Today was jam packed!  Phew!  We started our day with science- wrapping up yesterday's activity.  We then let our trays dry out a bit so we could use them again later!  We watched our CRS Rice Bowl video about community and human dignity.  The kids thought of ways they could help others.  We spent quite a bit of time on our stream tables this afternoon, as well!  We tested a flood variable and a slant variable.  We will discuss our observations tomorrow.  We ended working on some problem solving with angles.  The kids had to work with a partner on some challenging work.  We will compare work and reasoning tomorrow.  

Tonight's homework is: Read I Could Do That from Journeys, and page 292 from reader's notebook.  Also, to read pages 9-14 in the science reader and to answer the two questions on page 14.  

Our retreat was a success!!!!! We had a wonderfully prayerful time at The Franciscan Renewal Center and lots of fun at the centers around campus in the afternoon.  THANK YOU To all the parents and grandparents who volunteered their time and talents to make this day so successful!  The church and school staff were so grateful that we shared our pretzels with them again this year.  If you volunteered, please don't forget to log your hours on www.x2vol.com.

Tomorrow is our retreat! Mrs. DiPasquale sent an informational email last night about our trip tomorrow.  I've gone over the day with the kids and we're excited!

Tomorrow there is community prayer.

Tonight's homework is to read through the social studies notebook with your child.

I don't know where our day went today! We we so busy!  We reviewed adverbs that compare in language arts and wrote a class summary of The World According to Humphrey.  Tomorrow the kids are going to start their own summary of a book they've recently finished.  Tonight's homework is page 279-280 from the workbook.

We started talking about angles of a circle in math today.  The homework tonight is a two sided worksheet to practice.

We took notes on President Wilson's response to WWI and women's role in WWI.  Tomorrow we'll discuss the end of the war.

We are almost out of tissues, so if you have a box to spare over the next few weeks, please send one in!

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend!  It's going to be a warm week, so please make sure your child has their water bottle this week! The crazy hair today was great!

The kids are bringing home their new spelling words today.  Test on Friday! We also read The World According to Humphrey in language arts and completed a vocabulary graphic organizer. Tonight's homework is to read Make the Switch from the Journeys book.

We watched a video to review weathering before taking our investigation check for science.

We watched our video for our Lent journey with CRS today.  We met Annet from Uganda and discussed helping the poor and vulnerable.

We finally had our dessert party!!!!  We ate while completing our first Digital Citizenship Academy lesson.

Dessert Day is TUESDAY.......sorry for my previous mistype!

Everyone can take a sigh of relief....the states and capitals test is OVER! Time to enjoy a long weekend!

We spent our morning on the test and in specials, which left us the afternoon to finish up the Horses book and learn about modern weapons of WWI!

Remember no school on Friday or Monday!

Tuesday is crazy hair day.  We also added dessert day.  One of the rewards from the Fun Run was that they could bring in a desert one day and eat it in class.  We will do this on TUESDAY afternoon.  Desserts only need to be for themselves.

Only two days until the states and capitals test! Nerves are running high :)

We continued our class discussion today about how we treat each other, and focused on behavior that has been exhibited by our classmates that makes people feel excluded, hurts their feelings, or physically hurts others.  As I told the kids, we will continue to have these conversations so that the concepts we discuss are clear and the behavior that is unacceptable can be turned around!  The conversations are going REALLY well. The kids are engaged and really inquisitive!

We read more in our Horse reader in language arts.  We also logged into our gmail accounts again today and created a doc!!! Success!!!!!  The kids did a really good job with this :) They had some time to explore the G suite after completion, and some kids created documents with templates, added their classmates as contacts (it doesn't automatically pick them up like Office365 did), and some took a look at slides. I can't wait to try our all the features of our new G suite!

Please continue to assist your child in studying for the upcoming test! Thank you everyone for getting your permission slips in for the retreat on March 26th.  I'll be emailing the drivers soon!  If you're interested in helping during the afternoon, sign up HERE!

What a busy Monday we had!  We had a really great day!  We have been having a little trouble remembering how to conduct ourselves in the classroom and during transition time, as well as during some specials.  We spent some time today reviewing the expectations of our classroom inside while working and at lockers.  Our religion lesson for Lent was perfect to transition us into a conversation about how we are treating each other and what it means to be an "active bystander".  The kids had a lot to say and were very interested in our discussion!

We are reading the book Horses in language arts this week.  There will be no spelling words, other than the states and capitals for Thursday.  There will also be no homework this week as part of the reward for earning over $100 per lap for the FunRun!

The state and capitals test is on Thursday!  The kids need to know where each state is and how to spell each state and its capital.

Crazy Sock day for 4th grade will be on Wednesday, March 13th! This is another prize from the FunRun!  

Bring your stuffed animal day was quite a success! I still owe the kids more rewards, but I have to schedule those a little farther in advance, so I'll try to get some in next week!

Homework tonight is all language arts- practice with abbreviations and spelling words and shades of meaning!

There will be a math test tomorrow.  The kids did fantastic on our review today!

Just a reminder that the permission slips for the retreat are due tomorrow, as well as any Scholastic orders!

Extra recess yesterday!

Observing the evaporation dishes. 

Taking notes on the start of WWI.

Due to our extreme success in raising donations for the FunRun, I owe the children lots of fun rewards!  The homework passes have already been given, and today we took our extra recess due to the beautiful weather!

We had a wonderful lesson about our CRS Rice Bowl project for lent.  Your child should have brought home their rice bowl.  Every year I challenge the class to have 100% participation in the project, meaning that everyone would return their bowl with something inside.  We don't focus on the amount, just the participation.  We will be learning about a new place in the world where CRS provides education and resources to those in need each week during Lent.  The calendar that accompanied the bowl contains thoughts and suggestions for each day during Lent.  I hope you look through the pamphlet and discuss ways to help others during this Lenten season!

We practiced using abbreviations in language arts today, and identifying patterns in math!   Language arts IXL PP.1-PP.8 is homework.

Remember the permission slip for our retreat is due Friday.  I will email our drivers on Friday after all slips are turned in.  If you are chosen to drive, I will be assigning students to drivers the day of the trip, so please do not list names on your forms.  We have most all forms already turned in- thank you!

Also, our states and capitals test is just over a week away!  Links for some songs are on the sidebar in the blog.  Studying for the test takes place at home, so if you've not started- I'd suggest your child spend a good deal of time studying over the next week.  They need to know the location of each state and its capital.  Spelling counts!

See this link for items needed for the retreat!

A few things went home today that have due dates:
1) Retreat permission slip- due Friday, March 8th.  Our retreat is a 2 parter- the morning is at the Franciscan Renewal Center and the afternoon is spent at school completing 3 rotations of Lent activities.  It's a really special day that I look forward to each year!  There will be numerous opportunities for volunteer help during the retreat, both at in the morning and afternoon!

2) March Book Orders- due March 8th.

3) Free homework pass- the kids earned 2 from the Fun Run.  We went over the "rules" today- that the may use them as they see fit, but they will still be responsible for the skills we're practicing.  For example, tonight's IXL is practicing classifying quadrilaterals- when test day comes, they will still have to answer questions about quadrilaterals.  That being said, they may have done great with today's lesson and skipping this additional practice is fine!  :)

New spelling words came home today- test on Friday!  We read Sacagawea from our Journeys book today.  After we read, the kids had to use a graphic organizer to tell me the main idea and supporting details.  We also reviewed shades of meaning again- using the correct synonym for the correct context of a sentence.

We set up our next science experiment. We are finding out if rocks and vinegar had a chemical reaction, so we soaked the rocks in vinegar and to find out, we're letting the vinegar evaporate to see if anything is left in our dishes.

We classified quadrilaterals today in math.  IXL is homework.

I have two kids with fevers tonight- so I'll be home tomorrow, however, Mrs. Jauquet will be subbing!