4 th Grade Curriculum Night Huntersville Elementary September 26, 2013

WELCOME Expectations – Planner signed every night – Homework Math and 30 minutes of Reading Spelling due Friday – Tardies/Early Outs No Hat Day for that month More than 10 forfeits Buddy Celebration Accelerated Reader (AR) – Quarterly goals based on student reading level

Huntersville Grade 3-5 Grading Policy: As directed on the policy: 40% of grades will consist of daily assignment grades which include: quizzes class work Homework note book checks 60% of grades will consist of formal assessments which include: common assessments projects, large writing assignments If a student is present on the due date, they may turn in the assignments late and will have ten points taken off for each day it is late up to a maximum of 3 days. After the three days, a score of zero will be entered into the grade book. Students who are absent (excused/unexcused) on the due date will be able to turn in assignments based on the number of days they were absent. For example, if they are absent for 3 day, they have 3 days to turn in all assignments. Teachers will communicate via planner/ when makeup work is given to the student and the corresponding due date for the assignment.

Grading Policy Continued Non Mastery of Material: Students who do not receive a passing score of 70% on a test will have additional instruction and be allowed to retest to improve the grade after review. The retest will take place no more than 1 week after initial assessment. The new score will be averaged with the score on the initial assessment to create the new entered grade.

Today, companies don’t want people who can just calculate, because they are less efficient and more error-prone than computers. They are looking for people who can think, people that can be flexible, and most importantly, people that communicate effectively. This is the heart of not only Math Investigations, but our PI work and the Common Core as a whole.

Math Investigations – Number sense – Multiplication and division – Fractions – Area and perimeter – Algebraic thinking Excel Math Hands on Inquiry based learning 3 E’s of Inquiry: Explore Explain Expand

List all the ways you can arrange 18 chairs…

Science Inquiry method Learn to make and keep detailed observations in their science journals. All tests or quizzes will be open note/open book. There will be a graded piece every other week and Science Notebooks will be graded

Science Subjects we will cover: – Earth History(fossils, earth changes) – Forces and Motion(magnetism’s effect on electricity, lightning, phases of the moon) – Matter, Properties and Change(physical properties of matter, rocks and minerals, rock cycle) – Ecosystems( animal adaptations) – Nutrition(identify types of food, explain why organisms need energy to live)

Social Studies Focus: North Carolina – History – Geography and Environmental Literacy – Culture – Civics and Government – Economic and Financial Literacy – North Carolina Scrapbook

Personal Inquiry Research based method that encourages students to understand the world in which they live, learn and communicate. Facts change – Students need to be able to locate information and make sense of their data. Through group work and inquiry based learning, students are able to recall information long-term rather than simply for the test. One culminating product as large part of quarterly grade

Language Arts Helps ensure that students are receiving a high quality education consistently, from school to school and state to state. Students are expected to reference text. Compare and Contrast varied text such as, editorials, primary resources, Internet, Video Open-ended Higher Level Questions-The WHY not just facts!!!

Writing Incorporating the new 21st Century Standards – Personal Narrative – Imaginative Narrative – Argumentative (Persuasive) – Expository Writing across the content areas. Writing samples kept in portfolios (not sent home)

Language Arts Assessments – Weekly Skills/Biweekly – Biweekly Cold Read Novel Studies Powerful Vocabulary Spelling – Unit Lists – Menu activities due Friday Will be averaged into one homework grade at end of quarter – Test grades averaged into one test grade at end of quarter

Upcoming Events September 30 th :Hat Day October 3 rd : Science Fair Parent Meeting at 6:00pm in cafeteria October 11 th : Science Fair Slip Signed (in planner) October 23-29: Book Fair October 25th: Science Fair topic due to teacher Fall Festival October 29th: End of first Quarter November 1st: End of Quarter Conference (atinker.cmswiki.wikispaces.net) (mrsgoonan.cmswiki.wikispaces.net)mrsgoonan.cmswiki.wikispaces.net