important dates in February
Thursday, February 14th: Valentine Party 2:00-2:50
Friday, February 15th: Fun Food Friday
Monday, February 18th: Presidents' Day- No School
Monday, February 25th: Morning field trip to McAninch Arts Center to see Freedom Bound
Friday, February 15th: Fun Food Friday
Monday, February 18th: Presidents' Day- No School
Monday, February 25th: Morning field trip to McAninch Arts Center to see Freedom Bound
curriculum
Religion: We are concentrating on the Beatitudes. We are learning if we follow them we will be truly happy! The students will understand how each of us has been "blessed". We will also focus on saints with February feast days; such as Saint Blaise. Since February is the month of love, we will be finding bible passages which reference "love". Our next 4th grade mass will be on February 27th.
Math: We will wrap up Chapter 7 soon, but not before we cover order of operations and solving equations with multiple operations. Then we move on to fractions! Math practice is so important! Be sure your child is doing all their math homework and using IXL to reinforce and practice what they have learned.
Language Arts: The children are enjoying our novel, Loser. We should finish reading it in a fews days. Then we will do a couple of wrap up assignments. Your child will create a "Character Tie" for the main character, Donald Zinkoff. I will bake Donald's favorite cookie, the Snickerdoodle, to share with the students. Then we will be back in our Wonders reading series; spelling tests, vocabulary tests etc. We will begin in Unit 3. The essential question we will explore in our fiction and nonfiction writings will be, "Why is it important to keep records of the past?" The children are also working on a cross curricular persuasive writing piece. They are persuading their audience to travel to their state: the one they chose randomly. They will write expository pieces on this same state in April.
Science: We recently finished our module on energy transfer. Now we move on to learning more about the structures and functions of plants and animals, as well as information processing in animals. Remember: your child can access Inspire online at home. It's a great way for them to show you what we do in class. There are activities and short videos. We will start our STREAM projects very soon.
Social Studies: We will take the Chapter 7 test when we return from this snow/frigid cold break. Then to end our studies of the history of the Southeast, we will do an activity about the Jim Crow Laws. Next week we will begin learning about the Midwest Region; which covers two chapters! At this time, we will also begin our study of our own state of Illinois. The students will choose a project to do later as a culminating activity for the Illinois Unit.
Miscellaneous
If anyone would like to teach our Junior Achievement class this year please let me know. I can be flexible with days and times. We can do it in just a couple weeks or spread it out over 5-6 weeks. We could start in the Spring!
Your children are welcome to pass out Valentines on the 14th. Please make sure they have one for each of their fellow students. If they would like to bring candy too, that's fine. I will contact the parents who signed up to plan/run the short party. If we need donations of food or drink I will email everyone.