Fall has arrived!

Hello Families,

We hope you all enjoyed the festivities last week in celebration of our 80th Anniversary. The kids had an awesome time showing off their school spirit at the pep rally on Friday. The fourth graders even showed off their amazing lnowledge of our school by taking first place in the SFX trivia game - way to go Reid Hassett and Audrey Frevola!

The fun continues this week with the school auction, White Party, on Saturday, October 1st. We hope to see you there !

Please know that this Wednesday, September 28th at 10:30 in Brophy Chapel, the fourth graders are leading Mass. 4A will be singing and 4B will be leading us in the readings.

English Language Arts

There is no spelling test on Thursday! 

There will be a comprehension test on Thursday, September 29th. 

BOOK PROJECTS ARE DUE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH 

Last week, we began working on a new program called eSpark. eSpark is a program designed to meet the learner where they are at. eSpark is innovative, creative, and fun for the kids as it involves apps for the students to play on that are specific to the skill they are currently on. As the students work through each skill, also known as a quest, it will prompt them to record a video to show off their newly learned skill. This program was a big hit last week! 

Social Studies 

This week, we will wrap up the last region and move into learning the abbreviations. In the coming weeks, students will be tested on the entire United States. Can they correctly identify and spell out each state? Do they know the state's abbreviation? Please help your child study as this test will be worth 100 points. There is a fun song that we are learning in class to help us memorize the 50 states in alphabetical order.  

FRIDAY is the Southeast Region quiz! 

Math 

The students will work on solving multi-step word problems with whole numbers. They will fluently add and subtract large numbers using the standard algorithm.

Science

We will be working on classifying living things. The students will learn the six kingdoms and how organisms are grouped within a kingdom. 

Religion 

Our theme this week is decision making, which begins Wednesday for all fourth graders. We will discussing using our free will. The prayer we are focusing on this week is the Act of Hope. 

Happy 80th Birthday St. Francis Xavier!

Happy Monday Families!

We have such a fun week ahead of us as we celebrate St. Francis Xavier Catholic School being open for 80 years! Please join us on Wednesday, September 21st for Pledge and Prayer immediately followed by an all school Mass at 8:30 am. There is a reception to follow in the Parish Hall for guests. We will end our week with an all school Pep Rally! 

Looking ahead in the coming weeks.....

Friday, September 23rd - Progress Reports 
Wednesday, September 28th - 3-5 Mass at Brophy
Saturday, October 1st - School Auction 

English Language Arts 



Last Friday, all students were given directions and handouts on the new spelling policy. Spelling words will be provided to students on the Friday before the next week. Students will also receive the spelling menu board, which is their homework. They are to choose 3 different activities to complete and it is due on Wednesdays. Spelling tests will now take place on Thursdays, unless the students are advised otherwise.

Writing - Students are finishing up their state reports. Students will take their newly gained information and place it on an outline of the sate. We will then come together as a grade and "form" the United States on the white board in the Library.

• Students will be assessed in spelling on Thursday. 
• Students will have assessments and activities in the area of grammar throughout the next weeks. The skills we have been covering are the proper use of quotation marks and fragments/run-on sentences. 

Reminder that our first book project is due Friday, September 30th 

Social Studies

Students will be assessed on the Northeast Region stats on Tuesdays. We will begin working on the last region, the Southeast. Students will finish up their state reports.

Who is ready for some football??? From Farm to Football is a sponsored program being brought to schools by The Arizona Cardinals and Hickman's Family Farms. 

"In cooperation with Hickman's Family Farms, a proud partner of the Arizona Cardinals, we are excited to offer classrooms across the state "From Farm to Football." Provide your students with the opportunity to hear from Arizona Cardinals' running back, David Johnson , and learn about the role agriculture plays in his life on and off the field! Students will also be able to pen pal with Arizona Farmers and Ranchers"

We are so excited to participate in this program since the big focus for 4th Grade Social Studies is the state of Arizona. 

Our class will participate in “From Farm to Football," which is the Harvest for All Penny Drive. 

Here is how it works.

• Have your students collect pennies October – December 16th.
• Pennies will be picked up from your school the week of December 19th to be counted.
• The grade level that collects the most pennies will receive a Cardinals Event in February (there will be only 1 winner in the state) 
• Pennies will be donated to your local food bank once all pennies have been collected and tabulated

Math

We will continue to use place value understanding to round multi-digit numbers to any place value using real world applications. They will also be taking the mid module assessment this week.

Science

The students will learn how cells are grouped. Cells make up tissues. Tissues make up organs. Organs make up organs systems.

Religion

We will be talking about school theme this week "Traditions." SFX is celebrating their 80th year and students will review what they know  about our patron saint and learn more about him.

IOWA and Cogats

Good Morning Families! 

We hope you enjoyed your weekend and are ready for a full week of school. Today, we start our standardized testing with the Cogats test. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we will be taking the IOWA tests. Please remember to have your child to school on time, ensure they have eaten a good healthy breakfast, and had plenty of sleep. 

English Language Arts

With a week of testing, there will not be any language arts tests this week. We will cover how to properly use quotations in a dialogue. We will also continue working on our state essays.

Social Studies 

We are making our way through all the regions. The kids are doing a great job! This week we will focus on the Northeast region. The quiz on these states will be next Tuesday, September 20th.



Math 

Students will practice rounding to different place values. We will also focus on mastering the x 4 facts.

Religion 

We will be discussing using our free will and how the Fruits of the Holy Spirit help us make good decisions.

Happy Labor Day!

Our Week at a Glance....

Happy Tuesday Families! We hope you had a restful and fun-filled long weekend! WE have another four day week ahead of us. The following week we have ITBS and Cogats. Please do not pull your child out of school for any appointments. It is extremely important that they are at school each day on time, have had a good nights sleep, and a healthy breakfast. Please refer to the SFX Weekly e-blast for additional information.

Our school pantry is still in need of canned foods and cereal. Thank you to those families who have sent in items already. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

This week, SFX begins after school enrichment classes and the Xavier Mentoring program. Please help us, help our fourth graders remember where they are going after school.

English Language Arts 

The last two weeks, while in the computer lab, students have been learning how to send an email properly to a teacher as well as becoming familiar with Google Classroom. We will now be using Google classroom for reading homework on a weekly basis. Should your child need extra assistance with Google classroom or need to use a computer at school to complete an assignment, please have them schedule an appointment with me before or after school for help. 

Additionally, last week we spent time with the iPads and we walked through the process of logging into Think Central. All students are familiar with this process and had no problem logging in from school. We will continue to use the iPads in class with the occasional homework assignment that requires them to log in from home. 

In the area of writing, students collected facts on their assigned state. We will take those facts and turn it into a short informative report beginning this week. 

There will be a spelling test on Friday, September 9th. 

Students will also be assessed in the area of comprehension.

Looking ahead.....BOOK PROJECTS are due Friday, September 30th 

Social Studies 

WE have now covered the West and Southwest regions. This week, we will focus on the Midwest and students will be assessed on those states Friday, September 9th. 

Math 

We are continuing to round numbers using the number line and algorithm. 

Science

We are doing the Mystery Powders Unit using the Scientific Method. 

Religion 

We are going over the Parts of the Mass. We will be having a test on Friday, September 9th on the Act of Faith Prayer.