Monthly Curriculum Review

August 30, 2014

Dear Families,

It is hard to believe we have just finished our first month of school! 4E has been working hard to build routines and get to know each other. Building a strong “family” in 4E will help students take risks, try new things and work together for their 4^th grade year.

Here are brief blurbs about our current units of study:

During Reading Workshop, we worked in August Building a Reading Life, where students talked about their strengths and goals as readers as well as routines and strategies for improving reading performance. As we move into September our lessons will shift to Following Characters into Meaning. These teaching points will help students deeply investigate the characters in the books they are reading, which will help them develop interesting characters during the Arc of the Story narrative writing unit.

In Writing Workshop, students are taking the small moment ideas we gathered in August and building larger story plots or Story Mountains with our unit called Arc of the Story. This arc begins with a small problem and shifts to larger and larger problems, which must be overcome by a main character.  

For science, students are using the scientific method and a variety of experiments to explore magnetism. We are shifting into electricity next week as we explore circuit boards. Students will continue to explore both concepts and develop theories and understandings of how the two are connected

In math, students have been exploring Geometry. We have reviewed geometry basics such a identifying polygons, classifying triangles, angles, lines, and rays. Students will continue to measure angles, shapes sides, determine lines of symmetry, and classify shapes throughout September.

A note on homework: Please check your child’s Green Homework Folder.

Students are always welcome to bring home at school work to practice and review at home, as long as they return their work the next day.

Read: We are asking students to log their reading at school and at home and write short notes about their thinking while reading.

Writing: Once a week, students are asked to write to me or Ms. Morris with a reading response letter.

Occasionally, students will be asked to continue to work on drafts and idea brainstorming for writing workshop.
Science: Scientific Method Experiment homework is due mid-month. When your student is finished with their experiment, please send it into the classroom. Students will start sharing their experiments in class this week. Be creative with your questions and tests. The focus is on following the Scientific Method.

Math: all students should continue to work on either multiplication or division skills.

IXL and Khan accounts should focus on Geometry and basic computation skills.

Students may borrow games to use at home: Polygon Capture and Angle Tangle.

Thanks for reading, 

Ms. Chris