Class Activities for the Week of September 20-24

Hello parents and students,

Here's an overview of what we will be learning in fourth grade this week:

MATH:

In our math lessons we will be working on fully understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction.  We also be working on understanding word problems that require addition and subtraction.  To do so we will need to review our math vocabulary and how to properly read and interpret word problems.  By the end of the week we will move into creating math expressions from word sentences and introducing the idea of algebraic expressions.  Yes indeed....it is time for Algebra!!!

READING:

We will be working with 'thinkstrips' during our reading periods this week.  Thinkstrips will help us remember exactly what were thinking about when we're reading, and will make it easier to write interesting 'reading letters' every week.  We will also review the procedures for writing and proofreading a quality 'reading letter' once more, and I plan to spend time conferencing with the students during independent reading time to check to see how everything is going with their self selected reading.

WRITING:

In writing we will review all of the many reasons to write.  We will focus one lesson on writing to express feelings and emotions, and the cathartic joy that can come as a result.  We will then work on writing a journal entry in this fashion.  Later in the week we will be working on writing descriptive notebook entries using our five senses.  Our focus this week will be on the sense of touch and hearing.

GRAMMAR:

Having learned about Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs we will work on identifying these parts of speech in a piece of text, and talking about how we use these parts of speech in our writing.

SCIENCE

Our theme periods have been switched from Social Studies to Science!  This week we will be introducing the 'scientific method' and some of the terminology that the students will need to understand for November's Science Fair project.  We will then move into our first science unit on Land and Water.

CHARACTER STUDIES:

This week's focus will be on the importance of responsibility.

SPELLING

Our spelling words this week will focus on the long u sound.  The words this week are:

rescue, few, view, move, due, true, drew, crew, boost, proof, troop, suit, fruit, juice, bruise

Please help your child think of as many different words with that long u sound, and the different letter combinations that can make the sound.



Thanks to all the parents who check this blog.  I will be sending a group email soon about ideas that I have for field trips in the future.  If you have any ideas or questions in the meantime feel free to email me at my discovery school address: jrose@discoveryschool.hn.edu

Here's to a great week!