Post #24

A week filled with friendships, fun and LEARNING!

 #it'sgoodtobeus

Let's start with the hashtag. I remind the girls often (if not daily) that it is good to be us. It's good to be a student at St. Catherine's and it's good to be a teacher at St. Catherine's. I remind them how fortunate they are to have all that they have. When someone is having a difficult time or comments that something isn't fair, I remind them that at the end of the day it is awesome to be them- to be us! 

We are reading A Song for Harlem by Patricia McKissack. The setting is 1928 in Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance is in full swing. The girls are summarizing the chapters beginning with a descriptive hashtag and adding key events. This activity is in your daughter's Google Drive. We are celebrating Black History Month by reading picture books in https://www.getepic.com. This is a fabulous tool and we use it to project stories on the SmartBoard. Often a picture book about a historical event is the perfect introduction to a History4Fourthies lesson. Epic is a great site for younger kids too. Take a look; you might want to create a home account.

We began each math lesson with a "love themed" musical moment. The girls practiced calculating and got into the spirit of Valentine's Day. Double digit multiplication was the math focus in problem solving and centers. All are comfortable with the "wrestling" technique and we are now working on the traditional method. I posted a how to video on the Fourthie site for added reinforcement. Some of the girls think the turtle is creepy (I think he's kind of cute:)

We also worked with rounding large numbers and adding decimals. Next Thursday the girls will take a formal assessment on double digit multiplication and problem solving.

This week's writing lab was all about using quotation marks correctly. They looked at a muted clip of animals and imagined the conversations they were having. We will spend time revising and editing next week. There was more emoji writing and faux chatting with Wordly Wise words. Here's Molly's example:

And drumroll....... San Francisco earthquake movies are finished! The girls researched, wrote scripts, and created a dramatic retelling of this historic event. The girls were proud of their product and so was I. Click here to see the documentaries.

A few notes:

* Special Week Sign-up Ellie will be our next Special Week girl (week of 2/27).

* Homework is posted for the week for family planning. Please remember "Growing Up Healthy" and Spanish homework.

* Carpool Helper Calendar- Alice will represent our class this week.

* "Insider's View to Middle School" for parents 3/28 @ 8:30. Dorothy Suskind will send additional information as the time gets closer.

Girls- Your mystery blog question...... What picture would you like to write about for a creative writing assignment?  Post your answer here and be specific.