Academics

Fourth Grade – September Update

Welcome back!! I hope everyone enjoyed their summer. We have some new faces joining us this year and we are very happy to have them join our school family. We are off to a great start. With the first week of school behind us, we are starting to settle into our schedule. Please make sure your student is bringing their assignment notebook home with them daily. Even if they complete all of their homework, it is a good habit to develop.
This is what we will be covering in class for the month of September.
SPELLING
Lesson 3 – /k/ sound spelled c, k, or ck - /f/ sound spelled with ff, gh, or ph. Spelling list: care, because, brake, track, pocket, stiff, enough, laughed, photo, alphabet, cover, record, Kansas, snack, attack, muffin, giraffe, rough, dolphin, elephant, cuckoo clock, freckles, sheriff, autograph, headphones
Lesson 4 – adding –ed and –ing to words. Spelling list: happened, happening, opened, opening, danced, dancing, studied, studying, stopped, stopping, chased, chasing, worried, worrying, dried, drying, robbed, robbing, slipped, slipping, skied, skiing, argued, arguing, occurred, occurring
Lesson 5 – adding –er and –est to words. Spelling list: smaller, smallest, larger, largest, happier, happiest, hotter, hottest, sadder, saddest, deeper, deepest, closer, closest, scarier, scariest, funnier, funniest, fatter, fattest
Lesson 6 – review unit of lessons 1 – 5
MATH
We will finish up chapter one with the test on Friday, September 3. We will then move to chapter two which is comparing and ordering numbers and money, making change, rounding number, and problem solving using a bar graph. Chapter three will include the addition properties and subtraction rules, using mental math to solve a problem, estimating sums and differences, adding whole numbers and money with regrouping, subtracting whole numbers and across zeros, and adding and subtracting greater numbers.
SCIENCE
We are learning about how moving water, wind, and ice can shape the land. We will then move on to learning about why natural resources are important.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We have started the year with learning about the five regions of the United States. We are working on characteristics for each region, such as landforms, climate, location, and resources. When we finish with the overview of the regions, (We will study each region more in-depth throughout the year.) we will be learning about early settlers in North America, how our government is elected, and what our rights are as United States citizens.
RELIGION
Unit one is about the goodness of God. We will be learning about the parts of the Mass, the story of the Last Supper, the Ten Commandments and what each one means, ways we can communicate our thoughts and feelings, how Jesus taught us to pray and how it leads us to God’s kingdom, and the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.
READING
The short story Freckle Juice will be finished next week. We will then do a lit unit with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Each day after lunch the students are to have a book to read for silent reading. I have encouraged them to select something that interests them. Starting this month, they must finish the book they select and will then be required to do some sort of activity or report on it.
ENGLISH
We will be finishing up the chapter that includes the four types of sentences with the appropriate punctuation mark, compound subjects and compound predicates, joining two sentences with conjunctions, sentence fragments and run-ons and main idea, topic sentence, and supporting details. With this we will then be writing our first essay which will be a personal narrative.