Fourth Grade Monthly Highlights
November 2023
Important Dates
11/1 - End of Marking Period 1/No School
11/2 – Begin Marking Period 2
11/9-11/22 – Parent/Teacher Conference Window
11/20-11/21– Early Dismissal Days at 1:20
11/22-11/26 – No School
Curriculum Corner
Math 4/5
As we move into the second quarter, the students will continue to work on Module 3. In Module 3, students use place value understanding and visual representations to solve multiplication and division problems with multi-digit numbers. By Thanksgiving break, students will have completed Module 3. You will find the attached newsletters below for each topic. Please take some time to review them because they will provide you with a synopsis of what the students will be covering and models of what we expect when they submit their assignments.
Topic D - Multiplication Word Problems
Topic E- Division of Tens and Ones with Successive Remainders
Topic F- Reasoning with Divisibility
Topic G- Division of Thousands, Hundreds, Tens, and Ones
Topic H- Multiplication of Two-Digit by Two-Digit Numbers
Please let us know if you have any questions related to the pacing of Math 4/5.
Grade 4 math
In Module 3, students use place value understanding and visual representations to solve multiplication and division problems with multi-digit numbers. Module 3 topics for the next month include solving multiplicative comparison problems as students investigate and solve real-life problems regarding area and perimeter. Students will use place value understanding to multiply by multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000 and 1 digit by 4 digits problems. Students will continue deepening their multiplication understanding while they solve multi-operational problems and will write equations using statements in word problems. Following these topics, students will use prior knowledge about division to solve word problems using long division.
Benchmark
Students will shift from informational reading to fables, fairy tales, and a drama in Benchmark Unit 2. Students will analyze texts to answer the essential question, "How do we reveal ourselves to others?" As they read, they will identify key events, determine themes, and describe characters, settings, and events. Students will be able to use characters’ words and actions to describe how the characters reveal themselves or their state of being, to readers.
Using these texts as examples, students will complete the writing process to write their own fairy tale. They begin with organizing ideas, writing a rough draft, then revising, editing, and publishing their original work. Dialogue will be very important in the students’ fairy tales as they reveal their characters to the reader.
ELC
During the month of November, students will be continuing to read stories from the Junior Great Books and Jacob’s Ladder program with a focus on “communication” as the theme. They will read, annotate, and analyze various stories. In addition, students will be using text structures to help them understand informational text. Students will continue to do literature circles with fiction text. They will also be continuing to work on the Greek/Prefix/Suffix vocabulary development and Spelling Units.
In writing, students will continue working to develop their grammar skills by analyzing their work and the work of others. They will Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
Science
Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer:
Students are continuing their investigations in the conservation of energy and energy transfer. Types of energy include:
- Sound energy is a form of energy that uses mechanical waves and requires some kind of medium or substance (solid, liquid, or air) to occur.
- Heat or thermal energy is a type of energy we can measure or feel. Heat energy involves the transfer of heat from the object to object (or place to place).
- Light energy is a form of energy that we can see that uses waves and particles (called photons). Light moves from place to place and through different types of matter.
Students will apply the transfer of energy understanding to digitized information and how that can be transmitted over long distances without significant degradation. High-tech devices, such as computers or cell phones, can receive and decode information—convert it from digitized form to voice—and vice versa.
Social Studies
Students will begin learning about how economies grow when they have access to valued or needed resources. We explore how history is an interpretation of the past. They will take a deeper dive into the impact of how specializations and trade affect society. In addition, will students identify the goals of early European explorers and how the interactions between groups impacted native societies during the early settlement of colonial America. Students will learn how people must make choices based on limited resources relative to economic wants for goods and services in Maryland, both past and present. Students will also identify the opportunity cost of economic decisions made by individuals, businesses, and governments.