Thursday, December 20, 2018

Thank you Mrs. DiPasquale and Mrs. Wallace for hosting a fun Christmas party this afternoon!  What a great way to get into the holiday spirit! 

Tomorrow is a half day and there's no aftercare!  We have mass at 8:15, per usual, and then we will watch 5th grade present their colonies.  We will end our day with a sing a long with the student council! 

Monday, December 17, 2018

It's the last week before Christmas break and it's a busy one!!!!
Few announcements about the week:
*Tuesday is $1.00 to wear red/green or Christmas attire
*Wednesday is Christmas sock day
*Wednesday is the Christmas program- students should arrive and be in their seats by 6:15pm
*Thursday is our class party in the afternoon
*Friday is half day with no aftercare

We started our day watching the spelling bee this morning.  It was very exciting and went into a spell-off for second place.  The 5-8th grade spellers did a fantastic job!

We took our math DIBELS today after Spanish.  These benchmark tests do not affect grades, but the results are used as information for further instruction.

We have been working on writing a persuasive composition and today the edits for the first paragraph were due, and work on the second paragraph began.  The kids did great going with the flow as technology issues arose, so we'll need some time tomorrow for our second paragraphs as well!

We rehearsed for the Christmas program this afternoon----and we'll have to log a little extra practice tomorrow to get our songs really fine tuned and our positioning on the risers just perfect.  We'll sprinkle this in to our day so that we're already shining at the all school rehearsal tomorrow afternoon!

No spelling this week!

Thursday, December 13, 2018

This week has flown by!  Tonight's homework is workbook page 174 and some IXL.  There was time to work on the IXL today in class, and whatever was left over was homework, so everyone has something a little different.

The kids played a suffix game with a partner today.  They didn't finish it all, so they kept the boards to be able to play again if we have time.  They also took the comprehension and decoding test for the week.  Spelling test tomorrow!

We worked on adding and subtracting fractions today.  Adding with the same denominator is proving to be much easier than adding with different denominators!  We will practice finding common denominators for the next few days to make sure we are successful!

Tomorrow we will have music practice after mass and the zoo is coming in the afternoon!

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Today flew by!  We started our morning practicing the Act of Contrition and examining our conscience before confession.  We participated in confession with Fr. John and Fr. David at 9 this morning.  What a great way to start the day!

The kids read a fable about an ant today and compared the non-fiction reading about an ant from yesterday and the fable from today.  They came up with some great similarities and differences.

We practiced multiplication and division in math, as well as common denominators and simplifying fractions.  Phew this was tough for some of us!!!  Please continue to help your child with multiplication and division if they are struggling.  Multiplication facts are a main focus in the third grade, and while we reviewed them again at the beginning of 4th grade, at this point, and really for some time, we use them.  I expect that the kids can list factors, multiples, and find common factors and multiples.  When we go over our computation problems (i.e. 45,678 x 56), I work through it, but we work at a quicker pace now that we're in the second trimester.  If your child needs to practice, please review facts!  Sometimes it takes a little longer for those facts to become second nature, so the more practice the better!  Flashcards work wonderfully, as do written practice or oral practice.  Thank you for your help in insuring the success of all our students!

We ended our day by beginning a new STREAM activity- building an avalanche protection system.  This will take us until break, but we started the process today.  The kids were put in new groups, received their journal, and worked together to build a 10 inch tower using just notecards, that could hold a "ranger".  I took some cute pictures, but for some reason they aren't uploading!  Hopefully I'll be able to get them up this week!

Monday, December 10, 2018

Hello! I'm back from Florida!  I heard it was a great week last week and the kids were wonderful for Mrs. Jauquet!

We did start a new language arts lesson this week and will have a spelling test on Friday.  Our schedule over the next two weeks will probably be a little different as we make time for DIBELS benchmark testing, confession, music practice, and holiday activities.  Tonight there is no homework!

Please give me a day or two to catch up on some emails and things, so if you're waiting to hear from me, I should catch up by tomorrow!

Friday, November 30, 2018

Happy Friday!  We had a great half day.  The kids took their week end assessments and spelling test.  They also worked on their earthquake booklets and coat of arms from earlier this week.

I will be out of town next week, in Florida.  Mrs. Jauquet will be subbing.  She is our former 5th grade teacher, and a wonderful teacher.  The children will be in good hands!

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Tomorrow is a historic day for ACS- our first Accreditation Visiting Team arrives!  Every school in the diocese goes through the accreditation process every six years.  The teams consist of one chair, from out of state, and 7-8 members consisting of teachers and administrators from around the diocese.  I have personally served on at least 6 teams and I find the process extremely rewarding and powerful!  Over the past two year, we have been working on a document that has already been shared with the team.  This document (actually a binder full of reports and write-ups) contains information about ACS and what we offer students and families.  The team is here to validate all the wonderful things we do and offer some constructive suggestions on areas to work on moving forward.  The team will be around campus Wednesday-Friday.  They will be at all events and visiting all classes, as well as meeting with specific groups of parents and students. The staff looks forward to hearing the final report from the team on Friday after dismissal!

Today in the 4th grade, the kids wrote a journal entry in the view point of the father in our story.  We also reviewed possessive nouns.  A language arts packet went home today and is due on Friday.  

We continued our work on equivalent fractions in math today.  The kids said the homework went well last night, and they seemed to do well during our independent practice today :) IXL was homework tonight.  30 minutes total!  

Monday, November 26, 2018

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  The kids must have been tired today, because our morning was very quiet! hahah

We started a new language arts lesson today and the kids wrote their new spelling words in their planners.  There will be a test on Friday.  We read about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 this morning and put the events of the story in sequential order.  We are continuing on with natural disasters.  As a vocabulary activity, the kids had to write a paragraph about earthquakes using their vocabulary words.  

We wrapped up our lessons on potential energy and kinetic energy and collisions today. We finished with a video last week, and reviewed and took the assessment today.  We will move onto waves tomorrow.  I'm hoping to begin our unit to create an avalanche protection system by the end of the week!  Fingers crossed we stay on schedule :) 

The kids read their social studies lesson with a partner and then answered their memory master questions.  These questions have been a great forum for the kids to practice complete sentences and using text evidence. 

We started with fractions today.  The kids new the names of the parts of a fraction and pretty much what fractions are, but finding equivalent fractions was a bit tricky!  Tonight's homework will reinforce equivalent fractions.  

Please note: Friday is early release.   Wednesday is community prayer. 


Tuesday, November 20, 2018

The kids finally were able to trade their crossword puzzles with a friend today and solve.  They worked really hard on these, so it was nice to see them have the chance to share their puzzles.  

We also took a virtual field trip and spoke with some people employed in the motorsports industry.  We spoke with two people- one who drives the pace car and one who works on the cars.  They discussed the technology that is used in the vehicles today and how you need to use your senses and engineering mind to succeed in these fields.  

We finished up our weekly assessments for lesson 11 in Journeys today.  They went really well!  Then the kids did an independent activity to practice using the text to answer questions.  This doesn't mean that the answer to a question will be a direct sentence from the book, but rather they will have to decide on the importance of a feature or compare two things from the book.  

We also finished chapter 5 in social studies.  We read two stories about children kidnapped by Native Americans and then reviewed the chapter before taking the test. 

This afternoon we practiced multiplication and division and watched a video on the transfer of energy. 

Tomorrow is a half day and the Thanksgiving feast, as well as STREAM day.  Thank you to those of you who have told me that your child will be absent.  We will be dismissed at 12:00 tomorrow.  The feast for us is at 10:55.  The feast will contain turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, green beans, and a roll. If you prefer your child not eat this food, or they just don't want to, please send in a separate lunch.  Also, we will still have snack tomorrow! 

Monday, November 19, 2018

I cannot believe it's Thanksgiving week already!  We kept ourselves quite busy today with language arts and social studies!  We re-read Hurricanes and discussed the graphic and text features before taking the comprehension test.  The kids were able to use their book on the test. The kids also finished up their vocabulary crossword puzzles.

We spent some time working on the mechanics of our memory masters for social studies today.  We are going to perfect our headings and complete sentences!  After we did this, we read about the Mexican Cession and the Gadsden Purchase.

Instead of our traditional morning work I had the kids work on a "Clark Creative" where in the world? activity.  They had to practice multiplication and division and use clues to identify a mystery place!

Remember, Wednesday is early release.  We will still have Spanish.  We will also have our STREAM day on Wednesday from 9-10.  Please let me know if your child will not be in attendance so that groups can be adjusted accordingly.  Thank you to those of you who have let me know already!

Friday, November 16, 2018

We had a day of science today!  We had fallen behind on our science lessons and in order to catch up, we spent most of our day on science!  We are still learning about energy- but today we worked with potential and kinetic energy by rolling balls down ramps.  We also talked about collisions when our metal balls collided with corks.  The kids worked great and we got a lot of learning in! 

We still managed to take our decoding and spelling tests in the morning :) 

Remember next week is a very short week!  Wednesday is our annual Fall STREAM Day.  Our coordinator is working on putting the kids into groups this weekend, so if you know FOR SURE That your child won't be in school on Wednesday, November 21st, please let me know!

Friday, November 9, 2018

Our Friday flew by!  We started our morning with a beautiful Veteran's Ceremony put on by Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls.  

We spent quite a bit of time talking about the tent tabernacle today.  This was the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept (the Ark held the 10 Commandments) while the Israelites traveled the desert.  The dimensions and items to be placed in the tent tabernacle are found in Exodus in the Bible. 

Our afternoon was full of math!  After working together on a few word problems using common factors, the students had to work on word problems on their own!  We didn't even go over them together.  We have been doing so many problems together and I want to see what they can do on their own! They were quite whiney! hahah  In reality, we will go over the work on Monday, but I really wanted their best work on a Friday afternoon :) There is one math challenge that I assigned to the kids for the weekend.  It is written in their planner:

6 and 28 are perfect numbers, what is the next perfect number?  A perfect number is a number whose factors add up to the number (1,2,3,6....1+2+3=6 and 1+2+4+7+14=28). 

Thursday, November 8, 2018

The kids finished their unit 2 assessment today and we started reading a supplemental reader entitled, Mars.  We will read this book in class and complete some corresponding activities. 

The kids finished their electromagnets today.  They were all successful after wrapping the wire tightly around the rivet at least 40 times.  They were very impressed that we created a temporary magnet without a magnet!  Tonight's science homework is to read pages 27-57 in the Energy reader.  

We continued our work with factors today in math.  Tonight's homework is IXL D.29, E.5, and F.6.  Thirty minutes total or until mastered, which ever comes first!

There will be a flag ceremony after mass tomorrow in celebration of Veteran's Day! 

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Today's report card day!!! woohoo!!!!  I did show the children their grades before they left today.  I also reminded them that as their teacher I'm not looking for perfection, but growth.   We talked about the difference between a grade due to lack of quality work and a grade due to not understanding or struggling with something.  I'm very pleased with how this year has started and can't wait to see where 2nd trimester takes us!

No homework tonight.  We worked on unit 2 language arts test today, math practice, and making an electromagnet.

Parents of girls- I had a talk with our girls about how we treat our friends, especially the things we say to them.  We had a really great chat and the girls were really receptive, so feel free to follow up with them about it tonight if you wish!

Field Trip- I thought I posted some pictures yesterday, but they don't seem to have made it!  We had an amazing time on the trip. It's a long day, but a great one.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered and made sure their children were in the right clothes with a sack lunch!  I have received pictures from some of the chaperones, so I'll try to get a bunch out via email soon!

Monday, November 5, 2018

Tomorrow is our field trip!  I sent an email this morning providing some reminders about the trip!

Even though trimester 1 has ended, the grades on renweb, as of the moment I'm typing, are not updated yet :)

Third grade is having a gently used blanket drive to benefit Foothills Animal Rescue.

Math homework tonight is practice 5.1- both sides!

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Some quick info for Friday:
*Early Release
*Grandparent's Day- Please have grandparents meet their 4th graders in the church.  Students may sit with their grandparents, however, must meet up with the class to return to the room after the church activities are over.  Children may only sit with their own grandparent/parent, not a friend's.
*The book fair will be open all day tomorrow!
*If grandparent's would like to take your child out early, please remind them to sign the students out in the office!

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Today absolutely flew by!  We went to the book fair this morning and the kids were able to shop till they dropped ;)

We had art in place of music today because Mrs. Trayer was not in.  We will still have our regularly scheduled art class tomorrow.

We did some challenging math practice today!  The kids had to complete some multiplication and division problems and then check their own work with a calculator.  After they reviewed their work with me they were given a worksheet with word problems.

Tonight's math homework:  Write a math sentence using the amount of candy received tonight.  For example; I have 120 pieces of candy.  60 of the contain chocolate.  What fraction of the candy is chocolate?  60/120.  OR I had 90 pieces of candy.  I already ate 30. How many do I have left? 60.

Tomorrow is mass at 8:15 in honor of All Saints Day.  The Bishop will be joining us, as well as some special donors to the school, so it should be a full house!

Remember, spelling test tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

We had a wonderful community prayer this morning to start our day.  Please note, that next month's community prayer will be on Wednesday, November 28th for our accreditation visit! 

We had a fun science lesson where the kids used spacers and washers to test how much force it takes to break magnetic force.  They recorded their findings and graphed the results.  

We worked on shades of meaning today in language arts.  This is a tricky skill because we are using synonyms, but not any synonym!  The word must make sense in the sentence.  For example, The dancers GLIDED across the stage.  Glided would be used instead of walked or stomped because dancers glide.  tonight's homework is to reread Jose, born to dance and complete workbook page 112. 

At the end of the day the kids worked on their chapter 4 social studies review.  We will go over the review tomorrow. 

As the snake reports are being finished the kids are choosing whether they want to display them with an e-book or a keynote presentation.  They are having fun learning about these programs!

Monday, October 29, 2018

Happy Monday!  Today absolutely flew by! A new spelling list is coming home, the test will be Thursday due to Grandparent's Day being on Friday.  We read Jose, Born to Dance today and completed a graphic organizer to help us understand author's purpose.

The kids still needed to finish their snake fact cards from last week, so we spend some time before lunch working on them.  I hope to have a chance for them to create either an e-book or a Keynote presentation to share with their grandparents on Friday.

In religion, we read about the Israelites exit from Egypt and how often they doubted Moses and Aaron.  We also compared the Manna that God provided for them to the Eucharist that he provides for us.  We are excited to read about the next part of their journey- receiving the Ten Commandments!

My favorite part of today was visiting the book fair!  We practiced using the calculators and finding tax before we went.  Then we made our wish lists and when we returned to class we found the tax for our own items and a grand total of the list!  This is a REALLY challenging task, so I cannot guarantee everyone got the tax 100% correct, so for your own knowledge, tax is 8.6%, so please be sure to send enough to cover tax if your child is purchasing books on Wednesday when we visit as a class again.

As the end of the quarter nears, I have some missing work that I need from some of the kiddos.  I gave it out today and advised that if there was a lot they should take some home to make sure everything is finished by week's end, so your child may bring some pages home for completion.

A few things about this week:
*Book Fair open 8-9 and 2-3:30
*Thursday mass with the Bishop at 8:15
*Friday mass and Grandparent's Day- Early Release
*Thursday spelling test

Friday, October 26, 2018

Hello 4th Grade!  I apologize, it's been a crazy week in the 4th grade and I've not updated you at all this week, so I'll give you a little recap of our week!

We practiced division all week this week, and wrapped up our chapter on Thursday.  Multiplication and division will be something that we review and revisit all year!

We read a funny story from our Journeys book this week, Dear Mr. Winston.  The story is written as a letter to Mr. Winston, and one of our center activities this week was to respond to Cara's letter as Mr. Winston.  Those letters are really funny to read, so I'm excited to grade them.  We also worked with compound and complex sentences this week.  This is such a great skill because using compound and complex sentences makes our writing much more fun to read!

We celebrated winning the BoxTop competition with our popcorn party yesterday!  The kids loved it!  Thank you Mrs. DiPasquale for bringing juice boxes to put our party over the top!

As you know, we have a few cases of lice at school, so please make sure to wash those sweatshirts this weekend, just in case :)

Monday, October 22, 2018

Happy Monday!  Just a reminder that Friday is early release! We had a great start to our week today! We are starting a new lesson in our Journeys book this week, so new spelling words are coming home for the test on Friday.

We continued to divide in math today.  We checked our quotient with multiplication today.  Tonight's homework is more division practice- practice 4.11- front only.

We read about the exploration of New Spain in social studies today.  Tonight's homework is to answer the memory master questions on page 139 from the book.  The kids have been instructed to take the social studies book home, as there is no online version.

We watched a video clip on magnets today to summarize what we've learned about magnets so far!

In religion we read about the plagues that God put upon Egypt.  We will continue to discuss Moses this week and end with our popcorn party, earned from the Box Top Competition, while watching a movie about Moses.


Friday, October 19, 2018

Happy Friday!

We were able to finish all sorts of typing today!  Our letter to our seminarian is completed, and most of the book reports have been typed, too!  The spelling test has been taken.

We worked on a fun STREAM activity with 5th grade his afternoon.

If you placed a scholastic order, they have a message about the order:

Please Note:

We apologize if your Book Box is taking longer than usual to arrive in your classroom. Due to the overwhelming response to our back-to-school offer, we were unable to ship out some class orders in a timely manner. We’re fixing the issue now to speed things up for your next order!

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

It's already Wednesday! Our short week is flying by already ;)  Tonight's homework is IXL math E.14 and E.15.  Remember, work time is for 30 minutes total or until both skills are mastered, whichever comes first.

Speaking of math, it's been a while since we've had a formal lesson with the long weekend and all, so we reviewed both multiplication and division today.  The kids had a quiz in each.  We will be moving onto long division, so I want to make sure they have a good base to start from!

I have just about all of the saint comic strips.  They are AMAZING! The kids did such a fantastic job.  We will display these for All Saint's Day/Grandparent's Day!

Our book reports are written! They are also almost all typed onto the writing program in ThinkCentral.  This was our first time using WriteSmart on thinkcentral.com.  The kids will edit using the program as well as submit their work online this week.

The kids worked really hard on their Spanish alters today.  A few kids wanted to bring them home to work on them. They are due next Wednesday, but they will have time no Monday and Wednesday in Spanish class to work.

Thank you Mrs. DiPasquale and Mrs. Wallace for emailing about the class basket for our gala!  If you have any questions about the basket, please feel free to email me or reply to Mrs. DiPasquale!

REMINDER:
We have a few nut allergies in our class.  Due to this, I had previously asked that snacks be nut free.  Please remember that the snacks your child eats in the classroom need to be nut free!  There is still a Nut-Free Zone at lunch, so nuts are fine for lunch.  Starting Monday, any snack that contains nuts will be returned to backpacks to be eaten during lunch.  

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

What a fun morning with science!  The kids were really engaged and interested in our lesson about magnetism and temporary magnetism today!  Lots of great discoveries :)

We didn't even get to math today!  Our saint comic strip took a while, and we spent a great deal of time on our book reports and in science.  

We had Spanish today, to make up for last week!  

We do have a spelling test on Friday!

Trunk-or-Treat tickets go on sale tomorrow at 7:15 outside the K-3 building! 

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Remember, there's no school Friday or Monday!

We had a super productive day today and the kids worked soooo hard!  We practiced a little more with verb tense, and then took our grammar assessment.  We didn't get more written for our book reports, but we'll have lots of time for that next week!

We divided with tens, hundreds, and thousands in math.  We will continue to divide next week!

We carved out some time this afternoon to work on our saint reports.  This year, the kids are creating comic strips of their saints life.  They worked on their rough drafts today and I checked about half of them.  We plan to be finished by next Friday!

Enjoy your long weekend!

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

I assigned saints to the kids for their saint projects, which will be displayed on All Saints Day!  They did not get to choose :) 

Our math lesson was quite challenging today!  We will keep working at it tomorrow.

Homework tonight is a language arts worksheet and to read page 13-18 in the science reader.

Identifying and defining idioms. 
Taking the comprehension test online!
Parallel v series circuits

Monday, October 8, 2018

Monday flew by this week!  There is no spelling test this week, however, there will be one next week, and we've already added the words into the planner.

We practiced using thinkcentral.com on the iPads today.  It's always good to practice accessing the website on different items so that the kids aren't confused if they have a different device at home!  They listened to our main story online and then completed an independent reading activity page.  Tonight's homework is a worksheet.

We divided with remainders today!  This is new for many of our students, but they are working really hard.  Tonight's homework is a worksheet to practice!

The kids completed a sort of characteristics of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca Empires in social studies.

We also finished the movie, Joseph the Prince of Egypt today.

Congrats 4th grade on winning the boxtops competition!!!!!!  We'll celebrate with a popcorn party soon :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Tonight's homework is a language arts worksheet.

We continued to practice our multiplication today in math.  The kids are really doing a great job!

We had fun in science today. The kids had to light 2 light bulbs brightly.  They discovered that it matters how you place your d-cells (positive to negative) :)  Tomorrow we will explore parallel circuits to discover how we can light 2 lightbulbs with one d-cell, brightly!

We compared Joseph and Jesus today in religion. Both were beloved sons, were sold, and saved their people.  We will plan to begin watching Joseph: Prince of Egypt tomorrow and Friday.


Tuesday, October 2, 2018

We talked about Greek and Latin roots today and the kids sorted words that contained those roots.  We moved our chart to paper so we can add to it throughout the week!  Tonight's homework is to read Coming Distractions in the Journeys book. 

We finished reading about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca today.  The kids typed their memory master responses after the reading. 

We worked on word problems in math today!  I paired the kids up and they had to explain how they solved the problems.  They did great!  Tonight's homework is practice 3.7- both sides.

We started reading about Joseph in religion today.  I am planning on showing Joseph- Prince of Egypt Friday from Netflix.  

Tomorrow is picture day!  We are scheduled to takeout pictures at 8:15 AM! Blue polos please! 

Monday, October 1, 2018

Happy October!  As usual, our Monday was full!  The kids are writing about their dream car this week and the ideas they have are already cracking me up- velvet seats, wings, light up, and flying!  

We read Coming Distractions today in language arts and completed a fact and opinion chart together. The kids did a really great job.  We are trying to remember that just because we agree with something doesn't mean it's a fact!  New spelling words are also coming home today.  We will be working verb tense in grammar this week. 

We continued to practice multiplication in math today.  Originally, I thought we'd be ready for our test early this week, but I think more likely Thursday or Friday.  

We started reading about the Maya, Aztec, and Inca in social studies.  Before we read, the kids decided if they agreed or disagreed with statements about the empires.  As we read, we are filling in the correct information.  

Seventh grade led Rosary this afternoon, and it was a great way to end this cloudy, rainy day! 



Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Remember tomorrow is early release for conferences!  We had a fun day! The kids should finish up the language arts packet for tomorrow.  I'll be seeing half of you for conferences. 

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

We practiced suffixes on our board today.  Then the kids had to use some words with suffixes in sentences.  They also had a writing prompt today.  They had to write about what would happen if a luminous ball flew past their window one night.  They had to use their vocabulary words for the week!  We have shared some and they are really cute so far!  We took our vocabulary and comprehension tests today. A verb packet is coming home tonight- due Thursday!

We read about Jacob, Esau, and Isaac in religion today.  We had a good discussion on trickery and if we think it was right or wrong for Jacob and Rebekah to trick Isaac.  The kids also completed their September SLE self reflections.

We explored www.fossweb.com today.  This is the website that accompanies our science kits.  

Just a reminder that Thursday is early release for conferences.  If you wish to have your child attend after care, please RSVP to the office.  There is no school on Friday due to conferences.