In case you were wondering what we have been doing.......

When we think about this season and all that it really means, today was a lovely example of real collaboration, as each girl sculpted a piece of the Nativity.  They helped each other and praised each other's work, and as the Nativity grew, so did the spirit in this class...the real blessing of Christmas.

A few more reminders...

Holiday Reminders!

Tuesday, December 15    1:00 - 3:00  Choir practices at River Road Church, Baptist
                                                             They return in time for carpool.


Wednesday, December 16  8:30     Special Christmas Chapel    Band plays!  

Christmas Gift Service Information

Dear Parents,

As Christmas approaches, the air of excitement increases in the school, and it is quite lovely, as you hear the laughter of children.  We try to observe the spirit of Advent as long as we can, but finally we have to give in to the blessings and fun that Christmas brings to us all.

The rehearsal schedule for our Christmas service has been posted.  Each girl has a part in the service. The girls in my class are really talented singers, so they are part of the choir, plus we have girls playing strings for the service, and the rest of the girls are readers, Mary, the Angel Gabriel, and the shepherds. This year St. Stephen’s is under renovation, so we are fortunate to be able to have our service at River Road Baptist Church.

On Thursday, December 17, from 11:30 - 2:30, the girls will be involved in practicing for the Christmas Service.  We will be practicing at River Road Baptist Church, where the service will be held.  The girls are due to return to school at 3:00, so they will be there for carpool dismissal. Strings will stay at the church for further practice and will return in a different bus in time for regular dismissal.

On Friday, December 18, the girls report to school at the usual time.  Choir, Strings, Readers will depart for River Road Baptist at 8:15.

The rest of the students and faculty will leave at 9:00.

The service will conclude at 10:15 and ALL students will ride the bus back to campus where parents may pick up the girls in the classroom.

I hope this helps you plan your already busy week!

Sincerely,

Pam

BEE a Speller in the SPELLING BEE

December 4, 2015

Dear Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Grade Parents,

St. Catherine’s School has registered for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and all fourth, fifth and sixth grade students are invited to participate. This is an optional activity and will take place after school from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Lower School Assembly Room. The official spelling bee rounds will begin on Wednesday, January 13, 2016. If we do not have a winner on January 13, spelling rounds will continue each Wednesday after that until a winner is declared.

St. Catherine’s panel of judges is made up of Lower School and Middle School teachers, and Annie Kapetanis will be the caller/pronouncer.

If your daughter would like to participate, please return the form below by December 11. Once we receive the form, we will provide your daughter with a study guide. We are very excited to offer the girls this opportunity. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Warmly,

Debbie Staley                                                                                   Annie Kapetanis, Ed.D.

Interim Director of Middle School                                                Director of Lower School

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My daughter will participate in the spelling bee competition. We understand that the judges’ decision is final.

Student’s Name: _________________________________

Student’s Grade: ________________________________

Your Name: _____________________________________

Your Signature: __________________________________

Be Your Christmas Selfie

....and this class is!
We thought this would be the perfect theme for our classroom door.  We are moving into fun Christmas activities in the classroom, but our chief focus, at this moment, is still learning!  The girls are finishing up their presentations, some of which, includes a technology piece.  Most have chosen to use Google Drive or Google Slide, but they are all learning a lot about their subject.  In Math, we are finishing up Lesson 3, where the primary focus is on the use of parentheses and true and false sentences.  Slowly, but surely, they are gaining a clearer understanding of this concept, which you probably learned in sixth grade!

If your daughter is experiencing difficulty with grammar, which is to be expected at this age, please encourage her to utilize the many grammar sites located on the Fourthie Website.  They present a fun way to learn about nouns and verbs, which is what we are doing in class.

Study Link Page 61, NOT page 71!!!!

Sorry, girls, that was a Math Journal page!  If you already did page 71 in your Study Link, don't worry, you can do page 61 in your Study Link at school tomorrow!

Kickoff to Christmas at Dr. Scheckelhoff's House

Chillin' at the Scheckelhoff's!

Kindergarten and Roberts' Fourthies Engage in Creative Problem Solving

Yes, everyone, Mrs. Alexander's class and our class meet almost every Thursday morning to engage in a brilliant, innovative way of problem solving.  It is quite amazing to see these two different age groups interact to figure out the role of each cubelet.  From this discovery, they can make the cubelets do some pretty cool things!  Sorry! Please excuse these first two videos. For some reason, I am having trouble deleting them. They're very short.  Make sure to ask your daughters about cubelets!

 

Upcoming Events!

Dates to Remember

By November 23    Please bring canned goods to school for St. Stephen's Food Pantry
Gold- White for Good     Challenge!  Which team will bring the most food?

Book Fair    our class time    Wednesday, December 2  2:10 -2:30

Math Expo  Tuesday, November 24  9:00-10:25
St. Christopher's Fourth Grade will be our guests for a fun-filled, activities-filled morning.

Look for hard copies in your daughter's folder for more information about the Food Drive and the Book Fair!

The Fourthies Hit Mount Vernon

My favorite picture of our day at Mount Vernon is this one!  It doesn't get any better than rocking on the front porch of our first President's home with a view of the Potomac River...the best view in the country!  What a beautiful day we had! I hope that the girls told you all about George's strategy to win the war through the use of intelligence and spies. He was quite inventive. Make sure and ask them about the theater where his traits of character and leadership were flashed across the ceiling, and lastly, you might ask them where he also held meetings...quite unusual!  You might be surprised!

Swimming, Halloween, and Vocabulary Dress-Up...Wow!

Girls,

Friday is packed with activities and fun, but it could become confusing! 

 Come to school with your swimming suit on, as usual. 

Come to the classroom and put your backpacks in the closet because the mothers will be setting up for the Halloween Party.  

After swimming, you may put on your Vocabulary Costumes.

Remember the party starts at 9:00, you will have to hurry.

Leave your desk totally clean because the girls from other classes will be sitting on your desks!

Have a wonderful time because you have learned over a hundred new words since the beginning of the year!  Congratulations!  You are rocking the world of words!

Happy Halloween!

Innovation Day Thursday, October 29

On Thursday, October 29, grades K - 4 will be participating in our first Innovation

Day of the school year. This day is dedicated to giving our girls time to explore

innovation through science, technology, engineering, arts and math. The morning

will center on brainstorming ideas for completing the project that the girls will

work on in the afternoon. After lunch, students from different grades will form

groups and work on the design challenge together.

To complete this design challenge, each student is asked to bring in the following

items:

1 shoebox (with lid)

1 paper towel tube or bathroom tissue tube

If students would like to, they have the option to bring in one small container/bag

of beads, stickers, buttons, fabric, or similar decorative craft supply item. If

students choose this option, they should bring in only one small bag of one type

of item. Please label the shoebox, the tube, and any other item with students’

names.

Next Thursday will be a day full of new ideas, new friends and lots of fun!

Sincerely,

The Innovation Day Committee

Jimmy Tullner

Amy Adkins

Rose Domayer

Carter Warren

Amanda Jernigan

Rachen Sterling

Jennifer Ivens

Swimming Tomorrow and Mount Vernon Next Week

Don't forget!  Swimming starts tomorrow morning at 8 AM.  See previous blog post for information.

....and there is more Fourthie fun and learning to be had, and this time it is at the home of George Washington, our first president.  Our class is studying the traits of great leaders, and George Washington is at the top of the list.  Of course, he is a Virginian!

Lower School Field Trip Information

October 2015

Grade:  4

Date of Trip: Tuesday, November 3

Location:    Mount Vernon, 3200 Mount Vernon Hwy, Mt Vernon, VA 22121

(The Fourthies will tour Mount Vernon, the home of our first president, George Washington.  This is a highlight of our fourth grade curriculum, as we study the lives of presidents throughout the year.  Fortunately, in Virginia, we have several homes from which to choose, but we think this one is truly special and the education center is outstanding.)

Time of Student Drop Off at School: 7:00 a.m. (Students should go promptly to their classrooms. Teachers will walk with the girls to the James River buses parked on Grove Avenue.)

Time of Trip Departure:  7:15 a. m.

Time of Trip Return:   3:25 p.m. (Parents will be notified if we are delayed.)

Trip Attire:  Field Trip Attire and yellow Fourthie hat, jacket appropriate for the weather

What to bring:  Money for lunch. We will eat in the cafeteria at Mount Vernon.  There is a Child’s Lunch available for $6.00, which includes chicken nuggets, French fries, Jell-O, and a drink. We highly suggest this idea, so we can alert the cafeteria that they will be handling 73 children.  Otherwise, please send around  $12.00 for lunch.

Special Instructions: The girls may bring a book to read on the bus or enjoy the pleasant company of their classmates. No electronics, please.

Swimming Starts Next Week

                                                                                                October 19, 2015

Dear Parents,

         On Tuesday, October 27th, our class will begin swimming instruction at the Kenny Athletic Center.  We will swim on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Friday mornings from 8:00-8:45 for two weeks. Your daughter should be dropped off at the Lower School.  During that time, the girls will NOT have regular P.E. classes.

The following equipment will be needed for each child on swimming days:  a one-piece swimsuit, a latex or silicone swim cap, a towel, goggles (optional), healthy snack, and a bag other than a backpack to carry swim equipment.  Please label your daughter’s supplies. 

Tankinis and bikinis are not allowed.  The swim cap is required to help keep hair relatively dry and to keep the pool clean.  All swim equipment will be taken home each day and brought back to school the following day.  If your daughter has long hair, please put it in a ponytail or braid for ease in putting on the swim cap.  The girls should NOT wear tights on swimming days, as they are hard to put on damp legs.

                                                              

Thanks so much,

                                                               Tara DiGiacomo and Alexa Anderson

Innovation Everywhere

Girls Innovate was a rousing success! The girls just returned from the Kenny Center where they saw incredible projects made from Little Bits.  The collaborative experience for the Middle School girls and their guests from other schools was inspiring to see.  On top of that, the members of Iluminate led spontaneous dances throughout the gym!  It was truly a joyous, innovative experience for all of us.

Some of the girls in the class had some ideas of what they would do if given the chance to be creative with Little Bits.  They had some pretty wonderful ideas!  We are fortunate to have a set in the Lower School, so the girls will have an opportunity to try out some of their ideas.


Kate  "I would make a trash collector that would pick up cans."

Kathryn   "I would also make a trash collector, but it would pick up the kind of trash that you find on streets...like banana peels. It would churn it up and make it into fertlizer."

Eloise MC  " I would make one that would take medical waste and reuse it....like my cat's syringes."

Mariya   "I would make a lighthouse with lights all around, so you could see boats easily."

Caroline   "I would try to make something that would clean up broken down houses that earthquakes make."

Elloise L.   "I would make something that would have fans on it to fan people, so that you wouldn't use a lot of electricity, and then you could use that electricity for something else."

Mary Spencer   "I would make a machine that you could put James River water in and that it would come out purified."

Browning  "I would make a car that would be powered by electricity because gas is bad for the environment."

Claire  "I would make something that would go underwater and clean up the water so that there wouldn't be any plastic, and then the turtles wouldn't die."

Bella   "I would make a mechanical wheelchair so that people wouldn't have to push with their arms."

Hailey   "I would make a cast and I would put Little Bits all around the cast so that it would light up, and the cast would have a layer for the battery pack."

Janie    "I would probably make a tiny bot that would go under water and it would take photos, so that it could explore more things."

Walden  "I would put paper down, and then I would decorate it like a rainbow, and I would decorate a bike with lights."

Elise  "I would make a machine that would create medicine that would help people who can't stop bleeding."

Adley  "I would make a machine that would make a pill that you could swallow, and it would diagnose illnesses."

Manya   "I would make a robot that could scan you, and it would have  an arm that would shoot out the medicine."

Cameron  "I would make a bot that you could hook up to your light system that would turn off your lights."

Amelia   "My idea is to make an underwater robot that would would pick up trash that could strangle
turtles."

Innovative Girls and America's Got Talent...what is St. Cat's connection?

Remember seeing this on America's Got Talent a few years ago?  The group iLuminate made it to the finals, and they will perform at St. Catherine's this Friday, October 9, as part of the Girls Innovate Day, which is being held on our campus. Their main focus is on the fusion of technology and dance which they have performed all over the world.  The bad news?  This program is for the older girls; however, the good news is that we will be introducing this cool group to our classes, as well as participating in Girls Innovate in our own special way.  Last week we celebrated our 125th anniversary as a school, and this week we are going to make Miss Jennie proud with our ever evolving curriculum.  On Friday, the middle and the upper school will be hosting 200 students from area schools, so that they can hear international experts, such as Reshma Saujani speak on coding.  As well, the middle school girls will be working with Little Bits, which are electronic modules that can be used to create all kinds of things...things we can't even imagine, but our girls certainly can.  The Fourthies also will hear Danielle Feinberg speak.  She is a  Director of Photography specializing in Lighting and Pixar Animation Studios, so we will all have much to learn.  Our girls are not directly involved with Girls Innovate, but they will have a "Gallery Walk". This way they can see what is going on, and they can also ask questions.

This is a wonderful opportunity for our Fourthies, as we will soon begin our own Cubelet collaborative project with kindergarten.  There will be more information about this at a later date.

https://www.youtube.com/user/littleBitsInc

Math News

We just completed our Geometry Unit, and what great learning took place!  It's an ambitious unit because there is so much new vocabulary. The main focus is on helping the girls learn how to classify geometric figures. As you know, they constructed triangles, quadrangles, concentric circles,  and even the Star of David, but what was most gratifying to see, was the connection they made between their study of lines and rays to our initial work with the 3D Printer project. I was amazed when many of the girls were so excited to tell me that their geometry unit had helped them to understand this new technology. The girls, I think, are truly energized by their  exposure to some quite fascinating  educational modules! Check out our Fourthie Website, and you can see what your daughter is doing.

Friday, October 9   Girls Innovate  -   All divisions, including the Lower School, may wear jeans or comfortable clothes and tennis shoes!

Thursday, October 8  Tech Night  (completely optional)  6:30.  Those who have signed up should bring a copy of their daughter's passwords.  The passwords are located at the back of their Planner.  They can show you.

...and more technology news

Our ultimate goal is for your fourth grade daughters to become competent on Google Drive and be able to effortlessly utilize many of our highly useful and interactive websites; however, there is so much fantastic opportunity on our Fourthie Website that we are gradually introducing these sites.  For example, our class is using GoAnimate at the moment.  I confess that it is one of my favorite sites, and the possibilities for usage are endless.  Some of your girls experienced difficulty logging into Google Drive, but I was proud of them because they still completed their assignment on paper.  That is showing RESPONSIBILITY! This morning we worked on the glitches they encountered, so I think that things will be better tonight.  One of the problems is that the girls need to process the passwords and username correctly, and that takes practice for all us.....and I stress all of us, even me!
Passwords rule our lives, and we have many to remember!

https://www.youtube.com/user/littleBitsInc

We're 125 Years Old and We're Celebrating Tomorrow

Girls, remember to wear gold and white tomorrow....nothing fancy...no face paint or sequins needed! Make sure you are on time because we are going to have our picture taken at 8:10 with the entire school.Won't that be fun, and a great way to kick off our celebration.  St. Catherine's is 125 years old.
Miss Jennie would be both proud and amazed at the progress our school has made.  Can you imagine her look of wonder if she saw you use the SmartBoard or write a story on GoAnimate?  Think about our founder, Virginia Randolph Ellett, when you come to school tomorrow and line up for an incredible picture that she could never have imagined!

Don't forget the picnic for the entire school tomorrow night, Thursday, October 1!  We are going to have fabulous food, a photo booth, and lots of fun for everyone.  The party starts at 6 PM, and guess what?  NO HOMEWORK!  I know that makes you happy!

Fourthies Take Richmond Worlds by Storm

The Fourthies were lucky enough to attend the UCI World Championship this morning.  This was made possible by the one and only Laura Horn of our terrific Physical Education Department. Great planning and foresight, Laura!  The girls had a life-changing experience today as they cheered Emma White.  Fourthie spirits were high, and their behavior was excellent, as was noted by bystanders on the street.  Great role models for our school.  We are so proud of them, and we were so thrilled to be part of this wonderful, not only Richmond city experience, but also international event.

The perfect ending to a perfect day!  Make sure you listen for a lovely surprise!