4th Grade
Upcoming Dates
August 17th -21st- Orientation Week
Aug 24 - 1st day of school
Sept 2 - No School: Labor Day
Oct 12-16 - Fall Break
Nov 3 - No School: PLC Day
Nov 23 - 27 - Thanksgiving Break
Dec 18 -Jan 4 - Winter Break
Jan 18 - No School: MLK Day
Feb 12 - No School: PLC Day
Fe 15 - No School: President's Day
Mar 15-19 - Spring Break
April 16-19 - No School: PLC & Comp Day
May 25 - Last Day of School
Reminders
Bring a healthy snack each day for recess, a sealable water bottle, and wear sunscreen
Planners need to be signed each night to help your teacher stay in touch with parents and keep them informed.
Thursday Folders go home on Thursdays. Please make sure that they are emptied and returned on Fridays.
Birthday treats may be brought in in the morning and will be shared at recess time. We appreciate health snacks that are not all sugar. Birthday invitations will not be passed out in school if the whole class is not invited.
Please return your library books by the day before your class is scheduled for library, so that you can check out books each week. If you have not finished reading your book, bring it on your class' library day to renew it at check out.
Subjects
Reading
Unit Concept: Getting to Know You
Fiction Book Clubs- Student book choice, novel sets, project menu
Non-Fiction Reading Groups- based on reading level, topic choice
We will be working on text structure, vocabulary and comprehension strategies.
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Unit Concept: Nonfiction Text - Colorado Regions
Students will be reading and working on identifying key details, vocabulary and interesting facts about the regions of Colorado using the Colorado Story textbook.
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Unit Concept: Mysteries
We will be reading mysteries for the next three weeks to identify the elements of a mystery and gain exposure to the vocabulary words used in mysteries.
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Unit Concept: Nonfiction Text - Biographies
Students will be reading biographies of notable Coloradans and working to identify important facts and details to restate and paraphrase information to build their own biography and speech. These speeches will be presented at the end of this unit.
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Unit Concept: Tall Tales
To go along with our study of Colorado's Mountain Men, we will be studying the elements of American Tale Tales and how they used hyperbole to help create more excitement around the stories. Students will be reading several different tall tales and looking at character traits around these American legends.
Math
Timed tests masters are on the bottom of this web page. Look for the icon labeled - Principal Exams
iReady Mathematics Program
Unit Concept: Unit 1: Whole Numbers: Place Value, Comparison, Addition, and Subtraction
Unit Concept: Unit 2: Operations: Multiplication, Division, and Algebraic Thinking
Unit Concept: Unit 3: Multi-Digit Operations and Measurement: Multiplication, Division, Perimeter and Area
Unit Concept: Unit 4: Fractions, Decimals, and Measurement: Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication
Unit Concept: Unit 5: Geometry and Measurement: Figures, Classification, and Symmetry
Science/Social Studies
Unit Concept: Colorado Symbols/Geography/Regions
Students will learn the meaning behind the symbols of Colorado and be researching the five different regions in our state and sharing their findings with the class. Students will be looking for landforms, climate, major cities, animals, elevation, population, and industries and agriculture for their area. We will also be creating a salt dough map of Colorado so students can use what they learned from their research to apply to their map.
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Unit Concept: Ecosystems
Students will be learning about the eight different ecosystems in our state and learning about the delicate balance that exists between the plants, animals, and people who live here. Students will be looking at food chains and producers, consumers, and decomposers.
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Unit Concept: Changes Over Time
Students will learn about Rock Patterns, Plate Tectonics, Renewable/Non-Renewable Resources, and Natural Processes.
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Unit Concept: Communicating Using Wave Energy
Students will learn about Motion of Waves, Wavelength and Amplitude, Light Reflection, and Information Technologies.
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Unit Concept: Colorado Biographies
Students will learn about Native Americans, European Explorers, Trappers and traders, Homesteaders, Gold and Silver Rushers that were the trail makers and path finders of Colorado. They were the the early pioneers of the Rocky Mountain West that help establish Colorado's early history. Fourth graders will be learning about them and the impact they made on our state.
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Unit Concept: Organism Structures
Students will learn about Plant and Animal Parts and Sense Receptors.
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Unit Concept: Colorado Government
Fourth graders will explain the origin and function of the three branches of government and describe how to engage in your local government to demonstrate their rights and initiate change as an involved citizen.
Writing
Students will implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work.
We will be using the 6 Traits of writing. The key characteristics found in good writing are: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. The traits and approach are applicable to all types of writing.
Students will use correct sentence formation, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling to make the meaning clear to their readers.
Students will write to persuade, describe, and inform.
Students will work on brainstorming activities to build ideas for one topic. We will also be creating/using lists to build word choice and identify worn out words.
Mystery writing - Students will be writing summaries of the mysteries we are reading in class.
They will also be writing their own mysteries that will take them through the writing process for students to publish their story. Student will be including detectives, suspects, a crime, a red herring, clues, several events and a solution to their mystery.
Tall Tale writing - Using the elements of tall tales that students learn through reading these stories, we will be writing our own Tall Tales. Students will need to use exaggeration and real life problems with solutions in their stories.
Biographies - Using the comprehension strategies while reading Coloradan biographies, students will write a biography identifying the important facts and events that made their subject notable. Students will also create a timeline to show when their Coloradan lived and when the important events happened in their life. Students will write a five-paragraph essay following the writing process.
Specials
ART -
P.E. - Nick Forest
S.T.E.A.M./Tech - Darene Fisher
S.T.E.A.M./Library - Joy Meredith
Forest, Nick Physical Education nicholas.forest@dcsdk12.org
Fisher, Darene S.T.E.A.M. darene.fisher@dcsdk12.org
4th Grade Grading Scale
Click on the link below to understand how the grading on daily work aligns to the Report Card.
Grading Scale
4th Grade Resources
Click on title to access links.