Dear 4A Families,
Happy Labor Day! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.What an excellent first week of school with my wonderful new 4th grade students. It is clear to see that this will be an amazing year—with such a bright, kind, creative and fun group of students. Remember, if you have questions, suggestions, concerns, please contact me! We are partners in your child’s learning.
Magazine Drive
Our annual Magazine Drive will kick-off at the end of the week. Exciting changes are on deck for this year, so stay tuned to next week’s eFC and emails for additional details. HRS just happens to be the TOP SELLING school in the nation and we want to continue our reign. We raised over $125,000 last year!!! Thank you in advance for your support of this important fundraiser!
Spelling: Each week, we will introduce a new set of spelling words. Students will generally receive the new list of words on Fridays. The first spelling words are number words. This list will support our upcoming math lessons and objectives. On Fridays, all students will take a written spelling test. The first is this Friday the 10th. The date was wrong on the original sheet the students received.
Reading: Last week the 4th grade teachers began administering a beginning of the year oral reading assessment to the students. This week, we will begin our regular reading routine starting with a wonderful tall tale in our anthology called “Stormalong”. We will focus on understanding characters and the figurative language concepts of hyperbole, simile and metaphor. Just a reminder, students are expected to always have a chapter book they are reading at home and in class. Students will have library time this year to be able to check out books. In addition, each classroom library is open for borrowing.
Language Arts: Along with spelling the students will be completing a beginning of the year writing sample. They will also start to review cursive forms and review editing and grammar skills. All students have received a “Quick Word Handbook” that contains high frequency words to use when writing. This will be stored in the spelling section of the filer. Students are encouraged to use this resource at home as a homework helper. Books should be kept in filers so students can use them at home and at school.
Math: Last week, students took baseline math assessments. We use this information to build the math curriculum based on the needs of each student. We will be doing daily review of skills as well as following along with the MyMath Curriculum. This week, students will dive into their My Math workbook, starting with Chapter One: Place Value. Get ready to read, write, and say numbers into the millions!
Expect to see daily homework that will practice the new skills!
Science: We will continue science this week! Students will become scientists and engineers as we start our first Project Lead the Way unit all about the human brain. Last week, we talked about the important habit of perseverance when it comes to science and all other subjects.
Social Studies: We will begin our year with a review the continents and oceans. All students will be expected to memorize a “Continent Poem” and be able to name and label the seven continents and five oceans. All students were given study sheets for the poem and map test. The test will take place on Friday, September 17th. Continent poems need to be recited no later than September 20th. Along with the continents and oceans, the students will be learning about latitude and longitude and how to locate places on maps with coordinates.
Religion: Our religion lessons this week will focus on our Steps to Respect lessons and social skills. We begin our lessons with the concept of empathy. When our class norms clearly support SAFE, RESPECTFUL & RESPONSIBLE behavior, unkind/bullying behaviors are less likely to happen. These lessons will help reinforce norms by connecting words and actions to class rules and expectations for social and learning behavior.
Thank you all for your patience, support and encouragement.
Have a great week!