Fourth Grade News: 

       Updated on 5/22/2008 for the week of May 27,  2008

Elementary Parent Handbook: Please review at your convenience.

Elementary Curriculum : Click here for a curriculum guide to fourth grade.

Writing:  We will begin to write Memoirs this week. Our focus will be on reflecting on different events in our lives that evoke strong memories.  This unit will last approximately 5-6 weeks. This past week we focused on adding feelings to our Memoirs. Students should have a collection of memoirs that they have written in class. This week we will look at how authors have ended their memoirs and we will rewrite endings to the memoirs we have completed in our writer's notebooks. The timelines have been very helpful  in providing the children with special memories to write about. Thanks for your help in completing them.

Math:   We will be reviewing topics in math from the year year this week. Please continue to practice multiplication facts for speed and accuracy!

Events:  The children had a wonderful time on the field trip to Fort William Henry. Thank you to Mr. Gardner, Mr. Potter, Mrs. Kuhl (Grandma :), Mr. Munger, and Mr. Finck. for taking the time to help out.

Our next field trip is June 3 to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown. http://www.farmersmuseum.org/

Our chaperones for that trip are: Mrs. Greenberg, Mr. Lavin, Mrs. Lavin, Mr. Gardner, Mrs. Munger, Mr. Munger, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Iavarone.  More information will be coming home soon. Thanks! if you are interested in joining us for this trip, please let me know!! There is no limit on the number of chaperones. Last year the cost was ~$10 for adults. Carpooling is recommended as there will be no space on the buses. We need to take charter buses and need to fit all five classes onto two buses.

Field Day is June 11th. Please fill out the form if you can help out and return it to the coaches.

The concert is May 28th at 7PM.

Book It: Book it is now over for the year. 
Book Club Orders:  (Ordering is now available online!)

Orders are due: __________________ 

To order online, go to the Web address below and enter our class’s personalized user name and password.

Click on the link below and use the Class user name:  missnelson216 and Password: grade4arongen

 www.scholastic.com/parentordering
Spelling:  All words should be written in cursive 3x each for homework on Tuesday night. We are studying words that are spelled with al or le  this week (Theme 5, Week 2). The spelling test will be given on Friday.

          Spelling Lists

(click on link above to view spelling lists by theme)
Social Studies: We are studying Chapter 7 and have learned about the Erie Canal, the changing frontier of New York, and new ways to travel and communicate in New York State. This week we will complete the district DBQ on the Erie Canal. Students will complete this DBQ independently. Next week we will learn about the Industrial Revolution, Slavery and the Civil War. The test on Chapter 7 will be sometime during the week of June 9th.
Science: We will be learning about Simple Machines. It is our last unit this year!

Reading: This week we will read " A Very Important Day".  The selection test will be given on

Thursday. The tested vocabulary words for this week are enrich, apologized, obliged, certificate,

 examiner, petitioners, and resounded.

 Focus Skill: Author's Purpose

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We have started reading our next book for literature circles.

Thank you for your support at home helping the children read and complete their jobs for literature circles.

Please make sure your assigned reading and journal response is completed. The group meeting dates are as follows:

Meeting 1:               Meeting 4:

Meeting 2:               Meeting 5:

Meeting 3:                Meeting 6: 

 

  • Discussion director: asks questions about the assigned reading. (3-5 questions)

  • Literary luminary: note parts of the text they find surprising, scary, funny, interesting, confusing, personally meaningful

  • Connector: note when something reminds them of something in their own life, other stories, happenings at school, etc.

  • Word Wizard: find words that are unfamiliar, interesting, funny and tell what they mean (at least 5)

  • Character captain: write down a character and a trait they are showing ( curious, funny, thoughtful, active, energetic, cheerful, athletic) and explain why they chose that part.

  • Summarizer: writes a short summary of the assigned reading.

  • Awesome artist: draws a picture of a part they find particularly interesting, funny, exciting, etc. and writes a

     couple sentences telling about the part and why they chose it.

  • Students selected different books and have the pages to be read listed in their white response folders.

  • Please note: Sticky notes should be short. Student should read and use the post it notes to make a note of

  • a word to share, a part they found interesting, a connection they made, or a question they want to ask their group. A minimum of five post it notes should be used. They will be used to guide the group discussion.

  • A response to each section read should be completed for each group meeting. Response should be supported with details from their reading. These responses should be written in their white folders.

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Language Arts: This week will learn about Action and Linking Verbs.

There are Grammar review games available on the Harcourt Brace web site. These are helpful to review skills taught in class. They are organized by reading unit.

 

Click this link for more reading resources from Harcourt.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

This page is maintained in accordance with Shenendehowa's web publishing guidelines by C. Nelson.  

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