Weekly Update

We have been preparing for the Gift Service, which will be on Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 am at Reveille United Methodist Church. This is such a special service and I hope you can attend. It will also be live streamed and the link was provided in this week's week at a glance from the school.

Thank you to everyone for sending in a wrapped mug by today. They are lined up by our class Christmas tree and we are excited for the mug exchange, which will take place Tuesday morning.

Ruth	Ginna
Andie	Claire
Reese	Kensi
Eleanor	Maggie
Lexie	Maclaren
Wells	Della
Reagan	Ella
Camille

The girls did a great on the abstract noun project. They each reflected on the holiday season and chose 4-6 abstract nouns that represent this season to this. They learned how to use a fabulous resource called Canva to create their presentation.

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Camille
• Lower School Gift Service: Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 am at Reveille United Methodist Church - Details Here
• Dress code reminder  
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!

Weekly Update

 

We have had another great week. With the anticipation on Christmas, there is lots of excitement in the midst of still trying to learn new material. We will attempt to keep the lamps of learning burning until Christmas break!

I hope you saw the letter from Mrs. Ivens about the costume requirements for the Gift Service on Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 am at Reveille United Methodist Church. The letter is here in case the hard copy didn't make it our of the backpack! Each Fourthie knows her role in the service and I reinforced that every single role is important.

We had a great field trip on Tuesday to tour the Virginia Capitol. Thanks to Maclaren's dad, Josh Humphries, for organizing a quick visit with the Virginia Secretary of Education, Aimee Guidera. It was great to hear from an accomplished woman in this leadership role.

The girls are enjoying our current class novel Rain Reign and are learning very much about empathy as we read about Rose, the main character. In math, we have been practicing 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication and will continue with a project on it next week. Using a fabulous website called Canva, the girls are creating slideshows to show their knowledge on abstract nouns. Their final products will be posted on next week's blog post.

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Kensi
• Special Week: Della
• Christmas Outreach Project: Details Here 
• Lower School Gift Service: Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 am at Reveille United Methodist Church - Details Here
• Dress code reminder  
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!

Weekly Update

 

 

We had a great week back from Thanksgiving break. The Christmas season is upon us and the girls are excited! We had several special events this week including a big sister/little sister get together to make ornaments. On Thursday, we had a gold/white spirit day and played a game of Splat. Yesterday, we had a spirited chapel and ended the day making old-fashioned decorations for the holly trees around the playground. This was a special opportunity just for the Fourthies and we had lots of fun. Thank you to all of the parents who donated the supplies and came in to help. We will finish making the ornaments on Monday and then decorate the trees.

Along with all of this extra fun, we are still working through the curriculum! Next week, we will learn how to multiply two-digit by two-digit numbers. The girls and I had a great conversation about the importance of knowing the basic multiplication facts when solving mult-digit problems. In reading, we started a new novel called Rain Reign which is about a character Rose who has some special needs and is an endearing character. She loves homonyms so we are learning to distinguish between words that sound the same when pronounced but have different spellings and meanings. 

On Tuesday, we have our field trip to the Virginia State Capitol to reinforce our study of the three branches of government. Please read here for the details of the trip. 

 

Since it is the season of giving, we have a Lower School Outreach project to support Celebrate RVA. This is a fabulous organization started by St. Catherine's alumna, Julia Warren Mattingly. Each grade level will collect a different supply to make birthday bags to donate to them. They supply children from underprivileged families with birthday bags to celebrate their birthdays. Fourth grade is collecting happy birthday plates and napkins without any characters. Thank you for your support!

On December 19, we will have a class mug exchange! The girls and I briefly discussed it this week and I hope everyone will participate.

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Andie
• Special Week: Claire
• Field Trip to Virginia State Capitol: Tuesday, December 5 from 9:30 - 11:30; Details Here!
• Outreach Project to Support Celebrate RVA - Details Here!
  
• Lower School Gift Service: Wednesday, December 20 at 9:00 am at Reveille United Methodist Church - more details to come
• Dress code reminder  
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!

Weekly Update

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to thank each of you for sharing your daughters with me. This is an amazing group of girls and I am blessed to be their teacher. Thank you for your support and I wish you a relaxing holiday. 

The girls have been working hard so here are some curriculum updates.

Math: For homework the last two weeks, we have been working on word problems. The girls are learning how to solve more complex and multi-step problems. We will continue to practice word problems along with our facts contract. Our next unit is on multiplication and division and we will also learn order of operations. To practice graphing, we used Google Sheets and the girls made a line graph of the candy they collected. We learned about the importance of including titles and axis labels on the graph. They look great!

Language Arts: The girls completed a really fun writing lab about eyebombing. Check out what this means by viewing their creative, perspective writing. 

We finished reading the historical fiction book, Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail. The girls really enjoyed the book, especially because it was written from the dog's perspective in many parts. They also learned a lot about moving west at this time in history and the pros and cons of making this journey. We will continue to discuss westward expansion during our social studies time.

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week (and week after break): Ginna
• Math Expo with St. Christopher's 4th Grade - We will host the boys on Tuesday, November 21 from 9:00-10:30 for various math games and activities 
• Book Fair Friday, December 1 from 1:30 - 1:50: Our class will visit the book fair in the library so please join us if you can
  
• Field Trip to Virginia State Capitol: Tuesday, December 5 from 9:30 - 11:30; Details Here!
  
• Dress code reminder 
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!

Weekly Update

 

Thank you for helping to support our current Lower School Outreach project. We are collecting non-perishable food items for the St. Stephen's Food Pantry. Details are here!

If your daughter will be out of town on Monday or Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, please send me an email. A few you have already let know so thank you.

The girls did a clever and creative job with their first Wordly Wise Dress Up Day. Here they are...  

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Eleanor
• Special Week: Ginna
• Math Expo with St. Christopher's 4th Grade - We will host the boys on Tuesday, November 21 from 9:00-10:30 for various math games and activities 
• Book Fair Friday, December 1 from 1:30 - 1:35: Our class will visit the book fair in the library so please join us if you can
  
• Field Trip to Virginia State Capitol: Tuesday, December 5 from 9:30 - 11:30: more details to come
• Dress code reminder 
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!

Weekly Update

Despite Halloween being on Tuesday, the girls worked hard this week while having lots of fun! We had fun at the Halloween party and then the grade level party on Tuesday afternoon. Thank you to Kate Rawles for sending in the Bingo prizes and for Marjorie Childress for running the Bingo game.

Here are some classroom updates and reminders:

Math: The girls completed the chapter 1 math test and it came home in today's Friday Folder. I am proud of how well they did on the place value assessment. Our next unit is on adding and subtracting big numbers and we will move quickly through this since we practice this skill with various classroom activities.

Language Arts/Social Studies: We started our next class novel called Ranger in Time, Rescue on the Oregon Trail. This historical fiction novel provides a glimpse into what life was life during the time of Westward Expansion. We have already had some great conversations about why people left their homes to head out west and what was their motivation. 

Today, we watched an overview video of Westward Expansion and then the girls shared something they learned from the BrainPop video. Here are their great ideas.

On Friday, November 10, we will have our first Wordly Wise Dress Up Day! All details are here and this is always a highlight of 4th grade!

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Ella
• November 10: Wordly Wise Dress Up Day! All details are here.
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!
• Field Trip to Virginia State Capitol: Tuesday, December 5 from 9:30 - 11:30: more details to come

Weekly Update

News from PE…

For the next 2 weeks, we will be running a combined biking/archery unit. Half of the class will be biking while the other half is doing archery for week 1, and then they will switch for week 2. For simplicity's sake, we are going to use class numbers to distinguish groups. The girls are aware of this. The week of November 13 will be biking for all students to ensure all classes get ample time in this unit as it is a favorite! All girls should bring in a helmet by Monday, October 30!

Week of October 30: 

Numbers 1-7: Archery

Numbers 8-15: Biking

Week of November 6:

Numbers 1-7: Biking

Numbers 8-15: Archery

Week of November 13: All are biking

 

Here are some curriculum updates and reminders:

 

Math: The girls have worked hard and efficiently on chapter 1 focusing on place value. We will have a quiz Monday and move on to adding and subtracting big numbers. We have been reviewing in class for this. One last reminder that the Greg Tang Halloween Math Challenge is due by Tuesday, October 31.

 

Language Arts: On November 10, we will have our first Wordly Wise Dress Up Day! All details are here and this is always a highlight of 4th grade!

We finished James and the Giant Peach and the girls designed newspaper front pages. I will be sending these home next week and I am proud of their creativity. 

This week, we practiced fluency skills by doing some Halloween themed reader's theaters. Our next novel will be about a dog on the Oregon Trail during the time of Westward Expansion. 

 

Social Studies: Each girl did a fantastic job of creating a comic explaining one branch of government. They turned out really well and I will be sending them home soon. Our next unit of study will be on Westward Expansion.

Reminders:

• Carpool helper next week: Reese
• Special Week: Wells
  
• Remember to check SeeSaw for updates from Specials teachers
  
• Scavenger hunt question - answer this!
• Halloween Celebration will be Tuesday, October 31. The girls may dress up for Halloween - details are here
• Field Trip to Virginia State Capitol: Tuesday, December 5 from 9:30 - 11:30: more details to come