Fierce in Fourth Newsletter
February 2018
General Notes
Reminders
- School starts every day at 7:40 a.m. Please make sure to have your children here on time to begin their day.
- Creek View is beginning important work on a new school wide initiative- developing Growth Mindset in our students. Growth Mindset is going help our students go through life with more perseverance, develop grit, and encourage them to continue trying- even if things get hard! Make sure you are reading Ms. In's Cheetah Chat to learn even more about Growth Mindset.
Creek View News
Growth Mindset
Throughout second semester, we will be working to coach students in developing a growth mindset. We are doing this by setting goals and talking on a regular basis about how to face challenges. There was a time when it was believed that our intelligence was fixed – meaning we were either smart or we weren’t. Scientists have proven again and again that simply is not true. Our brains act a lot like a muscle growing stronger (and smarter) each time we use them. Students with a growth mindset embrace challenges, give their best effort, learn from feedback and believe their intelligence can change if they work hard. Students with a fixed mindset often avoid challenges, give up easily, and ignore feedback that could help them grown. During this semester, we hope you’ll look at the ideas provided in the digital newsletter sent out on Fridays by our principal, Ms. In. The CVES Twitter (@CreekViewElem) also has suggestions on a regular basis.
Birthday Celebrations
Some families choose to celebrate their child’s birthday with a class treat at school. While this is completely optional, these treats are served in the cafeteria to the child’s lunch class. Students may not serve snacks to peers that are not part of their lunch class. Our cafeteria manager, Chris Schram can provide frozen treats including slushies in a variety of flavors and frozen yogurt in birthday cake flavor at a cost of just $18 per class. The order form is located on the CVES website and in the front office. The order form along with payment should be submitted to the cafeteria at least 2 days in advance.
Academics
Math:
4.2 Math has now transitioned into 5.1 Math. The first unit of 5th grade math is Order of Operations.
Students will be able to:
- Solve problems by representing mathematical relationships between quantities using mathematical expressions and equations.
- Use the four whole number operations efficiently, including the application of order of operations.
- Write, evaluate, and interpret mathematical expressions with and without using symbols.
- Apply strategies for multiplying a 2- or 3-digit number by a 2-digit number.
- Develop paper-and-pencil multiplication algorithms (not limited to the traditional algorithm) for 3- or 4-digit number multiplied by a 2- or 3-digit number.
- Apply paper-and-pencil strategies for division (not the standard algorithm)
- Solve problems involving multiplication and division (Fluent use of standard algorithm is a 6th grade standard)
- Investigate the effects of multiplying whole numbers by powers of 10.
4.1 Math has now transitioned to 4.2 Math. In 4.2 Math, students will address Fraction and Decimals relationships.
Students will be able to:
- Express a fraction with denominator 10 as an equivalent fraction with denominator 100
- Adding two fractions with respective denominators 10 and 100
- Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100
- Compare two decimals to hundredths by reasoning about their size
- Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two decimals refer to the same whole.Record the results of comparisons with greater than, less than and equal to signs and justify conclusions.
Reading: In reading, we are going to be continuing our work on character study- by investigating character traits that characters display through thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue. This study will be done through a variety of grade level texts. In order for students to be successful with this standard, we will be asking them to support their ideas with text evidence. For example:
· Support your ideas that the character is honest with evidence from the text.
· Analyze the images in the story. Do these images support your ideas or force you to reconsider your theories.
· Develop a theory about a character from the story. How do interactions with other characters in the story support your theory?
This focus on character will also come in handy with our next set of standards- which force students to study writing for allusions to Greek Mythology.
We are going West! Our PBL is starting this month and the students will be reading about the Westward expansion and famous people who helped along the way. Students will be responsible tor writing a biography in class on Office 365.
ELA/Writing: Our next Lucy Calkins unit will utilize our student's knowledge of character traits to encourage them to write literary essays! Students will analyze texts and develop opinions on characters and write about them. This unit will be a great segway into our assessment writing focus, largely because it will force students to use the RACE strategy and incorporate text evidence into their writing.
R- restate the question
A- answer the question
C- cite your evidence from the text (quote)
E- explain why that quote supports your answer
In grammar, our skills for the nine weeks will be:
· Ordering Adjectives
· Relative Pronouns/Adverbs
· Prepositional Phrases
· Synonyms and Antonyms
· Be on the lookout for resources in your child’s reading/grammar journal.
Social Studies: We will be starting our PBL Unit: Westward Ho! Our driving question will be "When was a time in history when expansion changed our nation?" Students will be able to:
- Explain westward expansion in America.
- Describe the impact of westward expansion on American Indians; include the Trail of Tears, Battle of Little Bighorn and the forced relocation of American Indians to reservations.
- Describe territorial expansion with emphasis on the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the acquisitions of Texas (the Alamo and independence), Oregon (Oregon Trail), and California (Gold Rush and the development of mining towns).
- Use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost, specialization, voluntary exchange, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.
- Describe opportunity cost and its relationship to decision-making across time (e.g., decisions to settle in the west).
- Explain how voluntary exchange helps both buyers and sellers (e.g., Gold Rush mining towns).
Basket Raffle
Online Textbooks
Information on Science and Language Arts Textbooks (click me)
Social Studies Textbook(click me)
Username:grade4earlyyears
Password: 123456
Change in Transportation?
You're Gonna Want to Write These Down
February 9 - Books and Bingo Night
February 16 - Make up day (originally no school but is now a make-up day)
February 19 - President's Day - No School
February 20 - Katie Reeves' Community Meeting - 9:30 at Alpharetta ES
February 21 - Family Fun Night
March 1 - Spring Picture Day, Musical Performance at 6:30 pm
March 2 - Musical Performance at 6:30 pm
March 8 - RFF Day #4 - No School for students
March 9 - Digital Learning Day
March 11 - Daylight Savings
March 16 - End of Quarter 3
March 20 - Katie Reeves' Community Meeting - 7:00 pm at Alpharetta HS
March 21 - Family Fun Night
March 22 - Quarter 3 Progress Reports go home
March 23 - PTA Basket Raffle
March 30 - International Day
April 2 - 6 - Spring Break (No School)
April 12 - 24 - GA Milestones testing for Grades 3, 4, 5 (No visitors allowed during testing)
April 17 - Katie Reeves' Community Meeting - 9:30 at 4165 Big Creek Overlook
April 18 - Family Fun Night
April 27 - Kindergarten Safari (for rising kindergarten students)
May 8-9 - Rock Eagle field trip for 5th graders
May 15 - Katie Reeves' Community Meeting - 9:30 at Webb Bridge MS
CVES Talent Show at 6:30 pm
May 24 - Last Day of School - Happy Summer!
The Fourth Grade Team
Email: huntera@fultonschools.org
Website: mshuntersheroes.weebly.com
Location: Creek View Elementary School, Webb Bridge Road, Alpharetta, GA, United States
Phone: (470) 254-2932
Twitter: @mshuntersheroes