Q1 Week 2

"No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it." -St. Maximillian Kolbe

Dear Parents,

The first week of school is past, and here we are. There are still procedures to master, but your students have been incredibly impressive these first four days. As we begin to fall into the routines of schoolwork, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) Infractions and Virtue Codes

This year we will be using an infraction and code system to track and communicate behavior. An infraction is given to a student when they are not following our expectations for the class.

An infraction is a gentle reminder for them to recognize that they are not meeting expectations so they have a chance to adjust their own behavior. The infraction will be put into their agenda and needs to be signed by you before the next day.

We are all human and make mistakes, and it is likely that each of your students will receive at least a few infractions this year. I strongly advise these infractions should not be treated as major offenses at home.

 A single infraction can be an opportunity to have a discussion about the expectation and how your student can follow it in the future, but typically won't require any further consequence.

2) Friday Folders

Every Friday a manila folder will come home with your student with their graded work. This should be the work they did that week up to Thursday, plus Thursday and Friday's work from the week before.

Make sure you are asking for your students Friday folder, as sometimes they forget to show it to their parents. The folder should be returned the following Monday.

3) Names on homework.

Make sure to remind your students to put their names on their homework! We already have 3 assignments that will not get credit because they had no names. We will not hunt down the owners of assignments that do not have names on them, so it is important that students learn this basic skill quickly.

In class this week:

History: We will finish learning how to use latitude and longitude to find coordinates on a map and go on a world tour from London to Mecca to Beijing, some of thee major cities we will study this year. There will be a quiz on Thursday assessing their ability to locate specific coordinate points on a map and their general understanding of the layout of a basic map.

Reading: We will continue to read Prince Caspian. A great strategy for approaching focus questions is to have your scholar read the questions before doing the reading and talk to you or someone else about what kind of answer they will be looking for. Then they can read and find answers as they go. This saves time and keeps them from having to search through the text after they have already read it.

Spalding: We will be re-learning correct Spalding manuscript and cursive this week. Handwriting will be a grade this year, so continue to encourage your student to do their best. Sometimes having them rewrite assignments that are very messy can be frustrating, but it will benefit them greatly.

Writing/Grammar: We will be learning about common and proper nouns this week, as well as pronouns. Their noun notes will go into their blue Writing/Grammar notebook. There will be a quiz on Friday assessing their understanding of the difference between common nouns, proper nouns, and pronouns.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Mr. Ohbayashi
4th Grade Lead Teacher