Welcome to Fantastic Fourth Grade 2017-2018 Helpful Information for You and Your Fourth Grader

Let Us Introduce Ourselves ELA Instructional Team: Mrs. Milam - Writing & Social Studies Mrs. Powers - Writing & Social Studies Mrs. Potts - Reading & Science Mrs. Carnley - Reading & Science Math Instructional Team Mrs. Berry Mrs. Smith

INDEPENDENT READING MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Reading Workshop Mini-Lesson Independent Reading Teacher Read- Aloud Reading Units of Study in 4th grade: Launching Reader’s Workshop Genre Character, Plot and Main Idea Questioning and Inferencing Summarizing and Generalizing Making Connections Between Texts Research Critical Thinking Strategies Non-fiction/Expository Reading Strategies

Supporting your child at home… Students are to read a minimum of 20 minutes daily. Parents may read with your child, and we encourage you to talk to your child about what they have read.

Writing: Compositions Compositions: We Focus on Personal Narrative and Expository Writing in 4th Grade. They are tested on Expository Writing. Students need to: Plan a first draft that conveys the intended meaning by generating ideas through a variety of strategies (brainstorming, graphic organizers, etc). Develop a draft by categorizing ideas and organizing them into detailed paragraphs. Revise drafts for coherence, organization, use of simple/compound sentences and to clarify meaning by adding, deleting or rearranging ideas to maintain focus. Edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling Publish final draft in response to feedback from peers, teachers, and after analysis/evaluation of rubric.

Writing: Revise/Edit Students need to be able to apply revising/editing strategies to evaluate the writing of others. They should: Use and understand the function of the following parts of speech: verbs (helping, present tense, past tense, future tense), nouns (singular/plural, common/proper), adjectives, adverbs, correlative conjunctions, transition words phrases. Use complete simple and compound sentences with correct subject/verb agreement. Spell commonly used homophones (e.g., their, there, they’re; to, two, too). Use prepositions and prepositional phrases to convey location, time, direction, or to provide details. Establish clear central ideas or introductions and concluding statements. Differentiate among fragments, run-on sentences, complete sentences and sentences that need to be combined.

Resources for Home Support Writing: chompchomp.com readwritethink.org writingfix.com Reading: readworks.com studyzone.org  

Math In math, we will be working with group instruction and small group instruction. Some of the topics that we will be teaching are: Data - Place Value to the billions 2 x 2 Multiplication - Long Division Decimals to the hundredths place Fractions - Converting Measurement Measuring Angles - Geometry It is extremely important that your child knows his/her facts. They need to know addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. This will help in every area of math.

Science Units of Study Safety Properties of Soil Scientific Process Natural Resources Properties of Matter Life Cycle Mixtures & Solutions Inherited Traits/Learned Behavior Forms of Energy Adaptations Force & Motion Food Chains/Food Webs Shadows, Seasons, Moon, Tides, Water Cycle Promotional Ads/Research Scientists Weather Weathering/Erosion/Depo-sition

Social Studies-Texas History In 4th grade Social Studies is all about Texas history. Topics we cover are: Citizenship Texas Government Celebrate Freedom Week Map Skills, Geography and Regions of Texas Early Texans and Other Civilizations European Explorers and Missions Texas Colonization The Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas Civil War and Reconstruction Texas Cattle Kingdom

Communication/Agenda Every day your child will bring home his or her agenda. Please check it for communication from us. Students will receive a note in the planner for behavior concerns. Please sign if there is a note from a teacher. We will be sending home a weekly Tuesday folder. In the folder you will find graded papers and any notes from the school or district. Please make sure the folder is signed and returned to school the next day. We will also send a monthly email newsletter with our goals, important dates, items to bring, etc