1. Welcome to 4R Sinead Ryan sryan@uasdubai.ae

2. Welcome to Grade 4 at UAS!  Building Partnerships  Strong parent-teacher communication is essential and I look forward to building a positive partnership with both you and your child!

3. About Me….  Limerick, Republic of Ireland  11 th year of teaching.  Egypt (1 year before I qualified) England (4 years), Dubai (7 years).  I’ve lived in Ireland, England, Egypt, Jordan, France and now Dubai.

6. Communication  The class blog will be used as main place to obtain information about what’s happening at school. http://sites.uasdubai.ae/ http://sites.uasdubai.ae/  The blog will be updated once a week so that you can see what we’ve been doing. You can also subsribe to the page so that you can get notification when I’ve updated it.  You can also send me an email or come into the school to see me once you have made an appointment via email or phone call to the school.

7. Attendance and Punctuality  Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time and prepared for learning. Students go inside at 7.45am. We do mental mathematics reflexes at this time and it is really important that your child does not miss this.  If students arrive before this time, they should stay outside on the playground until the whistle blows. They then line up and come upstairs with the rest of their class.

8. Homework and Assignments  As in Grade 3 – the children will have a ‘homelearning quilt’ where they can choose different activities to do each evening.  They should do at least one activity from each column and then they may choose 3 additional activities from any column.  They keep the same learning quilt for one week. They should return it to school the following Sunday in their homelearning folder.  Links to the study links for math will be put on the class blog page.

9. PYP Higher level thinking skills are developed as students learn how to begin to ask questions that lead to their own inquiry.  Promotes life-long learning  Focuses on the whole child  Teaches students how to formulate questions independently  Involves problem solving in a variety of contexts.

10. PYP Units of Inquiry  How we Express Ourselves  How the World Works  Who We Are  Where We Are in Time and Place  Sharing the Planet  How We Organize Ourselves.

11. Math  We will be studying a variety of units  We began with Geometry – we are currently on Unit 1.  While we are studying a specific unit, we review and preview other units. This gives your child a much bigger chance of retaining his/her learning.  In Everyday math there are lots of games that the children play to practice skills. This ensures that their interest is kept.

12. Every Day Math  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR =1&v=H8XUrh7TWGs http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR =1&v=H8XUrh7TWGs  Children will also take part in inquiry based activities into the nature of mathematics.  They will do projects as part of some of the units.  We aim to make links between our Unit of Inquiry and our Math program where we can.  We aim to spend at least 70 minutes per day on Math.

13. Great Maths Websites  www.coolmath4kids.com – awesome website with games, lessons and activities covering many areas of maths. www.coolmath4kids.com  www.aaamath.com – sorted by grade level; covers many areas of the math curriculum. Lots of good, interactive activities. www.aaamath.com  www.math-drills.com – a good range of drills for basic facts practice

14. Unit Pre-test to inform teaching.

15. Post Assessment Progress Towards Mastery of Mathematical Standards This will be sent home at the end of each unit for each child along with resources for standards not yet mastered

16. Teaching the Grade Level Standards Student Friendly “I CAN” Learning Targets Parent Friendly Examples of Learning Targets Shared with parents at the beginning of each unit of study

17. www.ixl.com All of the children received a login for this website last year. This will be a part of their homelearning quilt every week. They can practice Math and Language/Arts skills on this site. If your child does not have a login for this site please let me know.

18. PYP UNIT OF INQUIRY & DATE (Science & Social Studies Integrated) LANGUAGE General Topics (Integrated where possible) MATHEMATICS General Topics (Integrated where possible) How We Express Ourselves (Language) Recount writing, poetry, short stories - Language Features - Characters, Setting, Plot, etc -Novel studies, Poems and Short Stories (reading) -PM Benchmark (reading) - Spelling & Grammar taught all year -Reading strategies are taught all year Unit 1 Naming and constructing Geometric Figures. Unit 2 Using Numbers and Organizing Data. Sharing the Planet (Science) -Non- Fiction (reading) -Non-Fiction (report writing) -Lab reports/scientific method (writing) Unit 3 Multiplication and Division Number sentences and Algebra. Unit 4 Decimals and their uses. Who We are (Social Studies) Historical Fiction -Fiction (reading) -Novel Studies (reading) Unit 5 Big Numbers Estimation and Computation. Unit 6 Division, Map Reference Frames, Measures of Angles. How the World Works (Science) -Procedural/ Expository (writing) -Lab reports/scientific method (writing) - Non- Fiction (reading) -PM Benchmark (reading) Unit 7 Fractions and their uses, Chance and Probability. Unit 8 Perimeter and Area Where we are in Time and Place (Social Studies) Fiction (reading) -Myths and Legends (writing) Unit 9 Fractions, Decimals and Percents Unit 10 Reflections and Symmetry. How We Organise Ourselves (Social Studies) Persuasive Writing. Unit 11 3-D Shapes, Weight, Volume and Capacity. Unit 12 Rates. Programme of study.

19. Language Arts  Your child will receive a weekly, differentiated spelling list.  We will do activities based on these words each day for about 10 to 15 minutes.  These words will be generated from our Unit Of Inquiry, our Math program and our Language/Arts program.

20. Developing literacy is the school wide goal for 2015-2016 Clear expectations for growth in language, reading, and writing

21. Students spend 1 1/2 hours a day on literacy Independent Reading Word Study (spelling, grammar, vocabulary) Reading Workshop Balanced Literacy: The H ow of our Instruction

22. Common Core Standards set the expectations for what we want students to know, do, and understand We use grade-level benchmarks to plan instruction and assess students

23. Reading:  Each student has been issued with a Reading Log.  It is the expectation that each student reads for approximately 25 minutes each night.  Please ensure that the Reading Log is filled in.

24. Reading Resources  -PM Benchmark Leveled Readers  -Rigby Literacy Leveled Readers  -A-Z Leveled Readers  -Classroom Library  -School Library  -Science/Social Studies text books  -Internet  Raz-kids.com

25. What are the PM Benchmarks?  The PM series was developed to ensure that children would have positive experiences and enjoy reading from the first moment they are exposed to books  Over 700 different titles covering fantasy, history, fiction, folktales, verse, song, and informational text  Sentence structure, choice of words, and introduction of high frequency words have been carefully chosen  Children have been recently reassessed to ascertain their current reading level – they will receive instruction at this level within their reading group.

26. Science in the PYP  - In the PYP, science is viewed as the exploration of the biological, chemical and physical aspects of the natural world, and the relationships between them.  -Science within the PYP leads learners to an appreciation and awareness of the world as it is viewed from a scientific perspective. It encourages curiosity and ingenuity and enables the student to develop an understanding of the world. The science focus is also used for the basis of the literacy lessons.  - In Grade 4, our science units are:  How We Organize Ourselves  Sharing the Planet  How the World Works

27. Classroom Management  Table Points  Marbles towards golden time.  Student of the Week.  Assemblies.  Positive encouragement and praise.  Praise and Encouragement.

28. Nutrition and Health  Please avoid sending your child to school with foods that contain peanuts.  Please ensure that your child eats a healthy snack and lunch each day.  Aim for a litterless lunch!

29. What can you do at home?  Assist with organization (Agendas, Reading logs, homework)  Listen to your child read.  Assist them with their Math  Assist them with finding additional material for our PYP units.  Communicate with them! Communicate with me!

30.  Thank you very much!  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions  sryan@uasdubai.ae