Friday, September 23, 2022

NOTE:  Fourth grade needs paper towels for science and tissues for the runny noses we are beginning to experience.  If you can help us out, we would be so grateful.  Also if we could send home pencils to be sharpened that would really help us out.  Just let us know and we will send home a few for you to sharpen for the class.

Mandatory fall conferences will happen right after Fall Break - look for information to soon arrive for you to sign up for a conference time.  

MATH

This week we will be dividing a 2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit number by a 1-digit number.  We will be playing games and solving word problems involving these skills. Since this involves knowing multiplication facts intensive practice of multiplication facts each evening is very important. 

SCIENCE

We continue our discovery of magnetism and begin learning about electricity.  If your child has a “Snap Circuits” set, they can bring it in.  We have some sets but the more that we have the more the kids can have hands on learning about circuits.   

 Language Arts

Grammar – We are practicing writing compound sentences using conjunctions. Students will have several practice sentences to work on this week. Students will be identifying incorrect sentences - run on, comma splice, and fragments. We are expecting fourth graders to use compound sentences in there writing. Ask them to tell you what that is. Take 2 simple sentences that are closly related in thought, and then combine them with a comma and a conjunction. FANBOYS is the mnemonic we use: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

Writing– We continue writing practice introductory paragraphs given an essay prompt. Students will have several examples in their red spiral and will use this to write their own paragraph for a grade. They will be writing about St, .Benedict of Nursia.

Poetry – No poetry this week or next.

Literature – We continue reading Chapters 14-20 of Pollyanna. Thank you to all parent volunteers who have given their time on Wednesdays to help our scholars read in small groups. Please see chaperone email sign ups if you'd like to help in this capacity.

Latin & Greek Roots – Students will have a spelling test on root derivatives of “less”, “able/ible”. These are suffixes added to base words to change their meaning. Students will have a Quarter 1 roots quiz on the meaning of all the roots we have studied thus far. They should have all these flashcards in their clear plastic envelope in their YELLOW folder: pre, post, mono, unus, poly, bi,  tri, quad, co, contra, un, dis, re, syn/sym, circ, trans, able/ible, less.

Touchstones: We are discussing Pollyanna and the impact she had on people she interacted with. Students will focus on the virtues she embodied. Student will discuss: Do you believe people are born optimistic or is that a characteristic that forms through practice? How can you have a "Pollyanna presence" to other people?

 

HISTORY

We will continue our unit on the Middle Ages.  Students will write a comprehension check covering these questions/points: 1. What were some of the events that lead to the fall of Rome?  2. After the western Roman Empire collapsed, several things happened gradually which caused historians to call these years the Dark Ages.  Describe some of these gradual changes.  3.  During the Middle Ages, the monks and religious institutions did many things to help society.  Describe some of the contributions they made that improved society.  Studying the history folds and the history book will be very helpful as well as writing a practice paragraph for review by a teacher.