classroom News Grades 4-6

This project integrated three curriculum areas. The first was English with the writing process. The second subject area was religion where students are studying faith and how they live faith in their own everyday lives as fourth graders. The project also incorporated our all school Virtue Education program.

The fourth graders are looking forward to sharing their storybooks with the younger students in our school. Some even have dreams of becoming published authors!

These exuberant young authors went on to write a state report using some of their newly refined skills from the story project.

Lots of you know that Ohio is known as the “Buckeye State”, but do you know why? It won’t surprise you to learn that New Jersey with its ocean boundaries produced the first salt water taffy, but do you know how long ago that happened? The answers to these and other questions were found as a very industrious group of fourth graders focused on their major writing task of the year – a full-fledged report on one of the 50 states.

Like little detectives they ferreted out tidbits of information as they focused on making their report more interesting. Perhaps the best part of the entire process was sharing their information with the other students. It was obvious that the fourth grade students gained greatly in the skills of taking and organizing notes, turning those same notes into an interesting and informative report, and then presenting their findings in a way that captured the attention of their audience.

News from fifth grade

The fifth graders have been busy practicing their Bible plays they will perform when their parents come to school for Parent Appreciation Day during Catholic Schools Week. The goal for each student is to make his/her character come to life using their interpretations of the characters’ voice and actions. The line-up for the plays is “Saul Becomes a Follower of Jesus”, “Jesus and His Friends” (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus), “Zacchaeus”, and “Two Parables of Jesus -The Good Samaritan and the Lost Son”.

The sixth graders are at the mid-year point right now. They have learned many things so far this year. In Language Arts, the students are becoming proficient with verb usage, agreement, and tenses. They have worked hard in their study of grammar. Writing is a top priority. Sixth graders continue to work on “power outs” and correct paragraph writing. (A “power out” is a pre-writing activity used to help students organize thoughts before actually writing a paragraph, essay or composition.) These things are coming more easily all the time. The classes have even tried peer editing. The goal is to help students become proficient writers so that they can express themselves using the written word. This is such an important skill that will serve them well throughout their entire lives.

Each homeroom class has visited the Arvada Meridian Retirement Facility three or more times since we started this service project. It is a delight to see the residents perk up and join the students in any number of games the students bring when they go. Scrabble, cards and checkers are all big hits. The students are interested in different stories and activities the residents share with them. One gentleman makes several tornado projects to amuse the kids each time they go. A totally different side of the kids is seen in their interaction with the residents.