Hello fourth grade families! We hope you had an enjoyable break. This is Mrs. Shroll writing the blog for the upcoming week. I had a great visit to my mom in Flagstaff and then to Los Angeles with family. Mrs. Kielmeyer and myself will be updating you this quarter.
Due to parent-teacher conferences, we have a short but fantastic three days of learning ahead. Here is a snapshot of Wednesday through Friday.
Language Arts
Grammar – This week we are learning about adjectives that tell whose. We continue classifying and diagramming all parts of speech learned so far. Students have examples of many diagrams in their red spirals and will be reviewing these with daily practice.
Poetry - "Beowulf" by anonymous is introduced and will be due by November 5th. Students will memorize a small portion of this epic poem which was written between 700-1000 AD.
Literature - We start reading Robin Hood so please send in texts with your children. We will be escaping to Sherwood Forest's idyllic charms and joining the jolly fellowship of the greenwood with these rollicking tales of the celebrated archer and gentleman thief. Lively episodes introduce each of the famous merry men and other colorful characters, including the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, lovely Maid Marian, and King Richard the Lionhearted. Fourth grade will write an essay about Robin Hood and culminate this reading with a wonderful Robin Hood party in December.
Composition - We will review introductory paragraphs and all the parts required: hook, general sentence, topic sentence, and three-point sentence. Their red spirals are their resource tools for the writing process and examples.
Latin & Greek Roots – none this week
Philosophy - We will discuss goals for Quarter 2 and have the children identify one measurable social and academic goal along with the steps to achieve it. We continue discussing our Archway core virtues.
Math - Unit 2 word problems involving all four operations (+, -, /, x) are practiced this week. Each problem will require a bar model, sentence, expression, and steps to solve the problem. Students will learn how to multiply by 10s and multiply by two-digit numbers. We will review the algorithm for long division along with estimating answers to see if they are reasonable.
Science – Students begin learning about the water cycle. Students will become familiar with the following terms: hydrologic cycle, evaporation, water vapor, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, atmosphere, dew point. We learn about the different types of clouds: Cirrus , Stratus , Cumulus , Cumulonimbus. In class we do an experiment to create a cloud and students will write a paragraph to explain it.
History - We spend Thursday class period writing an introductory paragraph about King Charlemagne. He was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814 AD. We’ve read several texts and taken extensive notes, so students should be able to tell you about this important figure. The following week, we continue reading in our history textbook to learn about the system of feudalism.
Hope you have a fantastic week! Thank you for making time to meet with each of us to discuss your precious child! We are blessed to serve them as well as you.