Curriculum Overview

Math

In March, Fourth Grade completed a study of data sets in math.  We analyzed different types of data sets and learned to find the median, mode, range, and outliers.  We also learned about using parenthesis in mathematical expressions and embarked on a two week study of two digit by two digit multiplication.  In this study, students slowly built their conceptual understanding of multiplication before learning to use the traditional algorithm.  In April, our mathematicians will be focused on building a conceptual understanding of division and then learning the traditional algorithm.  We will also be learning about the relationship between division and multiplication.

Reader’s Workshop

Fourth Grade wrapped up our Mystery Genre study last month.  Students also learned to synthesize what they have read and deepened their understanding of the four main reading strategies used in book clubs– predicting, questioning, clarifying, and finding the main idea.  We launched our author study in book clubs.  Just a few days ago students joined new book club groups. In the month of April, students will read two books by the same author in their book club.  Students are reading books by Maurice Sendak, Lois Lowry, or Roald Dahl.

Writer’s Workshop

For the two months the Fourth Grade has worked diligently on our Fiction writing unit.  In March we worked on fleshing out characters, revising our endings, and rereading with different “lenses” as a writer.  The students revised and edited, and edited and revised.  Both Fourth Grades finished the unit with a celebration of the hard work they put into developing their stories.  As we roll into April, we have begun a unit called Literary Essays: Writing About Reading.  The students will take on the roll of a literary critic by noticing new things about texts and writing to support their ideas.

DWoK/A.P.C.S.

During the month of March, the students of Fourth Grade applied their knowledge of creating an experiment to design salt tolerance experiments.  They were faced with the task to help “Farmer Brown,” who is experiencing a drought in California this year.  The students tested a variety of salty environments on barley, corn, radish, and pea plants.  After 11 days of observation, they uprooted their plants, took final notes, and wrote recommendations to Farmer Brown.  We are now transitioning to a new unit on California History.  It will start with a visit from the National History Museum’s Earthmobile.  Each class will have 2 hours to spend in a 50-foot truck and take on the role of archeologists searching for artifacts of the first settlers in California.

Upcoming Dates

4/5-4/9: Spring Break

4/13-4/15: Earthmobile “In House Field Trip”

4/19-4/23: Spirit Week

4/23: Jog-A-Thon

4/23- 4/24: Night at the Museum Overnight

4/28: 4^th Grade Showcase

Important Announcements:

• There will be an Open House for family members to come and view the Earthmobile.  The Open House will be held on April 14, from 3 to 4 pm.  The truck will be located on the yard

Looking Back…
Guiding Questions
from the last month

Reader’s Workshop

How do readers use comprehension strategies to understand what they are reading?

Math

How do we solve multi-digit multiplication problems?

How can we use data to help us understand, interpret, and predict?

How can we interpret and evaluate mathematical expressions?

Writing

What is the relationship between true, real-life stories and fiction writing?

How do writers really pay attention to what they are reading?

DWoK/A.P.C.S

How do scientists use range of tolerance to inform decisions?

How does our state’s history influence our lives?

Tips for Parents

Math
Ask your child to show you the different ways to solve a 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication problem.  Encourage them to demonstrate how they could draw a representation of the base ten blocks or use the ‘apartment building’ strategy.

Reading
Ask your child to tell you about the strategies that we use in book clubs. Read a book with your child and ask them to apply the comprehension strategies that they have learned.

Writing

Ask your child to give their opinion on a book he or she is reading.  Ask your child to show you where in the book they got ideas for their opinion.

DWoK/A.P.C.S

Look on the internet for primary or secondary sources to learn about the first settlers of California.

“Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.” ~ Roald Dahl

The Arts and P.E. in Fourth Grade

Fourth Grade Visual Art:

In Visual Art, students tackled the complex subject of Media Literacy.  With constant exposure to visual images developed to send messages, it is crucial that the students begin the process of academic analysis and reflection that is applied throughout our curriculum in other subject areas.  So, during the unit, students took the time to ask themselves these probing questions about advertisements they viewed:

1. Who sent me this visual message?

2. What was this visual message sent?

3. How does it get my attention?

4. Where did I see it and what does that say about me?

5. What does it mean to me and what might it mean to others?

These questions led the students through a process of exploration that was reflected in their final projects.  Working in teams, students were asked to create a photograph that would best reflect the needs of a given product.  In order to create the final image, teams worked through a process that included speculation on the demographics that would purchase their product.   The final pictures from all the teams are truly reflections of hours of thought and work, just as it would be in the world of the advertiser.

Fourth Grade Dance:

In dance, the students have taken an extended period of time to develop a broad overview of tap dancing.  Considered a truly American art form, students were able to recognize the influences of various cultures that brought traditional rhythmic dances to this country and how these influences converged in a new style.  The dancers explored the concept of tap as an expression of dance and music, concentrating on the rhythm and the different sounds created by the shoes.  Bojangles Robinson, Shirley Temple and Gregory Hines served as examples of how tap can effectively create interest visually and musically.  Later they turned their attention to another great tap dancer who was famous for a Broadway style that combined tap, ballet and modern dancing: Gene Kelly.  Using his performance in the film, “Singing in the Rain,” as inspiration, students embarked on a journey into choreography and rehearsal.  The students have learned a large class routine as well as choreographing their own smaller group routines, and they will be performing these final products shortly after we return from Spring break.

Fourth Grade Theater Arts

The unit has been focusing on collaboration and cooperation.  This month students got a chance to collaborate in small groups and block out scenes of their play.  They will then get the opportunity to direct each other in small scenes.  Students are learning the differences between directing and acting and more importantly, the principles of collaboration and how they apply as a director or as an actor.  As we get ready for the showcase, students will get a chance to paint part of their set as well as choose costumes pieces that might fit the characters they created.  Fourth graders have also gotten a chance to work on some choreography for different scenes in their plays.  Ms. Howe and Ms. Trubo have been collaborating with Ms. Heneise on teaching the kids how to choreograph a dance and a slow motion scene.

Final showcase is on April 28 at 6 PM.  Fourth graders have been working on Performing Arts standards 5.1 Dramatize events in California history. 5.2 Use improvisation and dramatization to explore concepts in other content areas.

5.3 Exhibit team identity and commitment to purpose when participating in theatrical experiences.

P.E.

Dear Students, Dear Parents,

The first and perhaps most important aspect of physical education is the direct bearing it has on children’s physical, mental, and social well being.  The child who is well educated physically is likely to become a healthy adult who is motivated to remain healthy.  The healthy, physically active child is also more likely to be academically motivated, alert, and successful.

A common mistake is to emphasize competition while children are still quite young.  Children are able to create their own competition in normal play.  Only at about the age of ten or eleven are they ready physiologically, socially, and emotionally to participate in competitive activities.  The goal of the physical educator should not be to identify winners, but to make winners of ordinary students.  Every Student is a Winner.  Students should be helped to discover what they can do, and to appreciate their own uniqueness and that of others.  Therefore at LFCSA  the motto in P.E. is:  “It is not about being the best, it is about doing your best!”  It is not about winning, it is about having fun together, improving our skills, and staying in shape.  The students hear me say this over and over again – “Every student is a winner!”

That said, “How is a P.E. lesson structured?”  We always start with running a few laps to warm up, mostly followed by stretches.  At the end of each lesson we cool down by sitting in a circle, taking a few deep breaths, and by going through our cheer ritual.  The mid section is reserved for learning and practicing the skills as described in the California standards.

Our big theme for March and April is the school wide “Jog-a-thon.”  Instead of our usual warm up runs in the beginning of class, we have been running the original jog-a-thon course.  We started with 7.5 minutes, increased to 10 minutes and will eventually run the full 15 minutes – like we will be on Friday, April 23rd.  I also introduced interval training to the students.  These different ways of training give the children an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the course, to learn how to breathe properly, how to pace themselves in order to last for the full time, and how to get really fast.  Come April your child will look like a seasoned marathon runner out there on the course

Another theme in March is soccer.  We practice passing the ball, dribbling with the ball, heading the ball to each other and kicking penalties.  We have scrimmage games to demonstrate what we learn.

Every third week of each month, we practice one of the students’ favorite activities:  “Medicine ball hot potato.”  Huh?  Okay, we sit in a circle and pass seven medicine balls around.  The children can not drop them, nor can anyone have two at a time in their possession.  The record (at the time this article was written) is held by the “Texan Eyeballs” with 48 laps, followed by the “Awkward Octopi” tied with the “Badgers” for 27 laps, followed by the “Cool Cats” with 23 laps.

The very last week of each month is free choice.  I tallied up all their past choices and found out that their favorite activity is field hockey (picked 22 times), followed by rolling on the scooter boards (21), followed by soccer (16).

Sincerely,

Mr. Wenger

Our current unit in Theatre Arts is Imagination Play.  Students have been, throughout the unit, collaborating and improvising a story and script.  The characters and stories come directly from their collective imagination.  Please print out a script for your child so that he or she can practice their lines at home.

Ms. Howe’s class: California Ghost Town

Ms. Trubo”s class: California Resistance

The Theater Arts Showcases will be held on three Wednesdays in April at 6pm in the Selma Auditorium. The schedule is as follows:
Kinder and Kinder/1 – Wednesday April 14
First and Second Grades – Wednesday April 21
Third and Fourth Grades – Wednesday April 28

Students will gather in their classrooms 30 minutes prior to the show to get ready. Costumes can be creative and should reflect the character of the student. No masks please. To volunteer to help with costumes and/or face painting, or if you have any questions, contact Ms. Heneise (rheneise@losfelizarts.org) or Candice Cain (ccain@centertheatregroup.org).

Curriculum Overview

So much has happened in Fourth Grade since we last wrote!  In Reader’s Workshop, book clubs are in full swing.  Several times a week students meet in small groups and discuss their thinking about literature.  They are learning to deepen their predictions, clarify words and phrases they don’t understand, ask and answer thoughtful questions, and find the main idea of what they have read.  In Writer’s Workshop, we are in the midst of a unit on realistic fiction.  In this unit the emphasis has been on character development, writing strong scenes, and revising our writing.  In Math we most recently studied multi-digit addition and subtraction and learned how to graph and analyze data.  In our Project-Based/DWoK, we have engaged in several scientific inquiries.  In January students spent several weeks studying aquatic ecosystems.  We are now growing plants and are conducting several “range of tolerance” experiments.

In February for Black History Month we studied prominent African Americans that have made our world a more peaceful place.  We studied Barack Obama, Ruby Bridges, Eloise Greenfield, Nikki Giovanni, and India Arie.  We studied these individuals and thought about how we could bring their ideals into our classroom community.  The Fourth Grade continues to grow as a community that recognizes each other’s strengths and celebrates our differences.

Peace Talks

Last month in 4^th Grade children began learning “Peace Talks” during our classroom meetings.  Through Peace Talks, students are learning strategies to talk their way through disagreements or conflicts that arise with their peers.  Peace Talks emphasize speaking truthfully yet respectfully, listening actively, taking responsibility for your actions, and compromising to reach a solution. Although we just started Peace Talks we have noticed that the strategies are already empowering students to solve social issues that arise.  Encourage your children to explain Peace Talks to you.  They could even try a Peace Talk with a sibling or friend at home!

Upcoming Dates

3/19: 4^th Grade Arts Showcase

3/24-3/26: Minimum Days and Conferences

4/5-4/9: Spring Break

4/13-4/15: Earthmobile “In House Field Trip”

4/19-4/23: Spirit Week

4/23- 4/24: Night at the Museum Overnight

Important Announcements:

• Payment for the overnight field trip will be due soon.  Please keep an eye out for an email.
• Early dismissal on 3/24- 3/26

Looking Ahead

Units
Reading: Finishing Mystery Genre Study/Book Clubs, Launching Author Study/Book Clubs
Writing: Publishing Realistic Fiction & Beginning Response to Literature Unit
Math: Data Analysis, Solving Expressions, Double Digit Multiplication
DWoK: Salt Tolerance Experiments, Biographies of Botanists, Launch study of California History

Week 1: Reading: Synthesizing what you have read in your mystery

Writing: Revising fiction writing

Math: Finding the mode, median, range, and mean of data sets

DWoK: Testing for salt tolerance: planting and observing

Week 2: Reading: How does reading mysteries well help us read all fiction well?

Writing: Final drafts and celebration of fiction writing

Math: Solving expressions with parenthesis

DWoK: Testing for salt tolerance: observing and uprooting

Week 3: Reading: New book club groups, deepening book club strategies

Writing: Getting to know a story in depth

Math: Double digit multiplication

DWoK: Biographies of famous botanists

Week 4: Reading: Launching book club author study- introduction to author

Writing: What is the story about and how does it connect to my life?

Math: Double digit multiplication continued

DWoK: Our State’s First Inhabitants

“Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life’s lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.”

-Native American Proverb

Our current theater arts unit of study is Fables and Fairy Tales. Each class will showcase a fable or fairy tale from around the world.  The fourth grade classes will showcase on Thursday, December 17 at 6:00pm.

Ms. Howe’s class: How Robin Stole Fire (PDF)

Ms. Trubo’s class: The Great Kapok Tree (PDF)