4th Grade

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I am so excited to share with you all the fun we have been having in 4th Grade. Although we are close to the end of the year, the learning has not stopped!

In Science, students are learning about energy. They’ve explored electrical, light, and mechanical energy so far. They had a blast learning about circuits and making catapults.

In Math, we dove head-first into fractions and I love how interested the students are to learn new concepts like comparing fractions, converting to mixed numbers, and more!

In Social Studies, we continue to learn about Washington’s history. The students are learning about the process of becoming a state, and what groups of people contributed to agriculture, business, and more.

In ELA, we had a blast exploring puns. Students did a lot of work manipulating words and interpreting them in different ways. I hope you saw all their hard work with puns on their Mother’s Day Cards!

Each month, the class focuses on a value. This month, the students have been learning and exploring the value of Self Confidence. We’ve done a lot of great activities and I’ve learned so much more about each of them.  Building on that, as an end of the year celebration, we do a countdown to the last day of school. Each day, we pop a balloon containing a mystery student’s name. That day, they are our VIP and get celebrated all day long! It’s a great way to end the school year on a high note.

Important Dates:

May 25 – No School (Teacher Accreditation Work Day)

May 28 – No School (Memorial Day)

June 1 – Fly Up Day & Field Day (send 4th graders to school in sunscreen and a blue shirt!)

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!

Ms. DiGirolamo

Hello Fourth Grade Families,

Thanks for your patience in these busy spring weeks! I’m excited to tell you all about what the 4th Graders have been up to. After we got back from Spring Break, we attended our much anticipated Field Trip to MOHAI in Seattle. There, students were able to explore Washington’s history in a hands-on and engaging way. It was so fun!

The 4th Graders have been excited to learn all about the Oregon Trail and Westward Expansion these last few weeks. It was so great to see the level of engagement and deeper understanding they experienced after playing the original 1992 Oregon Trail Game! Anyone else remember playing this in school?

In Religion, we have started learning our last prayer for the year, the Memorare. The Memorare is a beautiful prayer to Mary often prayed as part of the Rosary. Students are also learning the Beatitudes and even heard a super cool rap about them! 😉

In Writing, we have been exploring Figurative Writing. From alliteration, hyperbole, and idioms to metaphors and similes, the class has been having a ball! They are like mini Einsteins with their writing and use of figurative language. I am a terribly tickled teacher!

I hope you’ve been enjoying this beautiful weather!

Upcoming Events/Deadlines:

• May 4th – Scholastic Order Forms Due & T-Shirt Orders Due
• May 11th – Spring Fling
• May 16-17th – Spring Musical – “High School Musical 2” (Can’t wait to see you there!)
• May 25th – No School. Accreditation day for Faculty
• June 1st – Field Day

Have a great weekend!!

Ms. DiGirolamo

Hello All! It’s been a while since our last update, but we are as busy as ever! Where do I even begin? I want to give a shoutout to our 4th/5th Grade  Global Reading Challenge team “The Night Readers” for making it all the way to the finals! They came in at a close 2nd place. Way to go Night Readers!

4th Grade also attended a field trip to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Seattle. Students sorted, packaged, and distributed food to our neighbors in need. By the end of the day, the students were begging me to let them stay longer! They really enjoyed encountering others and living out the SLE’s in their community. Thank you again to all who volunteered with us.

In Math, students have really tackled the challenge of Long Division! They were intimidated and overwhelmed at first, but now they are experts! Their assessment this week is to make a video explaining each step in the process using the app “Explain Everything.” I can’t wait to let them share their expertise.

In Religion, we are very focused on Lent. Students write in a Lent Journal each day and reflect on the various aspects of this liturgical season. We have also been encountering our neighbors in need around the world through the CRS Rice Bowl lessons. Students have encountered amazing people from Nicaragua, Haiti, Burkina Faso, and Malawi. The money YOU donate to the CRS Rice Bowl this Lent benefits our neighbors around the world.

In Social Studies students have had a great time exploring Washington history. We’ve compared and contrasted the 2 groups of native people – coastal and plateau. We created a class totem pole after learning about symbolism and story telling. Students even

wrote journal entires from the point of view of Washington’s first inhabitants. We are now learning about the early explorers of the Pacific Northwest, the Fur Trade, and Westward Expansion.

In Writing, students explored their own opinions. Their assignment was to choose the character trait most important to them, and write why. They had some pretty interesting/insightful thoughts!

Upcoming Events:

Monday March 26th – please send in CRS Rice Bowls and 30 Pieces of Silver

Friday March 30th – Good Friday Stations of the Cross, simple meal (provided lunch), afternoon service projects and quiet dismissal

April 2-6th – SPRING BREAK!

Friday April 13th – Field Trip to MOHAI

Tuesday April 17th – Class picture day

Happy Friday, all! What a week we just had. Catholic School’s Week is always one of my favorites but can feel pretty crazy!

Here’s what we’ve been learning this week:

In Math, students are working on Chapter 6: Multi- Digit Multiplication! They are learning multiple strategies for solving multiplication problems. In Science, we have been exploring erosion and types of rocks. Students loved learning about the Rock Cycle and making comic strips to show how sediment becomes sedimentary rock. They have also been working in groups to make stream tables, where they witnessed how water erosion deposits sediment. The 4th Graders also came up with models to prevent erosion after learning of the challenges humans face due to erosion. So fun! In Reading we started a new Novel “The Name of This Book is Secret.” Its so fun and mysterious, and they are hooked already. The class is still exploring Growth Mindset and this week learned about the “Power of Yet.” The idea is that there are many things they cannot do YET, but with practice and patience, they can get there. Here are a few notable examples:

Here are some upcoming dates to add to your calendar:

Feb 13th – Valentine’s Day Celebrations

Feb 14th – Ash Wednesday (Lent Begins)

Feb 16th – NO SCHOOL

Feb 19-23 – Midwinter Break

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

♥ Ms. DiGirolamo

Global Reading Challenge Round 1 – 1/23 1:00

Hanna Boggen Visit – 1/26 8:45 am

Catholic School’s Week – Starts 1/28. See bulletin for each day’s theme.

Valentine’s Day Celebration – 2/13

Ash Wednesday – 2/14

Hello Families & Welcome Back! I have a short update for you today. Since we returned back from Christmas break, students have been working hard to get back into the school routine. As a class, we came up with 3 big goals for the rest of our school year together. Each day, I remind the class of our goals and refer to it in times of challenges. Please review the list with your child and discuss which rules they are most successful at and which is the biggest challenge for them.

In Math, students have been exploring Algebraic Patters. They learned about expressions, variables and input/output tables. Next, we will move onto multi-digit multiplication. How fun!

In Science, we dove head first into the Rock Cycle. Students used crayon shavings to “create” their own sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. It was a great way to get hands-on in Science.

In Writing, we are still working on the Role Model Writing. Students are excited to practice their typing skills!

In Religion, our focus this week has been on baptism. We read about Jesus’ baptism and we even blessed ourselves with holy water in the classroom!

Upcoming Events:

January 15th – No School, MLK day!

January 23rd –  Global Reading Challenge! You are invited to attend this great event at 1pm in the Koinonia Room. Email me with any questions.

January 26th – Hanna Boggen visits. I would HIGHLY suggest seeing her speak here at SMS. She is truly amazing. She will be offering an hour-long workshop for our parents on emotional regulation for kids in grades PK-5 at 8:45 am. She’s been a great resource for our school in supporting all kids.  Read about her involvement here.

January 28th – Open House!

January 29-Feb 2 – Catholic School’s Week. Please see the Thursday Packets for information on each day’s theme.

One more week to go! We can do it!

Thank you to all who came to St. Nick Night this past Thursday. Mr. Sherman said it was the best one yet, and I’d have to agree! Wow, those 4th Graders on recorder were really something. You can tell they’ve been working hard in music (and at home as well I’m sure 😉)

Although Christmas break is in the near future and we all have holiday music stuck in our heads, the students in 4th grade have been hard at work. Here’s a summary of what we’ve been up to:

In Religion, we are still focused on role models. Jesus is our most important role model, but students were challenged to choose their own role model that helps them live as Jesus would. We are using that idea to write an informative essay all about that person. I’m excited to see where their writing takes them!

In Science, students focused primarily on volcanoes and earthquakes this week. They plotted the plate boundaries and then found that the most famous earthquakes and volcanoes in the world are in the same place. Amazing!

In Math, we celebrating finishing Ch 4 with a puzzle activity!

On a more personal note, you may have heard that I adopted a rescue pup this past weekend. His name is Moby and I am obsessed. I shared some photos with the students and they now ask about him every day. So sweet!

Here are some things to keep in mind for next week:

• The annual Diaper Drive ends on Dec 13th. All sizes of diapers are welcome. Please consider donating!
• Friday the 15th is a FULL day of school. We will also have our 4th Grade cookie swap that afternoon. Please plan to send your child to school with 40-50 cookies. They should also have a large container to bring home their swapped cookies in! Please send recipe pages to me ASAP (I make a book for the kids each year). Also let me know if your will be at school but plans not to attend for any reason. Thanks!

Have a great weekend!

At conferences, I heard many parents express frustration or dissatisfaction over their child’s book choices. Many argued that books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid were not only below their child’s reading level, but did not foster positive, respectful behavior. I agree. I have been doing my best to encourage the students to find better, more vigorous books, but its been difficult. I’m thrilled they’re motivated to read. However, there are some sites I’ve found that offer other suggestions. I’ve read many of the books on the list and I think they’d be great! This list on Goodreads provides a good variety.

Series I recommend and their descriptions:

• The Books of Elsewhere by: Jacqueline West
• The Borrowers by: Mary Norton
• The Penderwicks by: Jeanne Birdsall
• The Hero’s Guide series by: Christopher Healy 

Hope this helps 🙂 If your child is reading a a great series that you’d recommend, please let me know! I’d love to purchase some for our classroom and pass the suggestion along to other parents.

Happy December!! Can you believe its here already? Here are a few updates on what we’ve been up to in 4th Grade:

In Science, students are busy learning all about the layers of the Earth. We have explored plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes. They even learned about the Ring of Fire!

In Religion, we are learning about Jesus, Our Role Model. We’ve explored what a role model is, and the qualities they possess.  Next week, students will be writing about their role models. Please discuss this with your student this weekend so they come to class ready to share!

In Walk to Math, students are wrapping up the chapter on Multiplication and Division facts. We created factor “stockings” and multiple “ornaments” to decorate the classroom and had so much fin learning about factor ninjas and multiple monsters! This is just a preview for the full unit on long division and mulit-digit multiplication. Its so fun to watch them acquire these new math skills!

A few reminders:

• The class is also busy preparing for St. Nick Night, which is Thursday December 7th at 7 pm. Please plan to arrive at 6:30.
• The annual Diaper Drive is now until Dec 13th. All sizes of diapers are welcome. Please consider donating!
• Our last day before break (Dec 15th) is a FULL day of school. In the past, it has been a half day. It is also our 4th Grade Cookie Swap. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
• I’ll be sending out one more scholastic booklet before break. Please consider buying books for your child for Christmas. Every student purchase gives our classroom points, and I can use those points to buy more books for the classroom. Its a win-win!
• Next week, there will be NO Mass on Wednesday. Mass will be on Friday instead, as it is a holy day of obligation (Feast of the Immaculate Conception).

• Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Ms. DiGirolamo