Tis the Season

Good Morning 4th Grade Families,

December is here and the holiday spirit is all around us! We have a busy next two weeks, so please be sure to keep the following dates handy. 

• Wednesday, December 7th - Reconciliation @ 10:00 am
• Thursday, December 8th - All School Mass @ 10:30
•  Monday, December 12th - Salt Dough Map creation in the afternoon 
• Wednesday, December 14th - All School Gift Mass @ 10:30
• Tuesday, December 20th - Christmas Party 

English Language Arts 

Students will have a spelling test on Thursday, December 8th. 

Students will have a grammar test on Friday, December 9th 

Students will begin a new writing project. Students will be trying to persuade someone to buy a car; a new car or a clunker car. 

Social Studies 

We are preparing to make our salt dough maps. 

Math

Students will continue to work on mastering their multiplication facts. This week, we will be having a x5 test on Wednesday and x6 test on Friday. This will be timed.

We will also be multiplying two-digit multiples of ten by two-digit multiples of ten. Example: 20 x 20 **Students will need to model this in order to show deeper understanding.**

Science

We will be discussing systems in animals. (Chapter 2, lesson 3)

Religion 

This week we will be receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation. The students are reviewing the Act of Contrition and will be tested on Thursday. 

As we enter into the second week of Advent, please take the time to pause and read the below prayer. 

Preparing our Hearts and asking for the Grace

We prepare this week by stepping up the longing.  We move through this week by naming deeper and more specific desires.

Each morning this week, if even for that brief moment at the side of our beds, we want to light a second inner candle.  We want to let it represent “a bit more hope.”  Perhaps we can pause, breathe deeply and say,

“Lord, I place my trust in you.”

Each day this week, as we encounter times that are rushed, even crazy, we can take that deep breath, and make that profound prayer.  Each time we face some darkness, some experience of “parched land” or desert, some place where we feel “defeated” or “trapped,” we hear the words, “Our God will come to save us!”

The grace we desire for this week is to be able to hear the promise and to invite our God to come into those real places of our lives that dearly need God's coming.  We want to be able to say:

“Lord, I place my trust in your promise.  Please, Lord, rouse your power and come into this place in my life, this relationship, into this deep self-defeating pattern.  Please come here and save me.”

Each night this week we can look back over the day and give thanks for the moments of deep breath, that opened a space for more trust and confidence in God's fidelity to us.  No matter how difficult the challenges we are facing - from the growing realization of our personal sinfulness, to any experience of emptiness or powerlessness, even in the face of death itself - we can give thanks for the two candles that faithfully push back the darkness.  And, we can give thanks for the graces given us to believe that “Our God will come to save us” because we were given the courageous faith to desire and ask boldly.

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come and visit your people. 

We await your coming.  Come, O Lord.