January Newsletter

A Look into 4th Grade-January

Here is a look at what we are working on and what is coming next.

Reading:

We are beginning
on our new unit, Reading History: The American Revolution. Students
will learn how researchers pay attention to text structures in order to
organize notes and new thinking. Students will begin to synthesize
information about a chosen topic across multiple texts, paying attention
to primary sources and teaching strategies to tackle these difficult texts.
Students will learn about multiple points of view in order to gain a more
complete picture of events in the past. Your student should continue
reading 30 minutes a night.

Writing:

We are currently working to complete our third unit, Poetry. We are
publishing our poetry collections in Bare Books and illustrating each
poem.  We look forward to sharing these with our buddy readers and our
families.

Science:

We will be switching units in a couple weeks. Mrs. Wright’s students will
be going to learn with Mrs. Swanger. They will be beginning the unit, Energy
Collisions. Through the example of bumper cars, students will be introduced
to energy transfer and conversions in collisions. Mrs. Swanger’s students will
be going to learn with Mrs. Childes. They will be beginning the unit, Energy
Conversions. Students will learn about conversions of energy as well as the
conversion of a variety of fuel sources from stored energy to usable electricity.  
Mrs. Childes’ students will be going to learn with Mrs. Wright. They will be
beginning the unit, The Human Brain. In this module, students will be introduced
to the analogy of the brain as a computer.

Social Studies:

We are beginning our next unit, which is titled Slavery, Civil War, and
Reconstruction. Students will consider the Northern, Southern, and Border
State point of view. Students will understand that Missourians at this time were
conflicted in their beliefs about the war and slavery. Students will consider that
the end of the war did not mean equality for all.

Math:

We will soon be starting our next unit on Rational Numbers. In this
unit, students extend their knowledge of fraction equivalence in
order to compare and order fractions. Students will understand addition
and subtraction of fractions as joining and separating parts referring
to the same whole. They will build fractions from unit fractions, and
will very naturally move from this basic understanding to the addition
and subtraction of fractions with like denominators. Please take any
extra time to help your student practice their basic multiplication facts.
This will continue to help them in our fraction unit!