First Week of 4th Grade
(8.12 - 8.14)
Hello 4th Grade Spartan Families! 😀
We know that distance learning requires a lot of adjustments, adapting to changes, and technical difficulties, so thank you for your patience this first week of school. This blog will serve as a place to get an overview of what your scholars are covering each week, as well as a peek into the material for the week to come. We’ll also have some general and grade level information updates in here, so be sure to check this every week. This blog should update every Friday by 5PM.
Thank you for helping your scholars join us for our morning meetings and small group times. We know that things come up and your scholars may miss a time occasionally, but we’d love to have them join us so we can check-in and help them review concepts. As a note on this, we ask that you would give a little space for your scholar and distance yourself during our morning check-in to respect the privacy of the other students. This time is meant for emotional learning and sharing, and we want to build a comfortable and safe space for students to be open. During our small group sessions, feel free to be close by in case your scholar needs help with materials or their technology.
As a reminder, please ensure that your scholars are uploading pictures of their work when their assignments ask for it. After work is uploaded or any relevant forms are submitted, you can mark the assignment as complete and turned in. Please do not turn in an assignment without its needed attachments.There is a video in the materials section of the Google Classroom that can help review that process. We are also fixing our future forms to allow them to be edited after submission so you will be able to verify that the form is finished. Once you have submitted you can mark the assignment as complete. Even if an assignment is marked as late, please ensure your scholars are still submitting their work and keeping up with the lessons. Our grading this first week has been more focused on completion as we all familiarize ourselves with the online format. One last note on assignments: while we encourage you to support and help your scholars as needed, please empower your scholars to take ownership of their own work. We want your scholars to succeed, but it is important for us to know if there are gaps in your scholars' understanding so we can re-visit and re-teach topics as needed.
As we adjust to the rhythm of teaching online and preparing materials for scholars, we are going to specify times in which we will be replying to emails. If you email your child’s classroom teacher throughout the day, we will be responding to those emails before our morning meeting, then from 3-4PM. Feel free to send your questions as they arise, but know that, unless there is an emergency, these are the times we will prioritize communicating with you. Thank you!
Read on to get an overview of what your scholars are learning in each subject.
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ELA:
Our 4th Grade scholars began their 2020-21 ELA by reading the first three chapters of Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. Scholars were given guided reading exercises to help them think critically about the book and to help engage with its material. The guided reading exercises for the first week focussed on reading with comprehension and appreciating sensory details. In addition to studying literature this week, our 4th Grade scholars also started their lessons in Grammar and Writing. Parts of speech, sentence types, and narrative passages--these are all topics that our scholars have started to master as fourth-graders. Next week, scholars will have the chance to finesse their grammar knowledge as they transition from simply identifying sentence types to creating their own!
History:
Hello scholars and families! Our fourth graders have been working hard on understanding maps and how we use them. We started with a lesson introducing maps and discovering why they are so important to us and to explorers from history. We were incredibly impressed with everyone’s DIY maps, and loved hearing about them in our small group discussions! Next, we spent some time learning how we can use latitude and longitude to find points on our maps! Latitude and longitude can be a confusing topic, but not for our scholars! They were like sponges, soaking in all the information and then identifying and labeling coordinates, themselves! Next week, we will finish our discussion on maps with a short lesson on time zones and physical maps, and then we will start learning about mountains and how people can use them!
Science:
In Science, we discussed how scientists ask themselves good questions to learn more about the world! For the coming weeks, we will be talking about Processes that Shape the Earth. This week, our focus was on introducing geology as a field of science and considering the application science and geology can have in our lives. Your scholars learned about natural hazards, and practiced thinking like scientists to figure out ways to respond to the damage natural hazards can cause and help keep people safe. Next week, we will start reading in our Core Knowledge Science Readers which will be attached in PDF format in your Google Classrooms. We’re excited to think about how our earth has changed, learn about its layers, and get to do some of our own investigations outside!
Math:
This past week in Math, we explored the place value of whole numbers. Scholars got a chance to create their own place value discs and discuss the value of each digit in the number. Next week, scholars will be learning about the “Millions” place, number lines, and comparing/ordering whole numbers. We will be reviewing these concepts on Thursday. Then on Friday, we will be taking our first quiz of the year! We want to do everything we can to help students have a calm, positive attitude towards test-taking. At home, please feel free to help us frame assessments in a positive way!
If you'd like to see what your scholars are learning and doing in their specials classes CLICK HERE !
Thank you so much for a successful first week of school and for working with us as we distance learn! Have a wonderful weekend! 👋
- The 4th Grade Team
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