EDITOR’S NOTE

Before your child’s conference next week, please take some time to look at their report on Pinnacle. School will be dismissed at noon on Thursday, November 4^th. There is no school on Friday, November 5^th. Please contact me ASAP if you need to change your date/time for conferences and plan on bringing your fourth grade student to the conference.

LITERACY

During TLT, we are working on making connections this week. Next week, we will continue to work on making connections and all fourth grade students will be assessed on their skill levels of making connections.

Strategy: questioning (expository nonfiction)

Next Week: analyzing text structure (fiction and narrative nonfiction)

Genre: exploring non-fiction

Next Week: adventure/fiction

Text Elements/Structure: cause and effect, problem/solution, compare/contrast

Next week: plot structure

Writing Trait/Craft: organization

Next week: sentence fluency

Writing Mode/Unit of Study: feature article (expository)

Next week: Photo Essay (personal narrative)

Grammar/Conventions: synonyms, antonyms, verbs, adverbs

Next week: subject/predicate

Spelling: Fourth grade teachers came up with a plan of how to teach Sitton spelling.

Next week: We will start Sitton spelling. You will receive a note at conferences about the spelling program. On Monday, you will receive a note from your child about spelling. This is not a “weekly” program where they get their words Monday and take the test Friday. Each unit lasts about 7 or 8 days, depending on the group of students. The point of this program is to get students to transfer their knowledge of spelling words into their writing. The note that is sent home on Monday of next week will give you some ideas of how to practice studying for the words. This note will be sent at the beginning of each unit and is set up as a letter that says, “Dear Parents” and it has a box called “Take Home” at the top. Also, there is a suggestion of another activity to practice the words during the unit.

Vocabulary: nosing around, edible, inedible, consistent, inconsistent, consistently

Next week: survey, bellow, luscious, humble, rummage, mislead

MATH

Students practiced interpreting data through the World Tour Project; practiced measuring length and use a map scale; started learning a simplified approach to solving number stories; and practiced solving number stories.

Next week: Students will review the meanings of number sentences; practice determining whether number sentences are true or false; review the use of parentheses in number sentences; start learning vocabulary and notation for open sentences; and practice solving open sentences.

SCIENCE

Students took their Life Cycles test on Monday.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Now that we have completed our science unit for first trimester, we will be learning social studies (the Northeast Region) during the times we were learning science. Students drew maps and regions of their homes, learned the five themes of geography, learned new vocabulary words (scale, map key, line of latitude, line of longitude, global grid, special-purpose map, coastal plain, inland, plateau, basin, and levee), and students learned basic map skills by interpreting special-purpose maps and identifying regions of the United States.

Next week: Students will learn basic map skills by working with more special-purpose maps and identifying regions, and students will learn more about the Mississippi River.

IMPORTANT DATES

11/4 Dismissal at Noon

11/5 No School

jnicolai@d41.org

(630) 534-7330