Calendar Highlights:
September 17: No School, Rosh Hashannah (Happy New Year!
September 22-23: National Book Festival (see link in the writing section below)
September 24-28: MAPR assessment (Measures of Academic Progress, Reading)
September 28: Early Release Day for students (9:30-12:55; Lunch is 12:15)
PBIS:
Our school is participating in a Positive Behavior Intervention System. By now your kids should be coming home telling you about their classroom and individual Bulldog Bucks. Students can earn Bulldog Bucks for demonstrating Safe, Respectful, and/or Responsible behavior. They can earn them from any staff member. There are individual and class Bulldog Bucks. Students will be able to use their Bulldog Bucks for rewards both in the classroom and at the school store. More information will be coming soon.
More information about PBIS can be found on the link below:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studentservices/pbis/index.shtm
Helpful information for 4th grade:
9:05-10:25: Writing
10:30-11:15: Specials (T,W, & F) Science (M, Th & 1 other day, depending on teacher)
11:20-12:40: Math
12:45-1:45: Recess & Lunch
1:50-3:15: Reading Block
*We invite students to bring a nut-free snack to class each day, as our lunch period is late in the day.
*We invite all students to bring a water bottle to class also.
*Students are also encouraged to bring a removable (flash drive) with them to school as well. We do a lot of our work on the computer & many students like to save on their drive to share at home and school. It is not required!
Writing:
During Quarter 1, we will focus on writing personal narratives. We will begin to develop the process of writing for a reader by studying the works of other great authors. A fourth grade author study will include the works of Patricia Polacco. Her new book, Bully is available just this week and so we are excited to share this with the students. In addition, she will be a featured artist at the 12th Annual National Book Festival on the National Mall in DC on September 22-23.
A link to the National Book Festival:
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/
More information about Patricia Polacco:
http://www.patriciapolacco.com/index.htm
In addition to studying the works of an author to understand the craft of writing, students will begin to revise their small moments prewriting. They will examine the difference between descriptive and informational writing. In a personal narrative, it is important for the reader to feel the feelings of the author.
Example:
Joe and I play baseball (informative)
Joe taught me how to catch a baseball. (descriptive & specific)
A link to a website for information on the 6 Traits of writing is below:
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/concord/teacherlinks/sixtraits/sixtraits.htm
Life Science:
Students construct, observe, discuss, and read about land and water ecosystems. Throughout the unit students will explore the concepts of living things and their basic needs, how organisms are classified, the features that make organisms well-suited to their environment, the flow of energy and matter, and how organisms interact with each other and the environment.
This week we will be observing our aquariums and terrariums. Our animals and plants have arrived and we will examine the changes to their habitats in the last week. Some of the animals we will study include crickets, isopods, guppies, snails. We will learn how plants and animals are interdependent.
Math 5:
• Identify and apply prime and composite numbers less than 100 and rules of divisibility.
• Determine and apply the greatest common factor and least common multiple of numbers.
• Recognize and represent functional relationships using graphs, tables, and rules.
• Compare and order integers on a number line.
This week: We will focus on comparing and ordering integers, identifying positive and negative numbers.
Looking Ahead:
*Function Tables: determine the valuable for the variables
*Graphing Functions
Math 4:
*Recognize and apply place value patterns in numbers through millions.
• Organize, display, and analyze data using line plots and line graphs.
• Determine and distinguish among mean, median, mode, and range, using concrete materials.
• Classify angles as acute, obtuse, or right.
• Identify and describe the sides, angles, edges, vertices, and faces of solid figures.
• Draw circles, triangles, and quadrilaterals given their dimensions. *Identify and describe points, lines, line segments, and rays.
This week: Using a compass to make angles and using a ruler to make triangles and rectangles with various measurements
Vocabulary:
Compass
Radius
Circumference
Diameter
Ruler
Inches
Centimeters
*Students will have a math quiz each Friday on skills covered in the unit to that point.
A great website that allows students to work at their own pace on word problems/real world application of multiplication & division:
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
We continue to use the Khan academy website to help practice our math at home. This is a great site where students (if a login is created) can track their progress and have example problems to work on. It has been featured in CNN as an up and coming way for teachers to assess individual students learning.
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Reading:
Students will be using various roles to create literature circle discussions about text they choose to read. This week each group will choose to read books by Patricia Polacco. They will practice each of the following roles:
Vocabulary Finder: Students will read their text and find words that they wish to share with their group. These words can be words they do not know how to say, what it means, words that add to the author's description of an event, or words they find interesting
Questioner: As students read their text, they will develop questions to ask their group members about what was read. Questions should be "thick" instead of "thin." A "thick" question requires thought and should not be answered right in the text. It may be an opinion as well. (Would you have acted the same way Sally did?) A "thin" question can be answered right in the text (Who is the main character? What is the setting?)
Connector: Students will make connections to the text they are reading. A connection allows the reader to understand the story closer.
There are 3 types of connections:
*text to self: allows reader to draw from his/her own experiences
*text to text: allows reader to draw from other characters/events in other stories
*text to world: allows reader to draw from the world around them including historical and current events
Summarizer: A summary is a brief description of a passage. These are the main ideas only and not every detail in a passage. This is often the most challenging for students because in other responses they are asked to go into great detail as they write.
In class, our focus will be to build a reading live. We will start by examining our reading in the past: what worked for us as readers and what did not in order to create 5 reading resolutions. We will discover ways to choose books that are "just right" for us by looking through book bins at our reading level and thinking about our interests as a reader. We will create a reading portfolio in our journals to record our findings/data about ourselves as readers.
Spelling:
*Our spelling program involves the use of developmental word study rather than traditional spelling books. This“Words Their Way” approach allows students to practice target spelling patterns that best address their individual needs as a speller.
•Students will study the same pattern of words for two weeks. They will practice the words both at home and at school. The patterns will vary based on spelling group.
*Our first spelling test will be on Friday, September 21
*Our first spelling test will be on Friday, September 21
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