Monday, October 27, 2014
Dear Fourth Grade Families in 4 Mc,
Reminder: Parent Teacher Conferences will take place on Monday, October 27 and Wednesday, October 29. These will be NOON dismissal days. LUNCH is served at school on half days. We have a “working snack” earlier in the morning. I’m really looking forward to talking with you about your fourth grader!
Homework: Daily homework (Monday-Thursday) includes reading 20 to 30 minutes a night (and recording the name of the book and number of minutes read), completing math worksheets, and spelling. The nightly spelling assignment mirrors what we do in school and comes from the Words Their Way Program. It helps students internalize spelling patterns which means students study a spelling pattern all week, not a specific list of words. We quiz them on Fridays by dictating about 10 words that follow the spelling pattern, words we haven’t necessarily used during the week’s lessons. We want to see if students can apply spelling rules when needed.
Spelling Homework:
Monday: Read your word sort words aloud. Listen for spelling patterns. Sort your words. Write them on the back of your math paper.
Tuesday: Do a “blind sort:” an adult reads the list aloud to you. You don’t see the words. You spell the words the best you can on the back of your math homework.
Wednesday: Sort your words as quickly as you can. Time yourself. Write your best time on the back of your math homework.
Thursday: Look for words that follow this week’s rules in books around your house. You may see them on Friday’s quiz!!
Including the reading assignment, your fourth grader should not spend more than 40 minutes on homework any one night. 20-30 minutes for reading, 5 minutes for spelling, and 10 minutes for math. PLEASE STOP doing homework if it goes on for more than 40 minutes.
Social Curriculum (Responsive Classroom): We have been leading the K-4 Community Meeting on Fridays. It is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be role-models for the younger students. We have been working on two goals: Paying close attention and being calm (stress-free). Last Friday the entire fourth grade recited a poem at the all-school United Nations Day assembly.
Reading: This week we continue our study of text features and informational text. We will discuss and practice ways “questioning” can deepen comprehension. Your fourth grader is becoming skilled at reading with “two brains:” one brain uses strategies to comprehend the text, and the second brain pays attention to the author’s craft. This second brain asks questions like: “I wonder why this author decided to use that heading?” or “I wonder why this author organized the information in this informational text/article this way?”
Writing: We are working on adding description to our writing, using simile as a writing trick. In addition, we are talking about setting and scene as we begin to construct a scene for our fictional character.
Spelling/Grammar: This week’s spelling pattern study and word sort reviews long vowel patterns in words like: slide, rind, feast, bright, slow, try, and sold.
Math: We will continue to model our mathematical thinking as we solve word problems and practice representing multiplication using the area model. The area model is also a visual representation of the distributive property.
Science: Fourth graders had fun, and learned a lot, as they created “new species” of animals. Each animal needs to survive on one of four unique planets. On Wednesday, educators from Polly Hill are coming to work with our fourth graders in preparation for next Wednesday’s field trip to their arboretum which will focus our study on plant adaptations. In addition, students will continue to research and write about animal adaptations.
As always, thanks for your support. Please email with any questions or concerns.
All my best,
Kate McCormick