Updates and Announcements

Welcome to week 4! We have so many exciting things happening this quarter! I am not sure that we have a single “normal” week.

Thank you to all of our parent volunteers for field trip chaperones! We were at capacity for volunteers by 7:00 pm that evening. If you would like to be on our list of alternates, you are welcome to still email me.

We will be having an additional field trip in May to the Capitol to make up for the cancelled 4^th grade field trip. For that field trip, we will not turn away any volunteers with fingerprint clearance. I’ll be sending out more information on that after Spring Break.

This Friday is Athletic Field Day! I am still in need of two or three volunteers to help out our class on that day. If you are interested, please email Mrs. Lynch.

We will also be needing some volunteers this Wednesday, January 30^th for editing groups. Read below for more information.

Our week in learning

This week, students will learn about the idiom “Till the cows come home”.

Students will learn about the roots primus, secundus, tertius, and quartus. They will be quizzed on these roots next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week over the previous week’s roots.

In Literature, we will continue reading “The Secret Garden”. We will continue reading through chapter 13. Students will have a journal entry about every two days. If you have not already done so, please send in a physical copy of “The Secret Garden”.

In Writing and Grammar, students will construct their introduction and conclusion paragraphs. On Wednesday, 1/30, 9:00-9:50, we will be needing volunteers to help run editing groups. If you are interested, please contact your lead teacher. Students will hand write their final drafts on Thursday and type their final drafts on Friday.

This week in Science, students will continue their study of plant reproduction. We will jump into seeds and how they are dispersed, and will participate in a hands on activity to help order all the steps of seed dispersal. We will also jump into gymnosperms and how they differ from other seed plants. Students will be encouraged to use proper scientific vocabulary when appropriate.

On Monday, we will end our unit with a discussion of African slavery. We will discuss when slaves were first brought from Africa by Europeans both back to their countries and to the Americas, what that journey entailed, and what life was like for slaves in those places. Study guides for Unit 6: Age of Exploration are due on Tuesday, January 29^th. We will have a review day on the 29^th. The test is on Wednesday, January 30^th. We will end the week by starting Unit 9: Westward Expansion Before the Civil War, including discussions of Daniel Boone.

In math, we will continue our rather lengthy unit on decimals. Students will multiply and divide a decimal by a two digit number, multiply decimals by 0.1 and 0.01, and multiply a decimal by a decimal. ALL workbook homework assignments will be half of every type of problem. There will be math groups this Wednesday, 1/23, 8:00-9:00. Math groups will be sparse this quarter due to AZMerit preparations.