Madeleine Fourth Grade Blog: October 6th, 2017

It is hard to believe it's October already! We are off to such a great start in 4th grade!

The students have been learning about and researching the Native American tribes of Oregon these past couple of weeks. There are 6 regions divided by geography with over 200 tribes documented to have lived in Oregon. Each 4th grader has chosen a tribe to write a narrative about. In class we have read mentor texts modeling personal narrative with our book study of Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and the classic Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Students are currently working on their first draft. This morning, some students met with Ms. Savery, Mrs. Stephens or I to start first edits for revisions. Next week, I will meet with the students and their writing will go through a peer editing process as well. Then on to final draft and illustrations. I am impressed with the effort I have seen so far! The assignment is posted on Google Classroom and can be accessed at home with your child's login and password. Please take a look if you get the chance and ask your 4th grader to share his/her story with you.

Our math review continues in Chapter 2 with addition and subtraction strategies including the importance of estimating to check to see if your answer could be right. Thank you for your support of math homework! In the Friday Folder you will find the first math test of the year. This is always a tough test being the first of the year. Students who scored lower than 70% have the opportunity to retake the test to improve his/her grade. The retest will be next Thursday. Please encourage your 4th grader to find a moment to let me know he/she would like to take the test. This is the year to start planting the seed of advocating for themselves with me, their teacher. It is such an important skill and takes practice!

In Science, the 4th graders are exploring the world of volcanoes. This coming week, we will research and experiment with the rock cycle. We have been lucky enough to have been invited to the science lab with Ms. Yuhas twice in the last couple of weeks. So much hands on fun going on in the science lab!

Our class has joined over 2 million students around the world in the Global Read Aloud 2017. Read about it here. This week we started The Wild Robot by Peter Brown and we love it! Today we connected with a 4th grade class in Lincoln, MA (Google Hangout) and one in North Carolina (Skype). The students asked yes or no questions to determine what city and state our respective classes were in. Saint Isidore (patron saint of technology) was looking over us as we had no tech problems! This week we also connected with Professor Lisa Ortmann's class of student teachers at the University of South Dakota via Edmodo. Each 4th grader is in a book study group with a student teacher who will weekly post an assignment based on the week's reading of The Wild Robot. You could have heard a pin drop in here as the students worked on their iPads with their Edmodo group. I told them they are helping to make the teachers of the future awesome! Please check my email for how to check out the Edmodo groups.

In Religion, we have been talking about the first of the Catholic Social Teachings, The life and dignity of the human person. This idea spills into our studies of the Native tribes of Oregon and the Global Read Aloud. Over the course of this school year, as we strive to fulfill our commitment to The Madeleine theme of Living as Missionary Disciples, the 4th graders will be exploring the Catholic Social Teachings with a focus on service. Please keep the folks who are served by St. Stephens this weekend by planning to bring a few extra lunches on Tuesday, October 10th. 4th grade is in charge of St. Stephens lunches Tuesday morning. Thanks!

The Blessing of the Animals had a great turn out. Thanks for coming!