Reading and Language Arts Focus Social Studies and Religion February 2018 4th Grade News From Your Teachers Thank you to all of the students and teachers that donated items to our CSW Service Project. Our donations provided over 150 bags of necessities for those in need! ~ On February 14 those who choose to participate will be able to exchange Valentine’s Day card with their classmates.~ A HUGE THANK YOU to all of the parents who continue to help our classroom by providing treats and other classroom goodies! We appreciate all you have done for us! Reading and Language Arts Focus This month we work on the following skills: Author’s Purpose, Compare and Contrast, Elements of Literature and Main Ideas and Details. We continue to explore these skills through Informational texts. Our End Of Year tests reveal the growth the skills we are learning and how to apply them to both literary and informational texts. We complete Holes and begin working on our final projects Our 4th grade students show amazing growth, and averaged 70% on the End of Year tests! I am one PROUD teacher! Mrs. Stephanie Kunka & Mrs. Melissa Richards Important Dates 2/9 Sock Hop, North campus 2/14 Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day 2/15 Noon Dismissal 2:00-7:00 PM, Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences 2/16 Archdiocesan Teacher In-Service, NO SCHOOL 2/19 Teacher In-Service, NO SCHOOL Math and Science Focus Social Studies and Religion We explore the early days of Wisconsin including our first people to live in our state, as well as talking about the different landforms, animals and plants. In our Religion lessons the focus is on The Ten Commandments and how they guide us in our everyday lives. Learning Targets: Language Arts: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Reading: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text. Social Studies: Identify and describe important events and famous people in Wisconsin and United States history Math: Write and identify equivalent fractions in simplest form; compare and order fractions. Science:​construct an explanation that sound is a vibration. Students then ​develop a model​ to explain how sound travels through a medium and how it can cause distant objects to move. In Math we are well into our fractions unit. We are currently focusing on strategies we can use to compare fractions and write equivalent fractions. In our next chapter (Chapter 7) we will be diving into adding and subtracting fractions. The Middle-of-Year tests showed the incredible growth happening in the 4th grade – our average was 68%. The students should be SO proud of themselves. They’ve mastered some tough skills in the first half of the school year! In Science we have been working on a S.T.E.M. project to strengthen engineering skills. We will then continue with our “Sound” unit and exploring the role that air plays in enabling a sound vibration to travel.