7425 SE César E Chávez Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97202
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Fourth Grade

What's happening in fourth grade in the new year?!

STUDENTS ARE BORN WITH A POWERFUL DESIRE TO LEARN. EVERYTHING WE DO AS PARENTS AND TEACHERS MUST ENSURE THAT THIS POWERFUL DESIRE IS KEPT ALIVE. IF THERE WERE TO BE ONE THING TO BE CONTINUALLY ASSESSED IT WOULD BE THIS DESIRE....

Religion

As faith-filled learners, the fourth graders participate in prayer daily, and help and respect God's creations. During class discussions and activities across the curriculum, the fourth graders remind each other of important lessons Jesus Christ teaches us. The fourth graders discuss the importance of having trust, respect, open communication, and honesty in our friendships.

The fourth graders are also learning about discipleship and how they will grow as  faith-filled learners. They are learning about empathy. They took an empathy pledge, and are learning how to use empathetic language when solving problems, and when managing their emotions. Having empathy for others will help the fourth graders better understand how to spread happiness. After learning about the Beatitudes, the fourth graders have a better understanding of why Jesus gave us these teachings. They describe the way to live as disciples. Our self-aware and engaged fourth graders wrote their very own Beatitudes prayer. Enjoy!

If we live out The Beatitudes every day, we will grow as faith-filled, responsible learners whose actions will spread love, kindness, and bring peace to all. How are the Beatitudes similar to The Commandments? The fourth graders will investigate this in our next unit.

They will examine their conscience, their guide, in making decisions as we begin our next unit centered around The Ten Commandments . Our faith-filled fourth graders will investigate God's laws of love with Bible readings (Matthew 22:35-40), group discussions, and cooperative learning groups. They will discover that the two greatest commands are:

1.Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The Ten Commandments can be divided into the above two categories. Our first command is the Greatest Commandment, and the second command is the Golden Rule. The fourth graders are learning that Commandments #1-3 fall under the Greatest Commandment, and #4-10 are categorized under the Golden Rule. The Ten Commandments help us lead a happy, loving life as we grow as faith-filled, responsible, engaged decision makers.

In fourth grade, we learn about the Catholic Social Teaching, Rights and Responsibilities of the Human Person. The Catholic Spirit defines it as:

Every person has a fundamental right to life — the right that makes all other rights possible. Each person also has a right to the conditions for living a decent life — food, health care, housing, education and employment. We have a corresponding duty to secure and respect these rights for others and to fulfill our responsibilities to our families, to each other and to our larger society.

A great way to live out this teaching is by volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank and participating in schoolwide service learning projects such as Backpack for Kid, Pennies for those in Need, and making lunches for the Willamette Shelter with our eighth grade buddies.

A former fourth grader reflected, "I was a faith-filled learner by helping some of the of the people who are food insecure. Food insecure is not knowing when your next meal will be. I made a difference by helping lots of people. It really feels good to help others!"

Her classmate excitedly reported, "...just a little bit can make a huge difference in someone's life. I am glad we went to the Food Bank. Helping people is fun!"

"We lived out the Catholic Social Teaching, Rights and Responsibilities. We were all faith-filled learners because we did our duty to help.
It is always important to do your part in the world."

To help us live as faith-filled, responsible learners, the fourth graders participate in the Second Step Program.

In the Second Step Program, the fourth graders learn important skills that will help them get along better, manage their emotions, and solve problems. The following four areas are taught throughout the year:

1. Skills for Learning
2. Empathy
3. Emotion Management
4. Problem Solving

When we interact with our friends, we make decisions. God's gift of conscience helps us choose right from wrong, and helps us turn away from sin. We will continue to grow as responsible decision makers. God wants us to treat others kindly and with love.

We strive to be CHRIST-LIKE daily by being

SAFE,

RESPECTFUL,

& RESPONSIBLE.

Growth Mindset--
The fourth graders are learning about ways to exercise and train their brains to have a Growth Mindset instead of a Fixed Mindset.

Spelling---

The fourth graders participate in the Rebecca Sitton Spelling Program.
- Each week, the students are given five words that are No Excuse words—words that fourth graders should know how to spell; there are no excuses. They are encouraged to use these words in their daily writing.
- The fourth graders participate in Stretch It, a Rebecca Sitton activity, that teaches the fourth graders how to add detail to their thoughts.
- The fourth graders have a weekly Fix It homework assignment, which assesses their knowledge of how to make corrections to grammatical mistakes. They use proofreading marks and are peer editors.
- Weekly, the fourth graders learn grammar essentials to assist in their spelling and writing skills.
- Each week the fourth graders take a Word Test that assesses their knowledge of the fourth grade No Excuse words in context.
In fourth grade, we have two word walls. A word wall is an ongoing, organized display of key words that provides visual reference for students. These words are used continually by teachers and students during a variety of activities. They engage students and enhance their learning.

Word walls serve multiple purposes. Effective word walls:

- support the teaching of key words and subject-specific terminology.
- promote independence in reading and writing by building vocabulary.
- provide visual clues and reference for language learners.
- help students remember connections between words and concepts.

One word wall in our classroom is our homophone word wall. Homophones are words that sound the same, are spelled differently, and have different meanings.

Our second word wall is The Word Wall Woods. This wall will consist of words more than five students have misspelled in a given task. These words may be words from our curriculum or words we use in our writing projects and journals.
Integrated Across the Curriculum--

NEWSELA is an online resource implemented in grades four and above at HFCS. Articles the fourth graders read connect to topics being learned across the curriculum. Newsela engages students with primary sources and articles from world-class news publications, enables classes to read together as Newsela adapts to each student's reading level, and sparks thoughtful classroom discussions and empower students to find their voice.
We use the 6 + 1 Writing Traits
to improve our writing.

Ideas and Content

Organization

Word Choice

Voice

Sentence Fluency

Conventions

Presentation

This year, our fourth graders become successful multi-paragraph writers. They learn about the outline for a multi-paragraph composition: introduction, body, and conclusion. It is important for us to have ideas to write about. This is, at times, where writers may hit a road block and don't know where to begin. The fourth graders will learn about and experiment with various prewriting strategies--brainstorming webs, graphic organizers, making lists, making T-charts, etc. to assist them in avoiding writer's block.

It is the drafting stage where students take time to formulate their ideas into complete thoughts. They are encouraged to not worry about grammar (spelling, punctuation, capitalization). After composing a first draft, the fourth graders will discuss ways to add colorful language into their writing. During this stage, the fourth graders will conference with Mrs. Masini. This is an opportunity to receive feedback (praise, questions, possible suggestions) to again assist themin improving as writers. The fourth graders are encouraged to revise their work. Revising is important because it helps the fourth graders reread their pieces and make changes to improve their writing. Before the fourth graders finalize their papers and being the publishing stage, they conference with Mrs. Masini again. The editing stage is when our English conventions are looked at closely.

Your child has received and is storing the packet "Tap Into Expository Writing" in their LA sections of their binder. This is a great resource to use at home and school when writing responses and/or compositions across the curriculum.

As responsible decision makers , clearly stating our messages is important.

The fourth graders are self-aware and engaged learners who strive to improve their writing with each new experience.
The fourth graders participate in hands-on activities and discussions, and learn various reading strategies that increase their reading comprehension.  The fourth graders will use higher level thinking to connect any story's events to previously learned material, to themselves, and to the world. With every unit, the fourth graders will review the story elements--setting, characters, plot, conflict, resolution, and theme.

We are building our metacognitive skills this year. It is important for us to THINK WHILE WE READ.    If your child reads a paragraph, page, chapter, or article and has difficulty retelling whathappened, encourage and model the rereading of the selection. I encourage parents to use the four step process, RACE, we will learn and utilize in our activities throughout the day.

Social Studies & Reading--


The fourth graders recently finished reading Sarah, Plain and Tall, a chapter book written by Patricia MacLachlan. With the knowledge gained from this unit, they will connect what they've learned to what they will learn when they read aloud the informational text from If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie. This will prepare the fourth grade historians for our units on Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail. The fourth graders will gain a better understanding on how life was like in the late 1700s, early 1800s, and late 1800s.

The fourth grade engaged historians will begin their study of the two-year journey that took Meriwether Lewis and William Clark west from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean. They will learn about the unknown people Lewis and Clark faced, the harsh conditions they encountered, and the unexplored lands they came upon.   The fourth grade historians will learn about the Louisiana Purchase and its effect on Westward Expansion. They will gain a deeper understanding of how the Lewis & Clark Expedition impacted the United States and Oregon, as it exists today. The fourth graders will discuss how life was different for Lewis and Clark as they traveled 8,000 miles without our current world consisting of iPhones, iPads, GPS technology.

The fourth graders will be assigned the task of creating digital storyboards recording this epic journey of Lewis and Clark. Our historians will take a virtual tour (listed in the links on our class website) of the Expedition on iPads/Chromebooks in partnerships--reading, discussing, and recording important details. The tours will allow the fourth graders to better understand the experiences of the Corps of Discovery. Our responsible, engaged historians will summarize each stop to retell twelve stops on this two year expedition. These summaries will become the foundations for the digital storyboards they create. This project integrates Social Studies, Writing, Reading, Technology, & Math. The fourth graders will use higher level thinking skills and creativity to publish their very first digital storyboard. Check these wonderfully designed digital storyboards on our bulletin board outside our classroom in the near future.

Science/Health--

The fourth graders are beginning their next unit, the Human Machine. These engaged scientists will discover that the body is like a machine or robot. It has parts for moving around, sensors, and a built-in computer (and it all even runs on power--but that’s a topic for a later time). Like a machine or robot, the body has parts, or structures, for moving around (e.g. the limbs). In order to move (one of the body’s functions), the body needs at least two things: muscles and bones. The contraction of your muscles pulls on tendons, which in turn pull on the bones, causing you to move. Continuing the analogy of the body as a machine or robot, the fourth graders will consider its “sensors”--the sensory organs, specifically, the eyes. They will discover the basics of how their eyes work, and figure out some of the causes of vision problems. Finally, they will consider the body’s ‘build-in computer’ or central processor: the brain, and its accompanying nerves. Students explore the brain’s role in receiving information from the senses, processing that information, and controlling the muscles to enable movement.
Math—

The fourth graders will grow as faith-filled learners as they work in math partnerships, helping their peers practice new concepts. We will learn a variety of strategies for each concept, helping each of us determine the most effective and accurate strategy to use to solve mathematical inquiries. The fourth graders will also utilize a variety of interactive activities on our SMART Board as this engages all students in the learning process.

Bridges blends direct instruction, structured investigation, and open exploration. It taps into the intelligence and strengths of all students by presenting material that is as linguistically, visually, and kinesthetically rich as it is mathematically powerful. Bridges encourages mathematicians to show their work in sketches. Explaining how and why they have reached an answer shows us they were thinking. This is the work of self-aware and engaged learners, embracing the challenge and showing their excellence to the best of their ability.

Every month students explore patterns and concepts with our Number Corner calendar.  This month, the students are naming shapes and calculating the shapes' area. Begin a conversation with your fourth grader about numbers. It is amazing what our engaged mathematicians see, understand, and think.

The fourth graders continue to build multiplicative reasoning as they work with multi-digit multiplication and early division. The fourth graders will use base ten area pieces to investigate place value patterns, as well as model and solve single-and double-digit multiplication problems. They will build multiplication arrays and sketch them. They will build ratio tables and use them to make generalizations about the effects of multiplying by 10, 100, and 1,000.

The fourth grade mathematicians will solve a variety of multiplication story problems, and work together to compile and compare the strategies they have been practicing. Our self-aware, engaged, responsible learners will solve division problems that require them to make sense of remainders in a variety of contexts. These learning opportunities will provide more practice with multiplication facts, multi-digit multiplication, and division with remainders.

To reinforce our studies, I encourage you to access Kahn Academy and Skill Wise's The Amoeba Multiplication Game, which can be found under links of this webpage. These two resources will strengthen the students' understanding of this concept.

We are so blessed at HFCS to have technological tools to help strengthen our skills.

* Friday, January 18: 4th & 7th grades host Circle of Life!

* Monday, January 21: NO SCHOOL!

*Friday, January 25: Noon Dismissal and FREE DRESS

January 27-February 1: Catholic Schools Week.

Fourth Grade

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What's happening in fourth grade in the new year?!