This Week's Snapshot: September Week 1 

ELA

We are reading Wayside School aloud together. We are discussing the characters, thinking about character traits, identifying important events, and supporting our ideas with evidence from the text.

We are also writing personal narratives. Students are adding descriptive details, dialogue, and strong endings that show why a moment mattered. Our memorable imagery example grew from “the kid” into a buff pirate with a guinea pig on her head and Marty on top of the guinea pig!

Religion

We have attended Mass twice as a class.

We are beginning to learn about the Introductory Rites, the opening parts of the Mass that help us gather and prepare to celebrate.

A special shout-out to Melania for beautifully completing her Religion homework, "What does the Eucharist mean to you?" At a White Sox game, Melania asked Fr. Brady the question. He enjoyed it so much that he made his homily about her question! What a wonderful example of bringing our faith into everyday life.

We are learning about Transubstantiation, the Eucharist, and the beautiful mystery of Jesus becoming truly present with us. Ask your 4th grader what Transubstantiation means! This is when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, and through God's power, they truly become the Body and Blood of Jesus. Students learned that even though the bread and wine still look and taste the same, something miraculous happens: Jesus becomes truly present with us. We talked about how special it is that we get to receive Jesus in the Eucharist and carry Him in our hearts.

Social Studies

We are creating our own maps of places and ideas that are meaningful to us. We have been learning about map skills such as cardinal directions, compass roses, keys and legends, important places, routes, landmarks, labels, and details. We even put our directional knowledge to the test with a classroom challenge. When asked which way was north, everyone stood up and faced the direction they thought was north! Through hands-on activities and our map project, we are learning how maps communicate information and help us understand the world around us.