1. For the week of September 12th, 2016
Newsletter
Fourth Grade
For the week of September 12th, 2016
This was another great week for our learners. We took Steps to Advance Literacy and joined together in prayer to remember the events of September 11, The learners are adapting quickly to their new classrooms and schedules. This is the beginning of a great year!
Friday, September 16 is the first Prayer Partner Mass of the school year. We will be meeting with our partner classes this week and getting to know our buddies. The learners are excited to finally be the “big” partner to their kindergarten friends. While families are encouraged to celebrate Mass with us on Friday as usual, we ask that all learners remain sitting with their kindergarten Prayer Partner throughout the Mass.
Fourth Grade Room Parents
Our fourth grade class has been blessed with these 4 amazing room parents. These ladies will provide another communication bridge for our families, teachers, and school.
Andrea Memenas (Lulu’s mom)
Natalie Murray (Reagan’s mom)
Jennifer Lenzen (Sierra’s mom)
Baoyu Michael (Edward’s mom)
Mystery Monarchs
Congratulations to last week’s Mystery Monarchs who were models of what it means to be Respectful, Responsible, Safe and Kind at Mass and our 9/11 Prayer Service: Isabella Sage (4A), Ryan Winters (4A), Peyton Oetgen (4B), Sydney Nadal (4B), Christian LaMothe (4C), and Shea Gonzalez (4C).
Upcoming Events
Monday, Sept. 12
STAR testing: ELA
Tuesday, Sept. 13
STAR testing: Math
Friday, Sept. 16
Battle of the Books Application due to Mrs. Tritz
Grade 4 Syllabus Signature Page due to Homeroom
COMING SOON
September 19-23
Pennies from Heaven Drive
Friday, September 30
Sacramento Trip Registration due to World Strides. Need program envelope? stedschool.org

2. Religion/SS: Sandland
ELA: Silva
STEM: Driscoll
Religion
In last week’s lesson, learners explored Sacred Scripture as God’s Word. Last Friday’s assessment was a practice test, and scores will be averaged only for learners with an above average score. Please review your child’s practice test to target study skills. This week’s test format will be similar, and I encourage learners to review content daily for mastery.
This week’s lesson focuses on Ordinary Time, and introduces the purpose and way of praying the Rosary, which we’ll pray in class. Check out the link for an introduction to the Rosary.
Social Studies
We begin our journey through California by studying its location! Learners will identify and explain California’s location in relation to the North and South Poles, the equator, and the prime meridian, and describe its location relative to its neighboring states, the Pacific Ocean, and other countries. Learners will practice compass directions and use latitude and longitude to determine absolute location. .
Reading
We are preparing for the grand opening of our classroom library. Learners are finishing up their Reader’s Workshop pre-assessments and will be taking their STAR reading assessment on Monday. Please encourage your child to be thoughtful and take his/her time, as this is one of the first insights I have into each learner’s reading ability.
Fluency was introduced last week and the learners took turns reading with their partners. We will begin regular fluency lessons this week. Be on the look out for their weekly passage. It will come home nightly (in the red Reading Folder). Learners will practice reading this passage in class and at home each night. It only takes one minute and their progress over the week will be something worth celebrating.
We dove right into our new phonics and vocabulary curriculum, Working with Words. Learners applied their knowledge of suffixes and
Math
Last week, learners had the opportunity to use place value in a variety of ways when labeling numbers. We also practiced expanded form, word form, and standard form. This week, we will be continuing Chapter 1 with comparing numbers and adding/subtracting multi-digit numbers.
This week, learners will be taking the STAR assessment on Tuesday, September 13.
Simple Solutions: Learners are responsible for lessons 4 -5 this week. These lessons should be completed by Wednesday (Learners will have class time on Monday and Tuesday to begin the lessons). We will be correcting the lessons in class and taking a Simple Solutions Quiz on Thursday (lessons 1-5).
engineering, written practice activities, and annotating in the text.

3. Religion/SS ELA STEM Cursive
This coming week, learners focus on letters that start with an undercurve or an undercurve loop.
prefixes and discussed how they change the meaning of words. Ask them to tell to you Next week we will explore neologisms and create our own words applying the skills previously learned.
Thank you to all who have sent pictures of their learners reading their favorite book. If you haven't done so already, please take a picture of your learner for our Behind Every Good Book is a GREAT Reader bulletin board. You can me the photo at and I will print them.
Science
Learners will continue their interactive notebooks in science. This week, learners will collaborate to solve an in class STEM Challenge. Learners will present their solutions on Friday.
We will be continuing the engineering design process with hands-on

4. Snapshots
from the week...