4th Nine Weeks: Week 4

Another rainy Monday, but it is sunny in here with all of these bright fourth graders!

Reading: We have started a new book today, Riding Freedom.  We read just the first few pages, but already the kids are thinking deeply about our main character, Charlotte.  This is a fantastic historical fiction novel that I believe the children will really enjoy.  We will be making inferences about our characters and looking for signposts as we go.  The vocabulary words come from the story: blustery, rickety, lurched, clutched, frantic, hovered, pry, and orphanage.

Writing: After spending so much of the year working on grammar, we will be spending the next couple of months focused more on writing.  We are starting the week by looking at descriptive writing and how it should be used in all of our writing.  Later in the week, we will identify different types of writing and then focus on persuasive writing.  So, if you see your children becoming more persuasive, maybe they are just using what they are learning in school! :)

Spelling: All of the words have a VV pattern like science, poem and read.  I am encouraging the children to break the words into syllables so they can hear the different vowel sounds.

Math: Tomorrow will be our last day on the math menu.  Later on in the week, the students will be learning more about multiplying fractions with a whole number and how to add fractions with different denominators.  Our fraction test will be early next week.  There will be a review on Schoology later this week.

Alabama History: The students should be working on their Civil War projects that are due next week; they are free to do just about anything (make a game, write a speech, make a video, create a power point, change the words to a song, etc.) as long as the requested information about the Civil War is included.  In the classroom this week, we will be watching some of Gone with the Wind.  We are examining what life was like during the Civil War, but don't worry, we will stop well before that infamous last line! :)

Science: We are finishing up our study on space and will soon begin looking at the six kingdoms and why living things are classified as they are.