Grade 4 Weekly Newsletter
May 6th - May 10th
MAP Testing
Monday May 7th Math MAP
In order to help your child feel prepared and confident about the MAP Assessments, do not place too much emphasis on the tests, which may may make a student feel anxious or stressed. Instead, maintain a typical schedule and atmosphere at home during the testing time, and make sure your child gets a sound sleep and healthy breakfast each day. Like all school activities and academics, students should be encouraged to do their best!
Curriculum
Reading:
Students will be reading expository nonfiction. In this unit readers should use their knowledge of the structure of the text from prior years to evaluate and analyze the text and glean the big ideas and supportive details from the text.
It is important for readers to distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text and to compare and contrast first and secondhand accounts of the same event. These comparisons help the reader understand the different perspectives that are possible around a topic or event.
When reading a cluster of related texts, a nonfiction reader pulls together information from related parts of many texts in order to move within and across any type of nonfiction text.
The lessons for this week are:
Lesson 1: Questions: Why Does it Matter?
Lesson 2: Digging Deeper to Answer Our Questions
Lesson 3: What Patterns Do I See?
Lesson 4: Student Led Conferences Preparations
Lesson 5: Student Led Conferences Preparations
Essential Question
- When reading nonfiction, how do I hold onto important and interesting information?
Writing:
Students continue to work on their independent writing projects. They are revising a narrative, informational, or persuasive text. This week students will focus on revising for craft, structure, and punctuation. Students will be encouraged to rewrite certain paragraphs to help them revise more effectively.
The lessons for this week are:
Lesson 1: Revise for Craft
Lesson 2: Revise for Structure
Lesson 3: Revise for Punctuation (with a focus on commas)
Lesson 4: Student Led Conferences Preparations
Lesson 5: Student Led Conferences Preparations
Essential Question
- Using what I know about the genre of my choice, how can I write with passion and craft so that my reader becomes absorbed in my writing?
This week we will be completing Module 6 - Decimal Fractions.
This module gives Grade 4 students their first opportunity to work with and explore decimal numbers and their relationship to our previous module on decimal fractions. They will express a given quantity in both fraction and decimal forms. During this module students will build a solid foundation for working with decimal numbers in Grade 5.
End of Module Assessment - Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th of May
Trial Assessment Reflection Feedback: Please give your student’s teacher any feedback you have on the “I can” Student Reflection students will bring home to help them reflect on their end-module assessment. Do you feel it helps your child identify strengths and areas of growth? How could we improve it?
Essential Questions:
- How can place value be used to create equivalent fractions?
- How can place value be used to add fractions?
- Why do we express quantities, measurements, and number relationships in different ways?
- How can place value be used to compare and order decimals?
The lessons for this week are:
Lesson 1: Express money amounts given in various forms as decimal numbers.
Lesson 2: MAP Testing
Lesson 3: Remediation and Enrichment
Lesson 4 & 5: End of Module Assessment
Parent Tip Sheets: Overall Module Tip Sheet, Topic A, Topic B, Topic C, Topic D.
Here is the LINK to the Growth Mindset video (Jo Boaler). We suggest you watch it with your child and discuss what might create a positive math classroom at school. How can you build a positive math relationship with your child? What type of dialogue will you use? You might like the following sentence starters to help you!
Science: The Circle of Life
In this unit we will take a look at heredity and the traits that we have inherited. We will be using scientific methods to observe, collect, record, and analyze data. We will also discuss and compare the life cycle of plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and animals - from birth to adult. Students will explain that every organism requires a set of instructions that specify their traits.
Essential Questions:
o Why do we look the way we do?
o Do all living things have the same life cycle? Why?
Week 5 Focus: Researching traits
Lesson 8 Focus:
Read Aloud: Read from one of our books on Genetics.
Student Research Students are researching a topic that they want to find out more about. The topic should be related to traits. Students may do surveys or research. Students will get their research ready to present to their class.
Lesson 9 Focus:
Read Aloud: Read from one of our books on Genetics.
Student Research Students continue researching a topic that they want to find out more about. The topic should be related to traits. Students may do surveys or research.10
Lesson 10 Focus:
Read Aloud: Read from one of our books on Genetics.
Student Research Students continue researching a topic that they want to find out more about. The topic should be related to traits. Students may do surveys or research. Students will get their research ready to present to their class.
Upcoming Events
Used Book Sale, May 8 to 10
We are getting ready for our annual used book sale, this year from May 8 to 10. We welcome donations of used books for all ages in saleable condition. This is a good time for departing families to dispose of books before packing. We will soon have a donation box at the front gate.
Important Information
ES Dismissal
Important message to ES parents
We had two students who left campus without parental permission with a nanny. We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again and ask for your cooperation in following our handbook guidelines for all Elementary students PreK to Grade 5. Our handbook states, that any change in the usual pattern of dismissal for your child at the end of the school day should be verified by a note or email from the parent or guardian to the classroom teacher. We have added that we need to receive this information before 12 p.m. which will give us the time to make sure all necessary personnel is informed before 2:30 p.m. each day. We appreciate CAC’s security as they have increased vigilance in making sure our students go home safely and with the person/s permitted. Ms. Samah will continue to be at the dismissal gate from 3:00 and Ms. Nadia from 4:00 for our after school activity dismissal time.
How to give permission?
Write to the classroom teacher informing the dismissal plan change.
Name the person you are giving permission to and the date/s.
In the case of a change in driver or nanny, full names and photos are needed.
What will happen if no permission has been given?
If we do not have a written record of a change in dismissal, security will not let the student leave campus. The student will be sent to the office. To avoid disappointment, please make sure to arrange the change in dismissal plans ahead of time.
Our student's safety is a school/home priority and we thank you for your understanding, support and welcome your feedback.
End of year dates for students from the library
May 8-10 Used book sale
May 15 Last day for check out
May 22 Last day for classes; All books are due
May 29 Summer check out starts
Guidance Update: Managing Strong Emotions
In the current guidance unit, Managing Strong Emotions, students are taught proactive strategies to help prevent strong feelings from turning into negative behaviors. Students will learn to:
Recognize how strong feelings affect their brains and bodies by:
Focusing attention on their bodies for clues about how their feeling
Understanding that when they feel strong feelings, the feeling part of their brain, the amygdala, reacts, making it hard to think clearly.
Recognizing that thinking about their feelings helps the thinking part of their brain, the cortex, get back in control.
2. Manage strong feelings by using the following Calming-Down Steps:
1. Stop – use your signal
2. Name your feeling
3. Calm down (breathe, count, use positive self-talk or stress balls, etc.)
Home-School Connection:
Ask your child about his or her personal stop signal and how he or she plans to use it in order to STOP negative thoughts and calm down emotions in the amygdala.
Watch the following calm down song your child learned in class:
Calm It Down Song
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