October 22, 2021

Hello Students and Parents:

I cannot believe that I am writing a blog about the last week in October!  Where did the month go?  At the end of this week, we are going to end Daylight Savings Time, and prepare for our saint parade.  I guess it’s true….Time flies when you’re having fun!

This will be a busy week in fourth grade, but God is good….He will be giving us a day off for all of our efforts.  Friday, October 22nd is a day off for students so that teachers in the diocese can attend a professional development inservice.  But, Monday, November 1st is a day off for all of us to celebrate All Saints Day.  What a great way to detox our sugared-up bodies after Halloween trick or treating!

In math, students are learning the relationship between addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  I hope that the children have been coming home to share their new, very impressive mathematical vocabulary.  Additive comparison, multiplicative comparison, commutative property of multiplication, and the associative property of multiplication are just a few of the new terms we have been learning.  Students are practicing communicating the mathematical processes that we are learning, and this vocabulary is very important for them to use correctly.  Practicing at home is a very good way for them to get used to this.  Ask them what these terms mean….I’m sure you’ll be impressed!

We are going to be spending this coming week writing a ridiculous story to enter in the Young Writers annual contest.  Students are challenged to write a story that combines a ridiculous combination of topics.  The clumsy baseball, the stinky superhero, and the magical rabbit are just some of the crazy combinations that are suggested from the online combo generator.  The stories will have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and will make sense even though the topics are ridiculous.  Stories must be a total of 100 words exactly.  The prize for the winning entry is a pile of books as tall as the publisher of the magazine!  This should be a very fun writing project.

For our spelling and vocabulary words, we are going to use the ten words in Unit 1, Lesson 3 of Word Wisdom, plus ten additional words from our other curriculum subject areas.  Students will be responsible for learning the spelling, definitions, parts of speech, and synonyms/antonyms for each of the ten words in lesson 3, as well as the spelling of the additional ten words added to this list.  We will be making flashcards in school to help us organize the information needed for the assessment so students can experience how effective this study technique can be in helping them to learn the material.  You should see them using these cards at home to study.

After finishing up unit 1 in Grammar Workshop, we have moved onto unit 2, nouns.  This chapter will cover common and proper nouns, singular and plural nouns, and possessive nouns.  We will have a formal assessment at the end of this unit.  The date will be announced as we get close to finishing up the material.

Students will need to be studying their New Jersey facts and research to prepare for their assessment on New Jersey on Friday, October 29th.  I will provide a study guide for this test to let students know what they will be responsible for on the test.  I normally do not do this, but with the amount of information in the packet, the study guide will help the students focus their studying.  I will be collecting the packets on the day of the test.  Both the test and packets will be graded and counted toward the student’s report card grade.

Our saint parade will take place at the November 3rd school liturgy, so I hope the students have a good idea of what they will use for their costume.  Just a reminder that students are to come to school on November 3rd wearing their saint costume over their school uniform.  Please send in a bag that your student can use to put their costume in after they take it off.  No one will be allowed to use the restroom to change into their school uniform.  Please be sure that their saint costume can be worn over their uniform.  The liturgy begins at 9:30 a.m.  Please join us, if you are able.

As always, thank you for all you do to help us achieve so much in the classroom.  We couldn’t do it without you.  Have a restful and healthy week ahead.

Debbie Shumaker