Mrs. Jackson's
4th Grade Class
Curriculum Updates
Reading Workshop
We kicked off a new unit this week—pioneers! This cross-curricular unit supports not only reading and writing standards, but social studies standards as well. We will be spending the month of December gaining background knowledge on pioneer life through research. Students will use a variety of sources, including nonfiction texts, historical fiction stories, websites, videos, and the experience at Pioneer Days to gather information about daily pioneer life. We will learn how to pull out important information from these sources. This research will help students build their knowledge on this time period, which will prepare them to participate in pioneer book club after the winter break. We will also be studying point of view. Readers will learn to identify if a narrative is told from 1st person or 3rd person point of view, and also examine how stories change based on the point of view from which they are told.
Readers will also be learning about author Andrea Cheng. She will be visiting IHES on December 17th, so we will learn more about her life and her stories to make our visit with her meaningful and relevant!
Writing Workshop and Word Work
This month our writing and reading will be closely intertwined as we learn to research and record important information. After we finish our research students will be comparing and contrasting their lives to pioneer life, using the skills we have learned to craft organized paragraphs.
We will also be transitioning to new word work. We will be focusing on homophones, including there, their, and they’re, too, to, and two, and where and wear. Students will be working to not only spell these words correctly, but to use them accurately in writing as well. Review packets came home Monday and are due Thursday, December 11th. Our test will be Friday, December 12th. There will be no word work the last week before break.
Math
Mathematicians worked very hard during Chapter 4 and really put in a lot of effort on their assessments last week. Chapter 4 tests will be coming home today and should be signed and returned tomorrow.
We started Chapter 5 this week, which focuses on factors, multiples, and patterns. Students will use their knowledge of multiplication and division to identify factors of numbers. They will also learn basic divisibility rules to help quickly identify factors of larger numbers. Students will use this new knowledge to problem solve word problems, as well as learn to identify if numbers are prime or composite. We will be taking a Chapter 5 test before the winter break, so look for that announcement in planners sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Social Studies
Historians are sharpening their historical thinking skills by locating, researching, analyzing, and interpreting primary and secondary sources, which will be used to develop an understanding of Ohio’s prehistoric and historic American Indians.
Important Dates
Dec. 17th: Author visit from Andrea Cheng
Dec. 19th: Holiday Party from 2:30-3:15