March in 4th

St. Patrick's Day All School Dance Party

     This week in 4th grade at The Madeleine School, we worked more on our National Park Reports. We wrote our 1st and 2nd paragraphs. We also started a new book club book called Bound for Oregon. It is told from the point of view of the main character, Mary Ellen. They finally decided to go to Oregon so they are just starting out. We worked on many things this week!

By Zoe

     This week we started to move along the trail with our wagon trains. There are 4 groups or wagon trains, each person in each wagon train picks a family from a list and packs 1,000 lbs of supplies. Then a wagon master is elected and they do all the paper work and keep track of everyone's points. Points get your wagon train farther along the trail. We also do wagon journal entries from the perspective of someone in your family. But this journey isn't all easy, you see the wagon masters have to draw Fate Cards with problems your wagon train face. We also have been cruising through Stout-Hearted Seven which is about seven kids who go to live with the Whitman's on the Oregon trail after their parents die. This week has been lots of fun!

By Annalise

National Park Research

Mrs. Harmon came in to help. 

Working together at math time. 

Math time

Discussing long division.

Math Game

Long division bingo

Wagon train discussing fate card. 

    This Tuesday, March 21st, the 4th graders will be traveling to Fort Vancouver for a tour of this important landmark supporting our Oregon Trail studies. The 4th graders will have free dress and should dress for the weather. We will be eating our lunch at the Fort so please pack a cold lunch Tuesday ( I let Nora know we will be gone for lunch). The students are looking forward to seeing an authentic Fort after our studies!

  Our class is leading Mass for the school this Thursday at 2:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

God Bless,
Jenn

Marching into March with 4th Grade

Mardi Gras Masks

     March has been a very busy month so far in Fourth Grade. The students have joined one of four wagon trains and are traveling the Oregon Trail. This simulation is packed with authentic adventure and gripped our classroom. The 4th graders have worked with maps, made some hard choices as to what to bring on their wagon, wrote and gave speeches to be the Wagon Master and listen to a true story of a real pioneer family in Stout-Hearted Seven by Neta Lohnes Frazier. We will continue this journey for a couple more weeks.

  Each 4th grader has chosen, researched, taken notes and now written the introductory paragraph of their National Park research paper. Thank you for your support by checking out books and sending them to class. The class headed to the computer lab on Friday afternoon to type rough drafts into Google Docs. The process is taking a bit longer so I have moved the due date to after spring break.

     In math, the 4th graders will continue to tackle long division. We will be practicing this skill for the next couple of weeks. The students quickly learned why they need to know their multiplication facts so well! Playing some games in class has made it a bit more fun to practice.

     As we journey through Lent this year, the 4th graders have a Lenten book they are working through. Each day has a bible verse so the students have been practicing finding and reading the verse in the Bible. Our daily prayers reflect the season by focusing on fasting, giving and prayer. Tomorrow morning, we will be participating in our first Stations of the Cross activity as a school. 

     These last couple of weeks before spring break will be busy as we continue to work on the research papers. Feel free to log in to Google Docs at home and proof read the work done so far. On Tuesday, March 21st, the 4th graders will travel to Fort Vancouver for the morning and will eat lunch there. On Thursday, March 23rd, the 4th graders will lead the All School Mass. We have had some bad luck with snow days cancelling our last Mass so we are excited to lead! Please join us if you can. 

God Bless,

Jenn