Welcome to the wonderful world of 4th grade! I'm so pleased
that you are visiting my classroom website. You will find
a variety of information throughout this site that will
help you become familiar with my classroom and what you
can expect duirng the your student's 4th grade year.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for
the site I would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact
me using the e-mail link at the end of this site.
Writing Spirals and Looseleaf Notebooks
This year we will be doing much of our writing, editing,
and revising in draft writing notebooks. This is a way
for me to keep all of your child's writing in one place,
so that you, your child, and I can all see progress made.
Looseleaf notebooks are provided and we have sections
for Math, Social Studies, and Science notes. Whole sections
sent home at the end of a unit after they are used to
study for a test. Again, we teach organization as part
of our curriculum in fourth grade!
Return to top of page.
Supplies
I am providing your child with a red and a blue ball-point
pen for correcting papers and a reasonable amount of pencils.
You may wish to purchase a packet of pencils to be kept
in the locker and sharpened as needed. A small soft-sided
pencil box or a zip lock baggie is helpful to keep small
items organized in the desk. The four textbooks (Anthology,
Math, Social Studues, Science) must be covered at all
times (please do not use the stick on clear covers,
they don't come off well at the end of the year). The
following are helpful but not required: highlighter, ultra-fine
lined black permanent marker for outlining shapes, set
of colored pencils, and a set of water-based magic markers.
I recommend that your child have the following supplies
available at home: lined paper, typing or drawing paper,
#2 pencils, pens, colored pencils, erasers, rulers (inch
and cm.), crayons, magic markers, scissors, scotch tape,
and glue. It is a good idea to keep these in a desk, drawer,
or cardboard box so your child does not get frustrated
hunting for them to complete an assignment.
Computers
Computers are an exciting part of our curriculum. Your
child visits the lab at least once a week and there are
iMacs for each child to use. We will continue to explore
word processing, keyboarding, spreadsheets, and data bases.
In our room we have iMacs, all are connected to the server
and the Internet. Your child will not be allowed to use
the Internet until I receive the permission slip (see
inside cover of student handbook). We also hope to explore
digital editing of tapes and to develop a HyperStudio
program for a presentation.
Parent Helpers
I like to use parents in my room in several ways.
First, if you are available to come into the room on an
"as needed basis", I'd be glad to use your help
(such as PE bag painting in September, pumpkin activities
in October, and the "crime scene" project in
January. Second, I also like to use parents as resources
to talk to the class when they can share knowledge pertinent
to the areas we are studying. If you have knowledge that
you might share with us, please let me know now or as
we begin a topic. These could be whole class sharing sessions,
or small group interviewing situations. Third, a room
parent to organize parties is always welcome. Fourth,
I sometimes send notes asking for volunteers to do work
at home such as sew or heat-set artwork. Please send me
a note concerning how you would be willing to help us
this year!!!
It's Cool, It's School!
Our reading book is divided into six sections. The first
theme, It's Cool, It's School!, contains excerpts from
realistic fiction books that have to do with school. The
Anthology contains chapter excerpts from a whole book
and the authors and illustrators are discussed. Many children
go on to find and read the whole book if they liked the
selection. Trade books that are related to this theme
include Freckle Juice and Yang, the Youngest
and His Terrible Ear. Some of the skills covered are
predicting outcomes, sequence of events, making inferences,
subjects and predicates, kinds of sentences, run-on sentences,
and writing a good sentence. Spelling word lists are related
to the weekly stories. We spent about six weeks on this
theme and complete the unit tests before moving to a new
theme.
Earth Patrol
The second theme in our reading series is Earth Patrol.
These selections focus on preserving and protecting the
environment. This theme includes three whole picture books
in the student anthologies. Students read The Great
Yellowstone Fire and The Great Kapok Tree.
The classes learn about and compare Yellowstone Park and
the Amazon Rain Forest. Chris Van Allsburg's Just A
Dream is a related book. The trade books that go along
with this theme are Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague
and Lynne Cherry's A River Ran Wild. The writing
assignment this time around is a persuasive essay. The
students hone their persuasion skills by focusing on an
issue and backing up their feelings with reasons, facts,
and experiences. Some of the language and reading skills
covered are fact and opinion, combining sentences, summarizing,
common and proper nouns, singular and plural nouns, and
possessive nouns.
Super Sleuths
In this theme the Anthology selections and the related
paperbacks are all mystery stories. Children study story
structure and learn about red herrings as they refine
predicting skills. They apply questioning and observing
skills, note important details, and draw conclusions as
they read. Writing concentrates on writing a description.
Revising will emphasize elaboration. Some related series
for this age level are Cam Jansen, The Boxcar Children,
Meg Macintosh, and Encyclopedia Brown. Crime solving books
and kits are also fun. Remember that extra mystery books
can be used for Book-It and RAH goals, so head on out
to the library for an armload of mysteries today, or how
about a couple of paperback mysteries for stocking stuffers!
American Snapshots
Our fourth Anthology Section includes stories about immigrants
from our grandparents' time and new children to the country
in the present time, pioneers on the Plains, and Seminole
Indians. There are selections about the Statue of Liberty,
Gold Rush times, and modern American children all around
the country. The theme is that the United States is a
vast nation that we treasure for its diversity and shared
heritage. To supplement this unit each child in class
completes a biography report about a famous American.
These activities introduce a new genre to many students
and whet the appetite for the upcoming Social Studies
Unit, From Sea to Shining Sea, a study of the regions
of the United States.
Could It Really Happen?
The theme of this unit is "wondrous occurrences
cause us to look at the world in new ways." Stories
include Jumanji (we compare to the movie), Elliot's
House (story about ecology and pollution), June
29, 1999 (fantasy involving outer space), and Charlotte's
Web. Even though most children have read this classic
or had it read to them, each child has a copy of the actual
book, and we read it together, concentrating on the characterization,
spider facts, and fact vs. fiction. We even view the movie
and compare, and most children find parts of the book
that they like much better than the movie. Skills in this
theme include following directions, fantasy vs. realism,
cause and effect, pronouns, possessive pronouns, prefixes,
and suffixes. Students learn the uses of almanacs, atlases,
encyclopedias, and thesauruses.
Meet the Challenge
In this theme people rise to life's challenges by
using courage and perseverance. Reading include The
Marble Champ, Thurgood Marshall and Equal Rights,
Sadako (tear jerker), and No One Is Going to
Nashville. Stone Fox is a related book (usually
read this when beginning Iditarod unit). Some of the skills
are sequence of events, author's view point, story structure,
making judgments, analogies, prefixes, root words, adverbs,
and punctuating dialogue.
Empowering Writers
The whole school is using this program to help improve
student writing. There are narrative, expository, and
persuasive units. In fourth grade we add to the narrative
work done at younger grades and begin working with expository
pieces. It is a very structured program that teaches bacis
parts to good writing such as beginnings, endings, and
anecdotes. Then a few times a year whole pieces are written
to put all those pieces together.
Vocabulary
Our new Language Arts Curriculum emphasizes the importance
of vocabulary in understanding reading. We are doing many
activities to build background and study related groups
of words to build understanding. We have a Dymamite Word
Wall where current words of emphasis and subject area
vocabulary are posted.
Language Arts Links:
http://www.50states.com
http://eduplace.com
http://www.roalddahl.com/index3.htm
Math
This year we have a new math curriculum and are using
ehe Everyday Mathematics Program. It is designed to capitalize
on student interest to mazimize student learning. There
are high expectations for all studens and concepts and
skills are developed over time in a wide variety of contexts.
Multiple methods and strategies are used for problem solving.Concrete
modeling leads to more abstract understandings. Many lessons
use collaborative learning with a partner or small groups.
There are many real life and cross-curricula applications.
There are six content strands in fourth grade. They
are numeration, operations and computations, data and
chance, geometry, measurement and reference frames, and
patterns, functions, and algebra.
We are excited about this new program. You will be
receiving periodic family letters and study links as new
units begin--all will be on aqua paper.
Math Links:
http://www.aaamath.com
http://www.funbrain.com
Science
In fourth grade our main questions of inquiry are:
What are the properties of electricity?
How do plants and animals develop and survive?
How do weather and nature impact the Earth?
How do we measure and record data and find patterns in
nature?
How has modern technology helped us gain knowledge about
living things in the ocean depths?
Oceans
Our study of oceans includes surface and tides, composition,
life in the various depths, exploration of the darkest
depths, the need to conserve and preserve the environment,
and what we get from the ocean to improve our lives. There
are several experiments that students sign up to prepare
and present to the class; this can be done individually
or in pairs. We research and complete group parts of a
wall mural on the back wall of the classroom: abyss, open
ocean, continental shelf, and kelp forest. The ocean is
one of the unexplored frontiers, and most children love
this unit.
S'Cool Project
Students begin the year learning some basics about
weather at the beginning of the year. We then begin observing
certain aspects of the weather at the time of day when
the weather satellite passes over our area. We then log
on to a special site at NASA and report our findings so
that these scientists can use this data (called ground
truth) in their research--a great way to record scientific
data with a purpose!
Science Links:
http://science.fsu.com
http://www.jasonproject.org
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/
http://www.iditarod.com/
http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/
Social Studies
See the U.S.A....the Fourth Grade Way
See this unit under projects. This is a major area of
study that lasts from March to June. It is interdisciplinary.
Time For Kids
Time For Kids is a news magazine for fourth, fifth, and
sixth graders. We use it in class weekly.
Nystrom's Maps and Globes
Nystrom's Maps and Globes is a program used in our grade
to study map and globe background information. There are
ten globes, fifteen large flat U.S.A. maps and fifteen
world maps. All maps and the globes are color coded by
elevation and are raised relief maps; we can write on
the surfaces with special washable markers. There is a
series of background cassette tapes and worksheets.
Social Studies Links
http://www.50states.com
http://usmint.gov/kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/
http://www.iditarod.com/
