Writing

Children's writing skills improve when they read widely and when they actually practising writing. We will be reading and writing daily. We will begin by writing reflections on our daily learning and learning the RACE strategy to construct clear, evidence-based opinion paragraphs.  This practice will help build confidence for their FSAs in October (see below). Most importantly, we will be revising how starting sentences with capitals and finishing with appropriate punctuation. We will be practising writing in complete sentences.

You can help your child by encouraging them to write at home. Write your shopping list. Write a journal. Write on!

Our classroom focus for October will be kindness.

""Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."  Ephesians 4:32 

You can help your child by:

• helping your child look at facial expressions to understand how someone else feels. 

• using specific words when praising kind acts. Instead of a generic "Good job," each time you notice a kind action, try, "You were really kind when you..."

• recognizing that when a child is unkind, they may just need help calming down and regulating their emotions. 

• continuing to model kindness yourself.

FSAs

The BC Ministry of Education requires Grade 4 students to complete 4 Foundational Skills Assessments (FSAs) in October each year.  We will let you know of the exact dates our school has chosen to administer the assessments in due course, but they will be after Thanksgiving weekend.

The 4 assessments are:

• numeracy (written) i.e. long answer problem-solving where students get to show their thinking process

• numeracy (online) i.e. multi-choice

• literacy (written) i.e. written responses to one fiction text and one non-fiction text, and one creative writing piece

• literacy (online) i.e. multi-choice (comprehension)

The skills being tested are based on their learning prior to Grade 4. i.e. NOT the Grade 4 curriculum. 

These assessments are NOT recorded on the children's student records and do NOT impact their report card marks. They are simply a tool that the Ministry and the school use:

• to indicate how well BC students in general are learning basic literacy and numeracy skills; 

• to help guide where resources need to be allocated;

• to plan curriculum; and 

• to provide timely learning interventions.

In class we review expectations and protocols, and complete practice assessments before the children complete the assessments. THERE IS NO EXTRA HOMEWORK OR STUDY CHILDREN SHOULD BE DOING. In early October we will communicate more with you, as caregivers, about the procedures.

You can help your child by:

• reassuring them that the assessments are based on the skills they worked on in Grade 3 - there's nothing new - and every Grade 4 in BC is doing them, too;

• reassuring them that there is no pass/fail and it doesn't go on their report cards (really, they aren't a big deal, it's just that they're a different kind of learning experience...but isn't all learning?);

• NOT organising a family vacation or dentist/optometrist/doctor appointments between 14 and 20 October (please!); and

• continuing to ensure that your child gets a good night's sleep before school, eats well, goes outside to play every day and generally stays as happy and healthy as possible (see, nothing new).