There are still plenty of conference times available!  This Friday will be the International Festival and coming up on October 25 is our first Field Trip to the Interactive Theater to see a production of "Meet the US Presidents", which goes along nicely with our Deciders planner on government.  It's not too late to chaperone if you're available.

As a class, we had a lengthy discussion on becoming independent and responsible students, the need to be a good listener, and the importance of being respectful and quiet when others are talking.   4th grade has a heavy curriculum and much to cover and a lot of time is being spent on repeating directions and information.

Our focus this week in our subjects are:

Math- This week students will learn about and notice the relationship between multiplication and division and practice simple division facts. We will also work more on estimation, subtraction with large numbers, and measuring. Students should still be practicing multiplication facts at home.

Reading- In reading this week our focus turns to main ideas and supporting details. This is a big skill and it’s important that students can read a fiction or non-fiction piece and pull out the main idea as well as support it with details.

Writing- We introduce a new strategy for ensuring we have fully elaborated main events in our personal narratives- color coding. Students practice color coding different areas of their narratives (actions, emotions, dialogue, descriptions, and sound effects). This helps them quickly see where their stories may be lacking. We will also learn how to use more precise language by putting words like happy, sad, fast, said, etc. to rest forever.
Our grammar focus this week is capitalization.

Social Studies- We continue with our government planner by learning about the 3 branches of government and the roles and responsibilities of each. We will also look at the rights and responsibilities of citizens including voting, paying taxes, and citizenship.

Science- This week will be a review of matter.