Room 7 Weekly Newsletter

A look at our week…

Religion:  In Chapter 18 the students learned about the celebration of the Anointing of the Sick.  In Chapter 19, they will learn that Mary is a model of discipleship for us and for the Church.

4th Grade Language Arts:  This week we asked the question “What makes a character memorable?” First we read the myth Hercules’ Quest, and learned about a legendary hero’s life and adventures. We also read the folktale Zomo’s Friends, about making a friend by being a friend.

Next Week’s…

• Target Vocabulary: overcome, association, capitol, drought, dedicate, publicity, violence, conflicts, horizon, brilliant  (Vocab homework can be found vocab.)
• Vocabulary Strategy: Reference materials
• Comprehension Skill: Conclusions and generalizations—figure out unstated or broad ideas
• Comprehension Strategy: Infer/ predict—use clues from the text to predict what may happen or to understand unstated ideas
• Spelling:  See Focus Wall (Homework assignment can be found here.) Please note: The challenge words are included in our weekly Spelling tests and must be included in the homework.
• Don’t forget our class has a Quizlet account with the Vocabulary and Spelling words for both 4th and 5th grade.
• Writing Focus:  Business Author Illustrator Work (BAIW)  We are writing and illustrating our own books!  This week our illustrators created Hire Sheets to advertise their work.  The authors hired their illustrators and started working together to create an outline of their books.

5th Grade Language Arts:  Throughout the week, students thought about how to answer the question “What do facts and opinions contribute to a story?” Our main selection, The Dog Newspaper, was an autobiography of children’s author Peg Kehret. She fondly remembered her first effort as a ten-year-old author—a handwritten newspaper about neighborhood dogs. She wrote out twelve copies and sold them all! Students then read Poetry About Poetry to see the fun poets have with…poetry!

Next Week’s…

• Target Vocabulary: issue, deteriorating, dependent, exception, granted, effective, urge, violations, ordinance, minimum  (Vocab homework can be found vocab.)
• Vocabulary Strategy: Greek and Latin suffixes -ism, -ist, -able, -ible
• Comprehension Skill: Author’s purpose— use text details to figure out the author’s viewpoint and reasons for writing
• Comprehension Strategy: Summarize— briefly tell the important parts of the text in your own words
• Spelling:  See Focus Wall (Homework assignment can be found here.)  Please note: Starting this week, the challenge words will be included in our weekly Spelling tests and must be included in the homework.
• Don’t forget our class has a Quizlet account with the Vocabulary and Spelling words for both 4th and 5th grade.
• Writing Focus:  Business Author Illustrator Work (BAIW)  We are writing and illustrating our own books!  This week our illustrators created Hire Sheets to advertise their work.  The authors hired their illustrators and started working together to create an outline of their books.

March Madness is here!  Our class has started the Battle of the Books!  Each student anonymously entered a book of their choice into the contest.  On Thursday we voted to see which books would enter our Sweet Sixteen bracket.  The next round in our contest is a book summary.  These are due on Monday.  We will be voting again to see which books enter the Elite Eight bracket.

4th Grade Math: Chapter 8 Fractions

• We are working on make Human Fraction Creations of ourselves!

4th Grade Accelerated Math: Chapter 9 Fraction Addition and Subtraction

5th Grade Math:  Chapter 6 Dividing Fractions

• We have started a partner project called Breaking Up the Bakery!  This past week the students built their bakeries using their knowledge of equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, and basic fractions of whole numbers.  Next week, the students will start the Baker’s Rack, Breaking the Bread, and Get Busy Baking sections of the project. In these sections, students will use their skills with writing, drawing, and identifying fractions, multiplying and dividing fractions by whole numbers and mixed numbers as well as adding and subtracting fractions.  This is fun way for students practice the mathematic skills we have learned in class with a real world application.

5th Grade Accelerated Math:  Chapter 8 Decimals- Addition and Subtraction

Social Studies:  Next we will locate land claimed by France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.  Then, we will describe the French and Dutch colonial systems.  We will also review Chapter 4.  The assessment will be on Wednesday.  The study guide can be found by clicking on Social Studies Chapter 4 Study Guide.

Science: On Friday, we had Dr. Dossey conduct a lab activity with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.  We completed the Pieces of Earth lab activity.  In this activity, students explored Earth materials and found six important rocks and minerals found on Earth.  They observed and analyzed the key properties of Gypsum, Quartz, Sulphur, Albite, Biotite, and Muscovite.  Thank you, Dr. Dossey for helping us with this activity!

Upcoming Important Dates and Events (Tests are only added on a weekly basis and subject to change):

Tuesday 3/15:  Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Wednesday 3/16: 8am Mass, Social Studies Chapter 4 Test, 12noon Dismissal

Thursday 3/17: Team Day, 9am Stations of the Cross, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  1pm Irish Dance Performance (All are welcome to attend!)

Friday 3/18: L.A./Spelling 4.19 Tests, Religion Ch. 19 Test

Monday 3/21: 5th Grade ACRE Testing

Tuesday 3/22:  Happy Birthday, Daniel!  5th Grade ACRE Testing

Wednesday 3/23: 8am Mass, 4th Grade Math Chapter 8 Test, 5th Grade Math Chapter 6 Test, 2:30pm Dismiss

Thursday 3/24: 9:15am Washing of the Feet in the Hall followed by Living Stations of the Cross, 12noon Dismiss

Friday 3/25: Good Friday, No School

School resumes on 4/11.

For an up-to-date version of our school calendar please visit https://stmesc.org/students-and-families/school-calendar/.