Q3W1 & W2
Welcome to 2025 and the second half of fourth grade! Our Fourth Grade Teaching Team hopes your families' holidays were warm and filled with love. Now closer to 5th graders than 3rd graders, our scholars will continue to be challenged in exciting new ways in order to reach the finish line of 4th grade. This can be seen in memorizing Paul Revere's Ride, fun (in-class) mini-projects, extensive reading, and another field trip.
News:
We are starting off easy with a half day on Wednesday, January 8th. Dismissal is at 12:30pm, there are no clubs.
January is our month of reading! There is a Reading Under the Stars event on Saturday from 5-7pm on the field to promote (you guessed it!) reading. There will be volunteers and staff alike reading with and helping scholars, so it will be a lot of fun. Don’t miss it!
Curriculum
ELA:
In grammar, we will be reviewing contractions, mastering their form and use, before discussing the use of quotation marks. This is key for essay writing, creative writing, and to understand literature. In week two, we will then transition into the vital element of language called prepositions. This concept is foundational for grammar and will be when we begin using our second WOL books.
Literature is our Poetry Unit, not to be confused with our poems for recital. Students will need to bring their copy of Harp and Laurel Wreath on Wednesday, January 8th, as we jump straight into it. For these early weeks, we will be discussing the nature of poems, figurative language, and imagery. We then will learn and write specific models of poems, including color poems, quatrains, haikus, and parts-of-speech poems.
Our poem for recitation will be the same for the entire quarter; Paul Revere’s Ride. Each week students will be expected to learn a new stanza in order to recite privately to a teacher. After we get through the entire poem, 13 weeks of hard work, the grade will perform a group recitation for parents to watch. I know it looks like a lot, but the students are capable of great things and this is a chance for them to shine. A link to the poem is on the right column of this blog.
Latin and Greek Roots pick up in Q3W2 with the following roots: Geo-, Terra-, and Naut- /Nav-. Students will be expected to spell the following words: geology, geography, geode, territory, terrestrial, subterranean, nautical, astronaut, navigate, circumnavigate.
In our philosophy unit, we will be discussing 3rd quarter goals as well as the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes.
Math
In math, we continue to review and dissect the concept of fractions, delving further into mixed numbers and their real world applications. This starts as multiplying fractions by whole numbers, analyze fractions as multiples of another fraction, and learn how to make/use line plots. The Chapter 6 test is on Wednesday, January 22nd.
Multiplying Fractions and a Whole with Mixed Number Answers
History
This quarter in History we dive into a new book and unit on Islamic Empires including Ancient African Kingdoms. Scholars have a copy of this book and should be bringing it home regularly for review of the chapter material and answering the Big Question. We will make Lapbooks for the unit completion throughout the quarter. We read chapters 1-3 in Q3W2.
Science
In science, we begin with our overarching unit of geology. It begins with a literal dissection of the Earth as we will finally be utilizing the playdoh to visualize the layers of the Earth. This mini project will take place on Friday, January 10th, and yield a craft to take home; don’t miss it! In Q3W2 we will take a look at Pangea, Plate Tectonics, and Earth's formation.
Remember, the blog is updated weekly. Be sure to come back frequently to see any upcoming events or changes in fourth grade.