Upcoming Dates:
ISAT:
Students in grade 4 will be tested in ISAT Science, Math, and Reading. You can help your child do his/her best on the test by:
If your child is absent and misses a session, make-up testing will be administered during the week of March 8th.
Curriculum Notes:
Writing: In writing students continue to work on their biographies. Students have learned to research and take notes in their own words. They are now working on organizing their ideas into a four paragraph essay. While drafting these biographies, writers are trying to vary their sentence structure and word choice in order to improve sentence fluency. Students have also practiced citing their sources with proper documentation. A very special thank you to all the parents who came in to assist with this research project. The students enjoyed the extra support, and we appreciated having parents involved in our classroom activities.
Alongside of biographies fourth graders have been studying idioms in class. We encourage you to share various expressions at home, which can then be added to our classroom collections.
Reading: We will continue working on our “From Mystery to Medicine” unit. If your child is reading an Open Court selection next week, please see the attached newsletter. We will be doing some lessons on making inferences early next week. For your child’s next reading project, he/she will be practicing these inferencing skills. To make inferences, good readers must use information from the story in the form of facts, reasons and descriptions. Readers also use personal experiences or knowledge to bring to the stories. The Making Inferences Reading Project will be due on Friday, February 26th. The direction page will come home next Wednesday following our lessons. Your child will need to read a fiction book to complete the project, although he/she does not need to finish the book by the 26th.
Math: Students will be completing Unit 7 (Fractions and Their Uses; Chance and Probability) next week. The three main objectives of the Unit are: 1) to provide reminders, review, and practice of fraction ideas introduced earlier, 2) to develop a good understanding of equivalent fractions, 3) to provide informal activities related to chance and probability. Students continue to practice ISAT test strategy skills in preparation for the coming Math ISAT tests.
Science: The students (Carter’s/Smith’s classes) have been doing investigations in the Earth Materials Unit. They have been working with stream tables to model the water cycle, the effect of rain on land, and how rivers, streams and lakes are formed. They are also studying the four soil components in their stream tables to gain an understanding of ground water and runoff. Through a reading selection, they are learning where drinking water comes from. To increase your child’s understanding and interest in earth science ask him or her to talk about the investigations we are doing at school. If any parents or guardians have an expertise or interest in earth science and would like to share their knowledge with the students, please contact Mrs. Ambrosino.
Social Studies: Mrs. Ambrosino’s and Mrs. Sullivan’s classes are finishing their study of Unit 3 - Chapter 6 Social Studies lessons next week. Unit 3 – the main topic of study has been the Growth and Expansion of the United States, with focus on the Illinois Territory, Illinois becoming a State, and Illinois involvement in the Civil War.
Upcoming Dates:
Committee forming to plan for next year's Outdoor Ed trip
Our students will be fifth graders sooner than we know it and heading for Camp Algonquin next fall. Anyone interested in joining a committee to explore ways to raise funds to reduce the cost of this trip please contact Marci Battersby: 386-8098 or marcibattersby@gmail.com
Curriculum Notes:
Custom Typing: Students should be practicing keyboarding skills three to five times per week. If a computer is not available at home, please consider using the computers at the public library or in Longfellow’s media center during Sunrise Study Hall.
Reading: We are continuing to read stories within our “Dollars and Sense” unit. In the story, “Ellias Sifuentes, Restaurateur,” students learned the importance of identifying the main idea and supporting details. This is an important skill when reading non-fiction. Soon, the students will also work on the skill of sequencing. Students will be reminded that writers put events into a logical sequence, or order, so that readers can understand in what order the events occurred. We will do another KWL chart later this year. Although many of the students did well, others did not record at least 5 questions to search for when reading.
Our next reading project is currently being kicked off in class. We are modeling how to record plot events. In particular, students are being introduced to the elements of: conflict, rising action, climax (turning point in the plot,) falling action, and resolution. The students will fill out a story plot sheet after reading their chosen, fiction book. This project is due Thursday, December 17th. Over break, we will ask your child to read as much as possible, but no reading projects or logs will be done.
Writing: In writing students have begun drafting their mysteries. While studying this genre, we have learned a variety of terms including sleuth, alibi, breakthrough, motive, suspect, deduction, red herring, evidence, and witness. Writers have spent time reading a variety of mysteries prior to clearly organizing their own plots.
Alongside our current project, we have begun a sentence study in class. Each day students are reading and creating new sentences, in order to use phrasing and appropriate detail when writing complete thoughts. We are also practicing our editing skills carefully when using sentences.
Soon a note will be coming home regarding the winter writing contest. Each fourth grader will be required to submit a piece. Students will have plenty of time over winter break, as well as the following week of school, to work on this selection. The due date for submissions will be Friday, January 8th. We look forward to participating in this annual tradition.
Math: Students started working on Unit 5 (Big Numbers, Estimation, and Computation) this week. The unit begins with two lessons that focus on extending multiplication skills, in preparation for the introduction of the partial-products algorithm for multiplication. The lattice algorithm is also introduced as an alternative to the parital-products algorithm.
Unit 5 also emphasizes reading, writing, and using large numbers, including the use of powers of 10 to represent large numbers. Estimation is highlighted, both as an important step in adding and multiplying numbers and as a tool to facilitate the communication of large numbers.
Science: In science the students (Ambrosino’s/Sullivan’s classes) are reading and doing activities from the Here’s Looking at You drug education curriculum. The philosophy of Here’s Looking at You believes the best way for children to reduce their risk of having problems with drugs is for them not to use drugs at all, and that message is delivered clearly throughout the curriculum. It also gives students the information and tools to make choices that are safe and healthy. You will find attached to the newsletter information that you may find useful in continuing your child’s drug education at home.
Social Studies: Students (Carter’s/Smith’s classes) have begun their study of Unit 3 (Growth and Expansion) this week. Unit 3 focuses on the changes in Illinois and the nation as the United States population grew and expanded westward. A study guide will be sent home prior to the Unit 3 test, which will be taken the week of January 5th.
