November News

Dates to Remember

School-to-Home Connection

This month

Ask your child about a book they are reading.  See if they can tell you what they have learned, and if they can summarize the information by telling you the main idea and some details to support it.

Ask your child about something they learned during our Catapult Challenge!

Ask your child about the five themes of Social Studies (beginning November 13th)!

Wishing your family a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Classroom Update

Reading

This month our focus will be on transitioning to Non-Fiction reading.  In the first part of the month, we will connect, preview, and learn to summarize texts both orally and in writing.  We will learn about text features and text structures. We will learn how to synthesize information from more than one text and will practice reading with INTENSITY.

Writing

Our Narrative Unit came to a close and we celebrated our hard work!  The students have all grown as writers and really enjoyed reflecting on their work and sharing their stories with one another.  This month we will start to write a traditional five paragraph essay on a topic of our choice. Students will learn to make a claim (thesis statement), provide three reasons to support their claim, as well as back up their reasons with evidence.  It is a big undertaking, but I know they are ready for the challenge.

Math

This month we will wrap up our work on multiplying large numbers!  The students will not learn the traditional algorithm but instead will use the area model and partial products to solve multiplication equations.  These methods will help your child develop a conceptual understanding of this important fourth grade math topic.  Another area of focus will be multi-step word problems. We will also begin working with DIVISION! Our work with division will run from November into December (and piggy-backs nicely with our multiplication studies).

Social Studies: 

This month the children will begin the "Where I Live - Connecticut" unit.  The students will work collaboratively to partner read, and answer "quiz" questions about important Connecticut topics. We will also be learning about the FIVE THEMES of Social Studies! After Thanksgiving, we will have an opportunity to participate in the River Dwellers program sponsored by the Connecticut River Museum. This is an in-school "field trip" of sorts, and is an amazing way to learn about life on the Connecticut River over the past few hundred years.