News September 7th

Hello Parents

It has been wonderful getting to know the fourth graders over the past few weeks. They are settling into the classroom routine and the learning has begun!

Language Arts
The room has been a buzz with stories as students share special moments in their lives. We know that authors get ideas for these special moments from their personal experiences with people , animals or objects, first times and last times or places and events.  Students are encouraged to record any special moments in their seed books which may be later ready nurtured into a wonderful story.  Over the next few weeks, students will  continue to expand on their narrative writing skills with a focus on the six traits of writing.

Students are building their reading stamina during readers workshop. As fourth grade students, it is important they read 30 - 40 minutes each night. At this stage of their reading lives, students should be reading and understanding approximately 3/4 of a page per minute. This would equate to 25 - 30 pages in an evening's reading assignment. Students should also spend time reading on the weekend to further grow as readers. Over the past few weeks students have come to understand that a good reader:

• chooses just right books
• thinks as they read
• monitors their understanding- is a brain clicker
• records in their reading logs
• uses clues to solve mystery words
• stops every few pages and asks "Can I retell what just happened?"
• reads EVERY DAY
• pays attention to story elements

Feel free to ask your child to explain any of these strategies to you in further detail.

Growing Readers and Writers in Action on PhotoPeach

Math

We have started the year with a unit on data. We have focused on organizing and representing data, interpreting various types of graphs and determining mode, range, median, minimum and maximum. Students will  spend time developing their own survey, collecting the data and sharing the results with the class.

Students have also been brushing up on their addition and subtraction facts as we are a little rusty after the summer  holidays. Please encourage your child to spend extra time on these facts at home to increase their speed and accuracy.

Social Studies

Understanding  our school ESLR's(Essential Student Learning Results) has been our focus during social studies periods.  These are important skills to have in place so that students come to school each day academically well prepared, socially and culturally sensitive and personally fulfilled. We will be starting a science unit on the human body next week.

I look forward to meeting with all of you next Thursday, September 13th to review the grade four curriculum and answer any questions you have at this time.

Until next time,

Theresa