Good morning! We've been up and at 'em for a while now, getting stuff done at both our house and our new neighbor's house. That's right, they're all moved in! This is the last weekend with company, so then we'll see how they like their new place in the normal day-to-day routine of things. My husband and I went to dinner with friends last night then went to see Hamilton at Gammage. Even though the performance wasn't as good as the last time we saw it, it is an incredible musical! It was just nice to be able to be back in the theater again. We've got season tickets so we're excited for this year's shows. Tonight we have a birthday dinner with 4 other couples at Forno in downtown Phoenix. Tomorrow, I'll be hanging out with my family for the most part. I might run out and see if I can't find a different dress for the wedding; we'll see how the day goes. Monday is a day off for students, but faculty will be on campus for our annual Great Hearts Summit. We don't start till 10, so at least I can sleep in a bit. : )

Let's see what's in store for fourth graders.

Language Arts

     Poetry - This week starts our third poem, "Ozymandius" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This one is very different, since it's not written in stanzas. It's just like telling a story. I love it and I know the kids will, too. They will have three weeks for this poem. Oh, several students were not prepared to recite "The Moon" yesterday, so they should be working on that, so they can recite it on Tuesday when school resumes. 

     Literature - We finished our first book and will begin Pollyanna on Tuesday. Please be sure to send the book in with your children, if you haven't already. Pollyanna is a fun, inspirational story that is sure to please. Remember that reading groups have begun. Thank you to all who have signed up!

     Composition - We will work on some more paragraph tips this week, learning about hooks and transitions. 

     Grammar - Now that we have learned all of the parts of speech we will start doing more and more diagramming practice. We'll focus on helping verbs and prepositions this week.

     Philosophy - Last week we talked about what it means to have integrity. This week we will read an old Chinese folk tale about money and happiness; it's a good one that always generates good discussion.

Math - We had a quick quiz yesterday with good results, but also began our lesson on order of operations. This is a concept that can be easily mastered when you go through all the steps and practice. That's exactly what we'll be doing this week, as well as doing our first word problems. We will review the proper steps for drawing bar models. I'm a big fan of bar models and hope that the 4th graders will learn to embrace them as tools for helping to "draw" the picture to solve the problems. Our final Unit 1 test will be on Friday.

History - We're done reading the chapters in our mountains unit, so Tuesday we'll review and practice with the map before taking our test on Thursday. The children were given a map to practice with; the goal is for them to be able to fill in the 5 major mountain ranges, plus the tallest mountain peaks in each continent. The test will include a map portion as well as some multiple choice questions about the lessons we've read.

Science - We will wrap up our unit on matter and chemistry this week, learning about mixtures, solutions, and suspensions. The big question for the comprehension check is "What is matter?" It's a huge question really, but what we expect them to write about is matter and its smallest particles(atoms/elements), states of matter including knowing the terms mass, volume, and density and recognizing that matter has physical and chemical properties and how there can be physcial and chemical changes with matter. We will spend a little bit each day reviewing these key ideas.

Thanks for getting your children to school on Thursday for the Galileo test! We only have one make up test for the entire fourth grade! That's outstanding! Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy your Monday with the kids.