Weekly Newsletter

Religion:  In Chapter 25, the students learned about the Sacrament of Holy Orders and that the ordained promise to minister to and serve the People of God.  In this chapter, they will learn that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, that it respects all people, and works for justice and peace.

4th Grade Language Arts:  We started this week’s lesson by asking the question, “How does exploring nature help our understanding of the world?” In the realistic fiction selection The Girl Who Loved Spiders, students explored the fascinating world of arachnids along with Luis, a boy who doesn’t like spiders at all. We also read some spider poems and some amazing facts about spider webs!

5th Grade Language Arts:  This week we explored the question “What can people learn by reading about how different animals adapt and survive?” as we read Animals on the Move. This informational text explores the mystery of animal movement. Animals can return to their birthplace, reunite with their families over long distances, or migrate to warmer climates. How do they know where to go? We also read the play Skywoman’s Rescue, a myth in which the animals recount how the Earth was created. Finally, we enjoyed the poetry selections “The Whale and Wild Geese.”

• Target Vocabulary: dwarfed, procedure, transferred, enthusiastic, adapted, conserving, critical, realization, available, resemble  (Vocab homework can be found vocab.)
• Vocabulary Strategy: Suffixes –ness, -less, -ment
• Comprehension Skill: Theme—examine characters’ qualities and motives to recognize the theme
• Comprehension Strategy: Analyze/ evaluate—think carefully about the text and form an opinion about it
• Don’t forget our class has a Quizlet account with the Vocabulary and Spelling words for both 4th and 5th grade.
• 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.

Social Studies:  Chapter 9  The Declaration of Independence

We have been working on memorizing the states, state capitals, and state abbreviations in our state books!  Next week, we will begin taking quizzes on this material.  The students will be quizzed on state locations (USA Map Quiz) on Tuesday.  Students who do not pass (grade of 70% or higher) the USA Map Quiz will retake it each day until they pass.   Students who pass the USA Map Quiz will move on to the State Abbreviation and Capital Quiz.  Once students pass the State Abbreviation and Capital Quiz, they will take the Final Quiz on everything- location, state name, state abbreviation, and state capital!

State Report Guidelines went home last week.  Please note the due date is Thursday, June 9th for both the essay and the float!

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

Tuesday 6/7:  USA Map/50 States Quizzing begins

Wednesday 6/8: 8am Mass, 2:30pm Dismissal

Thursday 6/9:  Team Day, State Float and Reports due

Friday 6/10:  L.A. and Spelling 6.27 Tests, Religion Ch. 26 Test

Monday 6/11:  4th Grade Math Ch. 12 Test, 5th Grade Math Ch. 10 Test

Tuesday 6/12:  Religion Unit 4 Test

Wednesday 6/15:  8am Mass, 12noon Dismissal, 3pm 8th Graduation

Friday 6/17: 8am End of the Year Mass, 10am Dismissal, No AM/PM Program

Happy Summer!  First Day of School is 8/29/16.

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