J4 SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

• Support students’ independent reading by co-creating a space for reading at home. Reading at home is expected for J4 students. You might ask your child where in your home they feel most comfortable reading, and if they prefer to be sitting upright at a table or desk, or if they like to read on a soft couch or on a bed. Does your reader like pillows? Soft music that doesn’t have lyrics? White noise? Designing a space that’s personalized can help make reading more enjoyable. 

• Set up times for side-by-side reading. When you read your own book, newspaper or magazine alongside your child as he or she reads, you’re doing many things at once. You’re modeling how adults can make time for reading, and also showing that you trust that fourth graders have their own reading to do: that you don’t always have to read to them.

• Consider starting a parent-child book club. If one parent and one child connects with three other children with a respective parent, a great tradition can be started (4 kids and 4 parents is a good number!). Choose a book a month (or every six weeks) to read and then discuss at one child’s home. You’ll learn so much about your child and their thinking by hearing them talk about a book with their friends. And you’ll get closer to the other parents as well!

• Encourage your child to teach you what they know and are learning. Fourth graders are working on informational writing this term. You can support this work by asking children questions about areas they know a lot about. For example: “Teach me about what you know about Legos. What kinds are there? How do you put them together? What can they make?” These kinds of elaboration are crucial to making information writing detailed and interesting! Practicing in talk helps to build these muscles.

• Ask your child to draw and write instructions for you, including maps. This could be instructions for how to set up a game they like to play, or how they would like their sleeping space redesigned. Anything that has a real-world context they know and care about. Drawing labeled diagrams or maps is just as important as writing out step-by-step directions.

• Collect books about weather and natural disasters. Fourth grades will be studying natural disasters and their effects. There are so many amazing resources for this content. Your public library can help! 

• Connect with National Geographic. Their television shows, magazines and website are all excellent resources. They offer engaging informational texts in multimedia formats to spark conversations about natural disasters and their causes and effects.

• Times Square This game provides practice with multiplication facts as players race to be the first to get 4 products in a row on the game board. Use "guest pass" to enter the game list and play against the computer.

• Factor Dazzle Players score points for finding all the factors of target numbers set by their opponents. Use "guest pass" to enter the game list and play against the computer.

• MathTappers: Multiples App compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad for math practice on the go. This is a simple, free game designed to help learners make sense of multiplication and division using visual models.

Xtra Math This free, web-based, math fact fluency program includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.