Post 9 Wrapping It Up!

Wrapping It Up!

This week students will be completing Unit 4 in mathematics. They have been studying about fractions and decimals.

The girls are creating their books reports in class, using a “morfo” ipad application and will be sharing them with the class this week. This application allows students to record their summaries and insert a book cover picture or their face, which becomes animated with human facial characteristics, and thus, the summary is reported. The girls enjoyed this process and love their creations.

In history, students are studying the 1900’s; a decade filled with new ideas, inventions (like the Oreo cookie), and politics.

The Language arts curriculum provides many opportunities to work on expository writing, attention to punctuation, and completion of creative products that are interesting and well-written. Students go through a three-step editing process before drafting their final copy. We are currently working on writing “My Acre of Land” (to be completed in January), which is a story of each girl, as if she were an acre of land. She describes herself by what she places on her acre of land.

The Lower School Gift Service will be held on Friday, December 18^th at River Road Baptist Church at 9:30 a.m. Please join us if you are free, as Fourthies will have special roles for this service.

Please Note: Students will be dismissed after they have returned to St Catherine’s School.

We will have a Special Sing-A-Long Christmas Chapel tomorrow, Wednesday, December 16^th, for the students, with a visit from Santa. Students may wear festive clothing!

Post 8 Fabulous Fall Days for Learning

Fabulous Fall Days for Learning

No School Monday, November 16th.  

This is a teacher work day!

These beautiful fall days are filled with lots of great activities for the girls in fourth grade.

The Lower School is currently working on an Outreach Project for the St. Stephen's Food Pantry. Please send in canned food items and non-perishable goods to help serve the Richmond Community.

Fourth grade girls will be taking standardized tests next week, beginning Tuesday, November 17th and finishing by Monday, November 23rd. They will work on two tests each day. We will be having a Writers Workshop, art activities and reading interspersed throughout each of these days. Please remember to make sure your daughter has a good night's rest and send her to school with a morning and afternoon snack. This will help keep up her energy and focus.

The girls have completed Unit 3 in Mathematics. The next unit will focus on learning about decimals through the thousandths and metric units of length and their conversions.

Students in 4-C will be performing their "final chapter" of All of a Kind Family puppet shows for classmates this coming week.

Our technology project this week was to create "mini billboards" celebrating uplifting ideas. The Fourthies used a template from values.com to put their fine thoughts to good use.

The Pop-Up Book Reports that the girls brought in this week are fantastic. They are currently on display in the LS Library.

Information on our next book report will be sent home this week. It will be due Friday, December 18th. Students may choose a non-fiction book about an animal or a fiction book with the main character as an animal.

Please join us on Wednesday, December 2nd

for the Lower School Book Fair.

Our class is scheduled to peruse the books from 2:50-3:10 p.m. You may send cash or a check with your daughter if you are not able to attend and wish for her to purchase books.

Book Fair Dates and Times:

Wednesday, December 2nd 12:00-4:00

Thursday, December 3rd 8:00-4:00

Friday December 4th 8:00-4:00

Post 6

Dear Mr. President

The class listened to a wonderful book titled, Dear Mr. President. For their culminating activity on their History 4 Fourthies Unit: United States Government, the girls will be writing their own letter to President Obama in class. We will put these together in our own class book!

Students will continue to work on their Presidential Research Project in class for the next few weeks. They will be filling in more facts to complete their research, as necessary. The girls will self-edit using "tools" and turn in to me for a final edit, before publishing.

The girls have completed their first classroom novel, All of a Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor. They will develop their own "final chapter" of the book. Then, the class will begin working collaboratively to create dialogue text and perform their final chapter for the class next week.

Students have completed Unit 2 in mathematics and will be having an assessment this Friday. They have begun Unit 3, which will cover factors and multiples; finding distances; What's my rule?; solving number stories; and, multiplication and division.

Wordly Wise Dress-Up Day!

          Do you dream about a special WW word? Do you get happy when you see a WW word in a book you are reading or hear a WW word in a song?  Do you answer questions and deliberately try to use WW words in your responses? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you officially have WW Fever! No need to be worried. It happens to most Fourthies and it’s a cause for celebration. We will celebrate WW Fever on Friday, 10-30-15. Start thinking about a word that tickles your fancy. How could you dress to represent or explain the word? What clever outfit could you create? Each Fourthie is encouraged to come dressed as a WW word ((from lists 1–7)) on Friday, 10/30-15. We’ll take pictures and create our very own picture dictionary. So, develop an idea but don’t utter a word to anyone. You may be eager to share your ideas with your peers. Resist the temptation to disclose your outfit. We want everyone to be surprised. We can’t wait to applaud your creativity.

Thank you for generously supporting "Lend a Helping Paw!"

Post 5 Girls Innovate

Girls Innovate

Girls Innovate Day is this Friday, October 10th. This is a Jeans Day for fourth graders.

We will be touring Middle School to view and ask questions about engineering designs created by fifth through eighth graders. 

Fourthie Parents Technology Night is this Thursday. Please sign-up if you would like to attend. I sent an email regarding this invitation. This evening gives you the opportunity to take a look at the many websites your daughter will be using this year and how to navigate through the technology!

Splish, Splash!

My class will begin their P.E. Swimming Unit next Tuesday! Students should come directly to the classroom to unpack and I will lead them over to the Kenny Center. Remember to send a hearty morning snack for after swim and one for the afternoon as well. The girls have a great time and expend much energy during swim!

Students did a great job on Unit 1 in Mathematics. Graded tests have been sent home. Please look it over with your daughter and sign the front of the test. Your daughter will keep this in a plastic sleeve in her class binder for future reference. We will be studying about using numbers and organizing data next. The girls will be using bar graphs and working

with the mean, median, mode and range of numbers.

The girls have been exploring Wordle and have created graphic art using descriptors of their favorite colors. Each week we will be looking at different computer programs and games to complement the fourth grade curriculum.

Students will need to bring recorders to Ms. Merrick's Music Class this week!

Post 4 Full of Spirit

Full of Spirit

     Please join us for the School Picnic on the Green, Thursday, October, 1st at 6 pm, to celebrate St. Catherine's School's 125th Anniversary. Don't forget to wear the school colors, gold and white!

     Students have chosen individual presidents for their online research studies and will begin the fact-finding process using the Lower School Library encyclopedia libguide.  

     Please sign up to join us for Fourth Grade Parent Technology Night on Thursday, October 8th. This information will familiarize you with the many sites your daughter will be accessing throughout the school year. Look for an email about this!

     The girls will be coming home with completed/graded assignments. Please remove them from your child's binder and look through them together. They do not need to be returned. However, all tests should be signed and returned to the teacher for the student's classroom file.

     Come by to see student silhouettes and beautifully watercolored inscribed squares on our class bulletin board! Students have been honing their skills using rulers and compasses to create geometric works of art. They have also filled their silhouettes with adjectives that describe themselves.

     The girls are developing both good computer and navigational skills and are engaging in greater creativity in computer usage that links with fourth grade curriculum.

     

Post 3 Getting the Hang Of It

Getting the Hang of It

After two short weeks of school, students are happily getting the hang of the schedule and fourth grade routine.

Things are settling down and we will have plenty of time for days filled with the love of learning.

Thank you for coming to Parents' Night. Feel free to contact me if you have questions concerning your child or the curriculum. You may either email me or contact me by phone through the school directory. I am always happy to answer your questions.

Please sign up for a Fall Conference to discuss your child's progress.

Student binders should be looked through and cleared out once a week. Tests and quizzes are sent home on Mondays and graded student work is most often sent home on Tuesdays.

Students took their first Spelling Test on line this past Friday and did an excellent job. Their work and scores are recorded and your daughter should be able to show you where it is located on the Spelling City website for easy access.

Our Social Studies Unit 1 will focus on the Three Branches of Government and how it works. We will begin our first (in class) research  project on the Presidents.

Our first field trip will be to Mount Vernon, on November 3rd.

The girls are completing their "Who am I?" paragraphs on their google drives, to put together with their computer pixilated avatars, for their first technology projects.

Post 2 Great Beginnings

What's the Buzz ?

The Fourthies have had a wonderful start to the new 

school year 2015-2016! The girls have spent time 

organizing materials, getting to know each other, and 

learning new routines. The week went by quickly and I look

forward to the coming weeks with such a wonderful class.

       Students are being introduced to websites that will be
used consistently throughout the school year. They have a 
page in their binders which has all their user names and 
passwords in one easy location. I have asked the girls to 
always keep it in their binders!

     Fourthies shared a beautiful Opening of School Chapel on the "Green" to cheer on the new school year. It was a glorious day!

     The girls enjoyed an "ice breaker activity" called Saving Samantha and made avatars on the computer. They are working on the first math unit, which is geometry: learning about lines, segments, and rays. 

      The first classroom "read aloud" will be Wonder, which I will read to the students. The first classroom novel for literature will be All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor.

* The Secret is to Keep Everything Simple *

Post 1

Welcome to Mrs. Cavallo's 

Fabulous Fourthies Blog!

I hope you have had a refreshing summer and that you are as excited as I am, to begin a new school year. 

This is Your Year! 

You will have many new experiences and opportunities as a Fourthie, that you only dreamed of in years past.

While on explorations this summer, if you happen upon a shell, or find something interesting like unusual beach sand, (only a few tablespoons), or some small pieces of coral, algae, sea grass, or anything from the beach with an interesting shape or color, you may want to save it to contribute to a class project .

Please make sure to bring some of your supplies to Orientation on August 31, any time between 1 and 2 p.m. They can be placed in your classroom cupboard. You will not need to bring everything.

Have a special spot at home, where you keep school supplies, so throughout the year, you have easy access to them, when needed.

Here is what you should bring:

Science Binder: organized and replenished

Foreign Language Binder: organized for two languages

Class Binder, lined paper, subject separators  labeled: Homework, Notes Home, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies.

6 Pencils and an Eraser
Colored fine point Markers

Crayon and Colored Pencil Twistables

Scissors, Watercolors Black Sharpies Fine and Extra Fine

1 Highlighter (any color)

1 Highlighter (yellow)

Composition Books

Tissues/Paper Towels

Personal Mini Hand Sanitizer

Fanny pack
2 glue sticks
earbuds/headphones

     

       My Story

Mrs. Cavallo

I was raised in La Jolla, California and taught at a private, independent school in San Diego, for nineteen years. I love anything that is related to the sea. My family and I packed up and moved to Richmond, Virginia to take on a new adventure. I found this beautiful and brilliant school, where I happily teach fourth grade girls. I adore reading, gardening, watercolor painting and learning to use new technology.

I look forward to a magical year with you!