4th Grade News
October's News
4th grade Update
Math
We continue to have our math facts test every Thursday. Students receive their math facts homework each Monday and they are due on Thursday.
Websites:
Prodigy: Students are highly engaged in the Prodigy game. It is a safe, education math site that uses gaming with mathematics. Students usernames and passwords are on the inside cover of their agenda. https://play.prodigygame.com/
StudyIsland: Students also use StudyIsland in 4th grade. Students usernames and passwords are on the inside cover of their agenda.
Reading
n October, students explored reading expository text and narrative nonfiction. In expository text, they learned how to apply the reading comprehension skill of comparing and contrasting. The expository texts focused on the topic of how natural disasters and other forces of nature changed the landscape of our planet. The lesson on narrative nonfiction offered an opportunity for students to learn how to apply the reading comprehension skill of cause and effect, as well as read texts that focused on the science concept of force, gravity, and friction.
Thanks to our reading program students learned a diverse set of vocabulary strategies, which included the use of context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, i.e., multiple meaning words.
English
Reading books opens a whole new world of adventure and knowledge, so developing solid writing skills in multiple genres can expand our students ability to recognize the text that they are reading, by helping them better identify the different genres. This is done through practical application of that knowledge to their own writing. Also this month, we began to work on writing a personal narrative. In personal narrative writing, students were asked to complete an essay where they chose a special event or experience in their lives and were asked to write about it. In grammar, they continued to learn about compound and complex sentences, to help add variety to their writing. Students completed their first major writing piece which was the friendly letter.
We are using technology in Language Arts. The students have already used Google Classroom to take grammar quizzes, so they are familiar with how to access posted assignments. Using Google Classroom and other Google Apps in 4th grade gives students a great preview of how to use applications that will support learning success in 5th and 6th grade and beyond. Students are using Google Classroom to compose their writing piece, the personal narrative. In addition, Google Apps allows for real-time revising and editing advice from me, as students work through their assignment.
Reading Incentive
Let’s celebrate! The students in our class who go to Mr. Gomez's reading class continue to reach new reading goals through his benchmark reading incentive, which encourages students to read diverse genres. After reaching the goal of reading 10 books for September, students enter into the month of October with the goal to read 10 more books, to reach a total of 20 so far for the year. Congratulations to all of our classroom readers!
Every night our students should be reading 15 minutes.