Grade 4 - Mrs. Mendel

Adele Mendel

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Mrs. Adele Mendel has been at St. Christopher School since 1990. She has had almost thirty years of teaching experience. During her first years at St. Christopher's, she continued her education and received a Master's Degree in Education from Rivier College.

Mid-winter Update

Catholic Schools Week has just come and gone. We had some wonderful activities during the week. Perhaps the greatest sharing we did as a class is writing twenty individual color books for our little buddies in Mrs. Brown's kindergarten class. Each student exhibited great literary and artistic talent; the fourth graders were really proud of their work. KB is keeping the books as a teaching aid to learning basic words.

Now we are getting our noses back to the grindstone. Our focus in religion will be the commandments related to love of neighbor. We will also spend time reflecting on Lent. Hopefully, we will offer up good deeds and do a little more praying during this time to prepare for Easter.

We have completed our requirements for studying measurement, both metric and customary, in math. We will be spending quite a few weeks on fractions. We need to understand all the vocabulary, proper and improper fractions, equivalent fractions, reducing them, and adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators. Whew!!!

We are culminating our study of all types of verbs in English class in the first two weeks of February. Our unit test should be on Thursday, the 16th. Then we will work on more sentence editing and correcting grammar and punctuation in paragraphs. We have played verb Jeopardy from the Internet and have done quite well in picking the correct verb.

Our February book report will be a biography. Children should be able to give twenty detailed facts about their celebrity. They should also be able to pick out an outstanding quality of that person and give an example from their book that supports the reason they chose that particular characteristic.

Our study of the Midwest will soon be ending; then it's on to the Southwest states. We have learned a lot about the land, people, and industries in this Heartland of America.

Finally, we will be having a little Valentine celebration and craft on Friday, the 10th. Moms will also work with the children on our wonderful auction project in the coming weeks. We have so much to accomplish in February before are next vacation break.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2012! It is with hope that everyone had a Blessed Christmas and very relaxing break. Now we should be ready to go full speed ahead with new learning adventures. We have so much to cover in what seems a short time remaining in our fourth grade journey.

We'll begin with getting ready for our adjective test on Friday, January 6. Then we'll move on to verbs -- regular, irregular, verb phrases, tenses, and agreement with the subject. Along with this, we'll spend time honing our writing skills, editing punctuation and capitalization, and creating paragraphs and cinquains with a winter theme.

Math is always a review of the four basic operations, but as soon as we finish the division chapter, we'll go into metric and customary measure. We will convert various measures into larger or smaller units; we will talk about equivalent portions. How useful this will be when we have to change the measurements in cooking or craft directions!

Religion class is now going to explain and suggest how we keep the commandments dealing with love of neighbor. We delved deeply into the meaning of Advent and Christmas in December along with understanding the commandments dealing with love of God. As fourth graders there is so much we can do in such little ways to show respect and love for one another. The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy are guiding forces to help us become better followers of Jesus.

We are almost at the end of our journey visiting the Southeast in Social Studies. One test will be to know the twelve states and capitals of this region by heart. That will be coming soon. Then it's on to the Midwest, the Breadbasket or Heart of America. Our country has such rich heritage and resources to appreciate!

As a change of pace, we hope to get together with our buddies in KB to enjoy some great stories found on Tumblebooks and perhaps do a related craft that will be fun for all.

We all may have made New Year resolutions to perhaps work harder, focus more, and be a better friend. My resolution is to work more with our new technology (I'll need the children's help with this) and provide skills that will lead to future success. Here's to a very properous New Year!

December Busy - ness

December has come so rapidly, and we are in a whirl-wind of activity and learning. To get in the holiday spirit, we enjoyed our Christmas shopping on December 1. There were so many fabulous items to buy for family and friends, and the raffle table was superb. We were fortunate to have three winners in 4M. They were Joseph Pappas, Clara Richman, and Alex Williams. Hooray! Hooray!

We have been practicing our Christmas songs for our concert on December 15, and we do sound like angels. We all hope you join us for this seasonal remembrance of Christ's Birth. Along with this event, we also have some students who are joining Mrs. Polcari in chimes and chorus. Our talents are quite impressive.

We are preparing the Mass for December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We are going to sing two verses in Spanish to "Immaculate Mary" thanks to Senora Bicrest. What a privilege to honor our Blessed Mother!

As for academics, we are spending time reading about Advent and Christmas in Religion. We've examined the first three Commandments in November and are now going to study in depth the next seven over the next two months. We also reviewed the booklet on the new changes in the Mass. In math, we are delving into division -- both short and long. Right now we work with a single digit divisor, but we will advance to double digit divisors. Of course, periodic review of addition, subtraction, and multiplication continue. On December 2, we had a pronoun test in English. Now will have some fun studying ADJECTIVES! Don"t descriptive adjectives make topics so much more interesting? We will do pyramids of three adjectives for holiday symbols and learn various limiting adjectives (articles, demonstrative, numbers, etc.) and use of comparisons. We will get more practice by writing paragraphs on appropriate themes for the season. Are you impressed? Then, we will be traveling through the Southeast region of the United States, studying the landforms, people, major cities, industries, and attractions. Finally, Mrs. Ternan is continuing to make Science come alive with her teaching and activities.

Our book report for this month is to design a book jacket for a Christmas story with a colorful cover, a summary on the inside flaps, and reviews on the back. What a great bulletin board this will be to share with the class. It is due on December 21. Lastly, our Christmas party with a small project will take place on December 16.

As the year comes to a close, 4M wishes everyone a very Blessed Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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