Welcome to our class blog! We had a wonderful first couple weeks of school, and I've enjoyed getting to know each student. Thank you for sending your child to school so well prepared. I am very excited to work with your child every day and look forward to watching each of them grow and succeed. Thank you also for taking the time to come out to Curriculum Night.

The purpose of this blog is primarily for parents.  This is where you will find important information regarding our curriculum, activities, upcoming projects, and events. I hope to update this blog about every 2-3 weeks.  This blog entry will cover THREE weeks.

The students will find their resources on Google Classroom.  Please note that parents can't access Google Classroom using their own personal emails.  Only students' school emails allow access to Google Classroom. We are trying to get students to be problem solvers and independent thinkers. The Google Classroom is much like a virtual classroom where students can find lots of resources.  I will be assigning some homework on Google Classroom. Because of this, students should have access to the internet and a computer/tablet at home, with your permission, of course. If this is a problem, please let me know as soon as possible.

Language Arts:

In reading, we are wrapping our focus on characterization and will be tested on the skill later this week.  The students learned that authors reveal characters through traits, actions, dialogue and motivations.  We have read stories in RAZ and many short stories to practice characterization. We even did our first Book Talk organizer together which also has an entire section on characterization. Our next focus skill is on the elements of a story with an emphasis on plot, conflict, and resolution. Understanding the plot of a story will also connect to the Book Talk too.

We are also starting our Global Read Aloud soon. Please read this letter to learn more about what a GRA is all about!

Spelling/Vocab:

Every two weeks we will have a new focus skill, spelling/vocab words and writing skill. Last week, we started our spelling/vocabulary program.  There are 10 words on the list that are directly related to our Social Studies/Map Skills unit.  While our main focus is on knowing the meaning of these words, we will also use these words for spelling.  The students will have two weeks to focus on the meaning and spelling of the words. Students will be interacting with the meaning of the words and applying the meaning in context. Some definitions can be challenging, so I ask that you help your child learn the words throughout the two weeks. Every other Friday, we will assess the definitions and spelling.  This first assessment will be on Friday, 9/27. Here is the first list for your reference:

List 1

Students should practice the words using SpellingCity.com. Part of the $7.00 for resources that was on the supply list went to an upgraded premium account for SpellingCity.com. They will also need to use these words in a sentence through an activity on Google Classroom called Meaningful Sentences. We will give the students time to do some of these activities in class, but whatever is not finished will be homework.  For this first list we are working on the meaningful sentences at school together. It's important the students understand that they are not writing the definitions of the words, but showing they understand the meaning by using it in a sentence. The expectation is for students to complete at least 4 activities on SpellingCity before the test. A list of the Unit 1 words also went home last week. Please keep these in a safe place for your reference.

Book Talks:
Last week we spent some class time modeling the book talks and discussing expectations. I even showed some videos of former students giving a Book Talk presentation.  Your child brought home a competed sample of a Book Talk for the book Enemy Pie. Please put this sample Book Talk in a safe place so it can be used as a reference in October. Students should have a mystery book picked out soon. I will remind them again when we go to book check out this week to check out a mystery book. Please make sure the book that's chosen is a "good fit" book.  See the poster below in helping to know what a good fit book is.  Play close attention to the "K" descriptor.  If your child doesn't know 4 or more words on any random page, the book is probably too hard and should not be reading it independently. We have practiced finding "good fit" books at school too.

RAH:
Please remind your children to complete their RAH (reading at home) calendars.  The goal is to read at least 100 minutes a week. 

Math:

We are a few weeks into our first unit in Math. The students completed a pre-assessment of fourth grade concepts.  This will help me to differentiate within the classroom throughout the school year. Pretests will not go home, but the tests at the end of the unit will go home for you to see. This first unit in Math is all about place value, estimating, rounding, multi digit adding and subtracting, and some geometry at the end of the unit. The following are the power standards we will cover in Unit 1:

Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers to solve number and word problems.

Compare two multi-digit whole numbers based on the value of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines.

For your reference, please bookmark this site. Here you can find valuable information about the Everyday Math Fourth Grade curriculum.  An added bonus- you can download and print home links!  See "Home Link Help"

Expect a home link nightly, except for Fridays or Discovery Science days when we don't have Math

Please encourage your child to play Reflex Math at home!  The creators of the program explain that students must play at least 3 times a week to see improvement in fact fluency. We play about 3 times a week at school, but students are not always finishing the green circle. (The green circle is the goal for the day. If the green circle is mastered that means they have made significant progress.) Playing at home will only benefit your child even more!  We are aiming for 100% fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This coming week we will spend two days solving a fun open response question. While the computation can be an easy task, explaining mathematical thinking can be more challenging. We will be working on this throughout each unit.

Social Studies:

We started our first mini unit on map skills. We are reviewing some concepts about maps from previous years and moving into some more challenging topics, like latitude and longitude. This week, we will put all our map skills together, and the students will be cartographers by creating their own map with specific requirements.  This is always a very fun project that students remember about 4th grade. The students will be given specific directions and a rubric to help them with this project.
The Map Skills culminating test is scheduled for next Wednesday, Oct 2. The students will bring home a completed study guide next weekend so they can study for the test.

*Science will begin after our mini map unit in a couple weeks.

Social Skills:

The first lesson of our SEL curriculum, Second Step , focused on EMPATHY. Students learned that empathy is the ability to understand and feel how another person is feeling. We describe it as "putting yourself in other people's shoes." Our next focus is on listening with attention and understanding.  We will learn a new skill with each lesson. At times, you will see optional home links that requires your participation.  Students will earn a point for their house if it is completed by the due date.

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, September 24: Fourth Grade Reading MAP test starting at  10:15 
• Thursday, September 26: Fourth Grade Math MAP test starting at 1:15
• Friday, September 27: School Improvement Day (Grades 1-5 dismissed at 12:00) Also Spelling and Vocab assessment in the morning
• Monday, September 30: NO SCHOOL, Rosh Hashanah 
• Thursday, October 3: PTO Meeting, 7:00 PM