What are we learning?
We ae
Math:
Our math program is work shop style, meaning that much of your child's math time will be spent working on his or her individual math goals. I recently completed our mid-year math screener. Students who have mastered their goals from the beginning of the year have moved on to new goals this month. If you have questions, you can, of course contact me.
Although much of your child's math instruction is at his/her level, we are still responsible for providing instruction of the 4th grade Common Core Standards. These standards are taught to all 4th graders across the country. We utilize Math Investigations as a resource for these standards. Each day, there is a whole group mini lesson (often from Investigations Math). After each mini lesson, there is some kind of practice. This may be a work sheet, game, or another in class activity. After your child completes the practice for the whole group mini lesson and activity, he/she will move on to working on his/her individual math goals by choosing an activity from their math menu. They may also be meeting with me one on one or in a small group during this time.
Reading: We are now reading to self at least 30 minutes per day. We have learned about identifying story elements like character, setting and plot, as well as how to find the theme of a story. We have practiced asking and answering thick and thin questions to help us understand what we read. We are now working on using text evidence and background knowledge to make inferences. The big goal we are working toward is being able to go back into the text and highlight the evidence that we used to help make inferences. Soon, we will be moving into practicing reading skills with nonfiction text.
Writing:
We finished up our narrative unit this fall and have been learning how to write opinion essays. Students have used boxes and bullets to create outline plans for their essays, focusing on supporting their opinions with reasons and their reasons with examples and details. We worked together to write opinion essays: "I love ice cream" and "I love/hate snow." Students are now writing opinion essays about the topic of their choice.
Social Studies: We have been working hard on our DASH Across America Project- Based Learning experience. Students studied immigration to the United States. They learned about push and pull factors the led to the major immigration movement into the U.S. between the late 1800's and modern day. Students created an immigrant character and have been working to identify push factors that caused their character to leave their home country, and pull factors that brought them to the United States. Students then used these pull factors to choose a "destination" within the United States for their immigrant character to settle. After creating their character, students planned the journey to the United States. They had to decide how their character came to the U.S. based on the country/continent of origin. Then, once in the United States, students had to plan how their character would get to their place of settlement, plot their journey on a map of the U.S. considering the challenges of transportation during their chosen time period, as well as challenges posed by the physical features of the United States. Students are now programming their DASH robots to make the journey that their immigrant character made on their large floor maps. They are really enjoying and learning a lot from this experience.
Science: We studied physical characteristics and behavioral characteristics of animals, as well as how animals survive in in their habitats this fall. We are now learning about the earth. We have explored weathering and erosion. We are now learning about plate tectonics and how the movement of the plates that make up the earth's crust effect us. We have explored seismic activity and plotted current earthquakes on a map.
Math:
Our math program is work shop style, meaning that much of your child's math time will be spent working on his or her individual math goals. I recently completed our mid-year math screener. Students who have mastered their goals from the beginning of the year have moved on to new goals this month. If you have questions, you can, of course contact me.
Although much of your child's math instruction is at his/her level, we are still responsible for providing instruction of the 4th grade Common Core Standards. These standards are taught to all 4th graders across the country. We utilize Math Investigations as a resource for these standards. Each day, there is a whole group mini lesson (often from Investigations Math). After each mini lesson, there is some kind of practice. This may be a work sheet, game, or another in class activity. After your child completes the practice for the whole group mini lesson and activity, he/she will move on to working on his/her individual math goals by choosing an activity from their math menu. They may also be meeting with me one on one or in a small group during this time.
Reading: We are now reading to self at least 30 minutes per day. We have learned about identifying story elements like character, setting and plot, as well as how to find the theme of a story. We have practiced asking and answering thick and thin questions to help us understand what we read. We are now working on using text evidence and background knowledge to make inferences. The big goal we are working toward is being able to go back into the text and highlight the evidence that we used to help make inferences. Soon, we will be moving into practicing reading skills with nonfiction text.
Writing:
We finished up our narrative unit this fall and have been learning how to write opinion essays. Students have used boxes and bullets to create outline plans for their essays, focusing on supporting their opinions with reasons and their reasons with examples and details. We worked together to write opinion essays: "I love ice cream" and "I love/hate snow." Students are now writing opinion essays about the topic of their choice.
Social Studies: We have been working hard on our DASH Across America Project- Based Learning experience. Students studied immigration to the United States. They learned about push and pull factors the led to the major immigration movement into the U.S. between the late 1800's and modern day. Students created an immigrant character and have been working to identify push factors that caused their character to leave their home country, and pull factors that brought them to the United States. Students then used these pull factors to choose a "destination" within the United States for their immigrant character to settle. After creating their character, students planned the journey to the United States. They had to decide how their character came to the U.S. based on the country/continent of origin. Then, once in the United States, students had to plan how their character would get to their place of settlement, plot their journey on a map of the U.S. considering the challenges of transportation during their chosen time period, as well as challenges posed by the physical features of the United States. Students are now programming their DASH robots to make the journey that their immigrant character made on their large floor maps. They are really enjoying and learning a lot from this experience.
Science: We studied physical characteristics and behavioral characteristics of animals, as well as how animals survive in in their habitats this fall. We are now learning about the earth. We have explored weathering and erosion. We are now learning about plate tectonics and how the movement of the plates that make up the earth's crust effect us. We have explored seismic activity and plotted current earthquakes on a map.