Weekly Newsletter
Week of November 3-7
Week of November 3-7
GROWTH is the goal for everyone this year, and each day brings opportunities for everyone to strenghten their reading skills. Reading a text carefully, rereading for clarity, looking back to the text, and applying best effort are everything in 4th grade.
We are finishing Module 3, Rise To The Occasion this week. We used the story, My Diary From Here to There to review and solidify skills from Module 3. We are taking our formative module assessment on Module 3 skills on Monday, November 3.
We will begin Module 4, Heroic Feats on Tuesday. We will have a short read, Who's A Hero, followed by our first story, Prince Charming Misplaces His Bride. Our focus skills are reviewing nonfiction text features, comparing perspectives of characters, understanding how the protagonist and antagonist influence the plot of a story, comparing and contrasting the organizational structures and text features of of text written in different genres on the same topic, and understanding the use of figurative language. Vocabulary words are: elegant foreboding, episode, scowled, intimidated, subdued, disheveled, rigid, feisty, sulked. Our vocabulary quiz will be on Friday of this week, and our open book test will be on Monday.
A vocabulary list always comes home for studying and these words are posted on Google Classroom and under Reading Resources for your reference.
Last week we caught up with our cursive letter formation in class and it was so much fun! Students are getting much better with their writing AND they are able to read some words in cursive! We've covered i, t, e, l, c, s, h, j,m,n, f, b, u, v, w., f, h & b. This week we will cover r, s & k. Cursive homework will now be in a workbook for students to bring home and will be due on Friday.
Students are constructing and deconstructing words weekly. This week will review Latin roots aud, vis, and spec and learn about prefixes sub & fore. We will review synonyms and antonyms for common words and discuss homophones and homographs. We continuously use the skill of using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words.
We are continuing our study of Expository Writing. Students have learned the elements of expository writing (topic, main idea, supporting idea, evidence, elaboration & conclusion). We will finish our first piece on Hurricanes and move into a new topic of Smokejumpers this week.
Unit 3 : Multiplication and Division
Multiplication of larger digit numbers by one digit numbers working up to two by two digit number multiplication:
We will continue to use the box method and partial product method to help us connect larger digit multiplication to place value. This method is easier for students who struggle with multiplication fact fluency. Please see Remind for images of our strategies that were used in class. I will send images as we work through different types of problems. Continuing to strengthen your child's fact fluency will help tremendously with this rigorous unit.
Division of Three and Four Digit dividends with one Digit Divisors
We will connect multiplication and division in order to understand how to use basic multiplication and place value to divide larger digit numbers.
Unit 3: Forces and Simple Machines
We will work to understand the phenomenon of balanced and unbalanced forces & gravity. As we work through this unit, we will connect these concepts to simple machines.
Important Vocabulary: balanced forces, unbalanced forces, motion, gravity, push, and pull
The week of November 3rd, we will begin our investigation of the basics of forces and motion. We will use experiences and articles to help us connect the concepts of motion.
We arefinishing our unit, Forming A New Nation. We have discussed The Constitutional Convention, The Three Branches of Government (Legislative, Executive & Judicial), how the system of Checks & Balances ensures that no branch becomes more powerful than another, and the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights.
Students had a study guide every day of last week, and our unit test will be on Tuesday of this week. Students may not use a study guide or any resources for this test, so be sure to make good use of our last night to study on Monday.
We will then move into our next unit, Westward Expansion. We will begin with our discussion of The War of 1812.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Social Studies page for additional review resources.
Keep those report card goals on your mind as we move through the second nine weeks. We are constantly reminding our students of how to be successful in class. It's almost time for progress reports!
11/4-BRE Spirit Night at Your Pie in Evans
11/5-CoGAT Scores go Home
11/10-Veteran's Day Program
11/12-Progress Reports 2nd Nine Weeks
11/13-GMAS Practice in Classrooms
11/13-Fall Into Reading Literacy Night 5:30-6:30
11/14-Magician Performance
11/14-BRE Spelling Bee @ 1:30-Good luck to Alex Thompson & Jose Lopez Escobar!
11/24-11/28-Thanksgiving Break
Wish List Items-Paper towels, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, candy for our treat jar (no peanuts, please)