Mrs. Jackson's 4th Grade Class
We are fanSTACHtic!
We Art Fourth Graders!
Happy New (School) Year!
Welcome!
Welcome! Throughout the year you will receive this digital newsletter to keep you informed on important learning and happenings in 4th grade!
Important Information
Reading
This week readers will really dive into our classroom library! We will be reviewing ways to select books, how to select "just right" books, and what Reading Workshop time should look like in our classroom. Readers will be learning how we will track our reading in school with individual reading passports. At the end of the week we will enjoy Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind before setting a year-long classroom reading goal!
We will also begin at-home reading logs this week. Today your child will be bringing home a letter explaining how these reading logs work, a sample reading log, and their very first reading log to complete! Reading logs will come home on Monday and are due back to school the following Monday. 4th graders are expected to complete at least 80 minutes of at-home reading each week. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Writing and Word Work
This year our writers will be writing for a wide variety of purposes and across all subject areas. One important first step in beginning Writing Workshop is creating a special place to keep our ideas. Today I showed students my Writer's Notebook, and they received directions about decorating their notebooks at home. Please look for this information to come home in Homework Folders. Decorated notebooks are due on or before Tuesday, September 2nd.
Students will also be completing a spelling inventory so that we can personalize word work to meet the needs of each individual child. Official word work will begin next week.
Finally, writers will be introduced to Daily Language Review (DLR) workbooks. These book help writers work on a variety of vital skills such as editing, identifying parts of speech, or grammar (just to name a few!) We will be using these books on a weekly basis in class.
Math
Last week mathematicians had a chance to begin our first math chapter of the year. Chapter 1 focuses on place value, addition, and subtraction up to one million. Over the next couple of weeks students will be working on reading and writing large numbers in standard, expanded, and word form, identifying the place value of digits in large numbers, comparing and ordering whole numbers, rounding whole numbers to a given place value, and renaming numbers by regrouping.
Science
We have been setting up our science laboratories! Last week, we spent time discussing character traits of a scientist and organizing our science notebooks. During science class, students will be expected to look, think and act like scientists. To help our students feel like official scientists, we would like each student to wear a "lab coat" during science class. This can be a large white button down shirt or even a large white t-shirt cut down the middle. We would like all students to have a "lab coat" to wear by Tuesday, September 2. This week, we are excited to start our first science unit. We will be conducting experiments and learning about earth's surface. At the end of this week, ask your child, "Why is it so important for us to conserve our water resources, and what is one way that we can do our part to take care of this important natural resource?"
Important Dates
-MAP Testing: Tuesday, August 26th (Reading) and Thursday, August 28th (Math)
-No School/Labor Day: Monday, September 1st
-Picture Day: Tuesday, September 9th