Updates!

What's Going On?

The winter months are a busy time for fourth graders.  We have gone from a class of new fourth graders who still sometimes act, think and feel like third graders to students that are "full-time fourth graders" now.  They have learned the ropes and are thinking more deeply, writing in more sophisticated ways, reading more complicated texts, and solving math problems they never thought they could in third grade. 

So what exactly are your fourth graders up to these days?  Here is an update!

Reading

Students have just finished learning about how characters change.  They learned that a character's traits, thinking, feelings and actions can change.  They have learned how to keep track of these changes while they are reading and how to write about them.  While you are reading with your child pay attention for when the character learns a lesson, this is usually what causes the character to change!

Now we are moving on to comparing and contrasting characters in books.  We began this week by learning the vocabulary associated with comparing and contrasting and using the vocabulary while comparing and contrasting two different books and two different characters.  You can help by using this vocabulary with your child at home. 



Writing

We are nearing the end of our fictional narrative unit.  Students have been working on lifting the level of their writing by adding more action, thought, dialogue, action, and sensory details.  This week students learned about similes (Ex: The snow was like a white blanket covering the land.)  You can help by asking your child about similes at home this weekend.  They had fun coming up with them in school this week and couldn't wait to share them with each other.  I'm sure they would love to share some with you as well!

Math

We are learning to divide with remainders.  We started out really focusing on what it means to divide and showing this with many different pictures, relating it to place value as much as possible.  When many of us were students, we learned the process to long division, but many of us did not truly understand what it meant and what was really happening to the numbers during division.  I can say that students are grasping division at a much deeper level this year.  They are manipulating numbers in many different ways and learning how to make division more efficient even as the numbers get bigger.

The biggest way you can support our math at home right now is continuing to have your child study their multiplication facts...especially the 6, 7, 8, and 9 facts.  These are the ones that slow children down and often prevent them from being successful at times.  If you feel your child is solid, please let me know and I can give you some other ideas for MAH homework.

Science

We just finished our unit on rocks and minerals.  Students grew their own crystals and learned many different experiments they could perform on unknown minerals such as the scratch test, luster test, acid test, and streak test.  They then applied these experiments on several mystery minerals in an attempt to identify them. 

Social Studies

We launched into a unit on the United States regions this week by looking at a couple of videos that give a great overview of the United States in all its glory and diversity.  Students will be learning about how where you live in the United States can often affect how you live.  They will be learning research skills, non-fiction reading skills, oral reporting skills, and how truly amazing our country is.

So as you can see, we are busy busy busy!

Important Dates

12/5      Holiday Shoppe  3:30 - 8:00 pm

12/6      Holiday Shoppe  9:00 am - 1:00 pm

12/10    1/2 day PD 11:40 dismissal

12/15    Team up meeting 11:30 am in conference room

12/19     Term 1 report cards go home