls are really enjoying creating their Glogs. A Glog is an interactive online poster. I am hoping to wrap this up next week, and then the girls will present their projects to the class.

In math, we had several lengthy review sessions for the Measurement test, which the girls took this past Friday. Even though they were allowed to use all of their notes on the test, I could tell the girls studied very hard and came prepared with knowing how to work out all of the problems. I am very pleased with the results! We will begin talking about decimals this week. Also, there will be no Pick 8 contract for the rest of March and April. I am asking the girls to complete the Greg Tang Spring Challenge instead. Mrs. McCallum did a great job of organizing the links in the above spreadsheet and making it very easy for the girls to complete the activities. Here is a link to the website if you'd like more information. You can print the gameboards off of the website and I will be sending hard copies home as well. 

In history, they read about what life was like during the 1920's. For example, how airplanes and automobiles became popular, how immigration patterns and music changed, and a little bit about the famous "Flapper" girl. They summarized their findings in their journals. We will take a quick look at The The Great Depression this week and start our unit on Immigration. The girls were asked to think of a country they would like research for this unit. I will assign countries on Monday, March 25th. All of the research will be completed in class and we will conclude the unit with Immigration Day, which will take place in May. More information to come on this.

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

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

**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.

**Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 

**Final Assembly information is here!

**Click here for the link to the volunteer form for the 3D Sale on Reunion Weekend.

**Click here to sign up for spring conferences.

**Click here to see the letter from Mrs. Ivens regarding costumes for the play.
***UPDATED 3-25-19The girls will NOT need shoes. They will go barefoot on stage. 

**Homework calendar for family planning. 

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

**Special Week- Elizabeth is our Special Week girl this week.

Class Leadership Week of 3/25/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Chloe and Mary

Attendance- Maeve and Grace

Girls: Your blog question is...When will you be assigned the country you will research? Post your answers here.

Weekly Update!

The girls went all out dressing up each day to celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day. Click here to see pictures from this week. Also, on Tuesday, the girls learned about Mardi Gras and then made colorful masks. We even got out the glitter, so a fun time was had by all! 

In math, we discussed multiplying and dividing compound measurements. A compound measurement is when you have large and small units together (i.e. 6 ft 5 in). We also converted measurements expressed as fractions and mixed numbers into smaller units, and we discussed fractions of a whole using units of measurement. The girls took detailed notes and seemed really confident in their knowledge of these concepts, so we moved pretty quickly. I will be making some instructional videos and will upload them to my blog after the break. The videos will cover all of these concepts. We will go over word problems on Tuesday, March 19th. Then we will review on Wednesday and Thursday for the test, which is on Friday, March 22nd. The girls and I discussed that even though they can use all of their notes during the test, it is important they really understand the concepts. They should only rely on their notes for the conversions.  

In history, the girls learned some very basic facts about WWI and then we jumped into the 1920's. The girls were dancing the Charleston all up and down the hallway! We will wrap up the 1920's after the break.

In Language Arts, several girls recited their Langston Hughes poems. I was impressed by the girls' detailed analyses and how they used the intonation in their voices and their illustrations to communicate that they really understood the deeper meaning of their poems. Also, the girls paired up and read aloud several chapters in Scraps of Time: A Song for Harlem, and then they wrote chapter summaries in their composition notebooks. They also had some time to work on their Glogster book report projects, and they finalized their choices for their biographies.

On Thursday, the girls really enjoyed a fun activity where they typed creative stories into a joint Google Slide presentation. They had to use the three words from 3WT on the Fourthies site as well as include several "commonly confused" words. After they typed their paragraphs, they read each other's slides and left comments in the margin. We also discussed action, helping, and linking verbs and sang some songs to help us remember examples of these types of verbs. After we return from break, we will pick back up with our writing labs. The girls will showcase all they have learned so far this year by writing a detailed story about their favorite event from Spring Break. 

We wrapped up the week with Innovation Day where the girls created Seussical style hats along with the girls from Mrs. Cavallo's class. We paraded around the lower school and then watched a couple of short Dr. Suess videos, which retold the stories of The Lorax and The Sneetches. Click here to see the girls' amazing hat creations and there is a bonus photo of an impromptu "massage chain" the girls created while watching the videos. 

Safe travels and I can't wait to hear all about the girls' adventures when they return from Spring Break!

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

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

**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.

**Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 

**Final Assembly information is here!

**Homework- this will be updated after Spring Break

**Carpool Helper(s)- TBD 

**Special Week- No Special Week girl for the week of 3-18-19

Class Leadership Week of 3/18/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Holt and Elizabeth

Attendance- Chloe and Sirena

Girls: Your blog question is...What date is the Unit 5 test? Can you use your notes? Post your answers here.

Weekly Update!

The girls did such a great job leading chapel on Monday. This is my favorite picture so far this year. I think it really captures their sweet personalities. Click here to access the video from that morning.

We accomplished quite a bit this week. In math, we started a new unit on measurement. The girls have been working on converting and adding and subtracting both metric and customary units of measurement. I continued to encourage the girls to take neat and organized notes. This is a shorter unit, so I am thinking the test will be on the Friday we return from Spring Break (March 22nd). We will spend that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday reviewing for the test. It isn't necessary for the girls to memorize all of the conversions, so they will be allowed to use their notes during the test. 

In Language Arts, the girls have been really enjoying their persuasive writing projects. Sophia handed out ribbons, Grace recited a poem, Annabelle and Abigail acted out a skit, Julianna and Paige showed us their iMovie, and Harper presented her diorama (which had moving parts). In addition, we discussed how to recite a poem and watched a video from Learnzillion.com. This will help the girls when they recite their Langston Hughes poems. I've already had a couple volunteers, so we are off to a great start! Also, I am really impressed by how the girls' illustrations reflect their own interpretations of their poems. Finally, we practiced finding examples of different literary devices (i.e. personification, similes, and metaphors) in a fun picture book called Verdi by Janell Cannon. 

On Friday, I explained the upcoming book report project where the girls will be creating an online poster using Glogsteredu. We explored the different features of the program, looked at several example posters (see below), and the girls logged into their accounts. They seemed very excited about this project, and I look forward to seeing their creations.

In History, we are wrapping up the 1910's. The girls read information about the Titanic and completed several activities. They listened to the song that played as the ship was sinking, and completed math problems, which compared the number of passengers by class. Finally, they ordered the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic chronologically. We will briefly discuss WWI this week.

Furthermore, to align with our upcoming 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 will take a quick comprehension check on Quia. 

This week we are celebrating Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss' birthday. A flyer went home last week, but here is the schedule again:

 Monday: Cat in the Hat

• Wear your favorite hat 

Tuesday: Green Eggs and Ham

• Wear green 

Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday 

• Wear wacky/mismatched clothes 

Thursday: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish 

• Wear red and blue 

Friday: Daisy-Head Mayzie 

• Wear white, yellow and daisies! 

We will wrap up the week on Friday with Innovation Day where the girls will be making Dr. Seuss style hats with their Big Sisters. The girls can bring in anything they want to create their hats. Some suggestions include: fabric, newspaper, cardboard boxes, brown paper bags, paper towel rolls, and anything else you can think of! I have basic supplies in the classroom (along with some wooden dowels), and we will have packing tape and safety pins on hand as well. Thanks for your help in sending in items for this fun activity!    

Reminders and General Information

Information needing a parent response is highlighted.

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

**Read Nira's e-mail. It has a lot of really great information! 😀

**Maypole- A Fourthie Tradition!! All details are here (Fourthie site> Everything Else)

**Bring in items for Innovation Day

** Please consider our play rehearsal schedule when making dental, doctor etc. appointments for your daughter. Practice begins on 3/22.

**Last day for "Growing Up Healthy" is Wednesday. Mrs. Blanton has all assignments, lessons, etc. on a website. Take a look here. 

**Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day- Please sign up here. 

**Final Assembly information is here!

**Homework- for family planning

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

**Special Week- No Special Week girl this week. 

Class Leadership Week of 3/4/19

Ambassadors/Flag Raisers- Grace and Sirena

Attendance- Julianna and Serpell

Girls: Your blog question is...What date is the Unit 5 test? Can you use your notes? Post your answers here.