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

What's happening in fourth grade?

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.

Jesus gave us The Beatitudes to help us spread joy to others. The Beatitudes are the teachings of Jesus that describe the way to live as disciples. The fourth graders are investigating the meaning of all eight, but will concentrate on one of the Beatitudes in a small group project in which they are asked to rewrite the Beatitude in kid-friendly terms and illustrate it for our younger schoolmates.   Our self-aware and engaged fourth graders will think of ways to live out the eight Beatitudes. 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.

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.

Reading--


The fourth graders just finished up an author study on Trudy Ludwig. They read The Invisible Boy, Sorry! and Just Kidding. They analyzed the characters and connected to the text with various activities. The fourth graders were self-aware and engaged learners when asked to empathize with the main characters. Holding discussions and connecting with the text allowed the fourth graders to better understand what they need from their friends when they are having a hard day. This author study has increased the fourth grade faith-filled learners' awareness of how others may feel in real-life situations. It has taught the fourth graders a process, which we call the Empathy Plan, when making responsible decisions.

If you have not read any of these books, we highly recommend them!

Using what we've learned from this author study, the fourth graders are ready to begin literature circles. The books chosen focus on understanding different perspectives, allowing the fourth graders to practice empathy. The fourth grade engaged readers will be reading one of the following three books: The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, and The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.

In their literature circles, the fourth graders will take on various roles that will lead them to successfully discuss and analyze the book, thus increasing their comprehension. The fourth graders will be wordsmiths, passage masters, history connectors, illustrators, clever connectors, and discussion directors.

Social Studies and Technology--

The fourth graders will review and learn more about maps and the globe. Questions they will ponder include:
* How do we read the various maps we have in our world?
* What are cardinal directions?
* What are Intermediate directions?
* Why do we need to know about the equator, the prime meridian, and the hemispheres?
* What is longitude versus latitude?
* Why do we need to learn how to read a map?
* How is a paper map similar or different to Google Earth or Google maps?

Did you know that Oregon's birthday is February 14, 1859?

Did you know that Oregon is the thirty-third state?

The fourth graders will learn that Oregon was the thirty-third state to enter our country in 1859. Our self-aware and engaged learners will be able to tell you that Oregon is the Pacific Northwest region in our country, and that we are on the continent of North America. But how did Oregon become a state? The fourth grade historians will research and investigate Oregon's road to statehood.

The fourth graders will learn about Oregon's government, our roles as citizens, Oregon's climate and weather, land, natural resources, and industries.  After we investigate these areas, the fourth graders will divide our state into seven regions as shown below. They will compare and contrast the regions with various hands-on learning activities that will lead each fourth grader to create a Google Earth Tour.

Each fourth grader will create a Google Earth tour from one region to another. The goal is to engage our audience--Oregon tourists--by having them stop at important landmarks that teach them about Oregon's history, land, natural resources, and people. Each landmark stop will have a well-written description. These descriptions will be used to compose an informative report on Oregon.
Science/Health--

It seems fitting to learn about the layers of the Earth as we use our map investigating skills when exploring Oregon. What are the layers of the Earth?

Your engaged fourth grader will be able to inform you that the four layers are:

The outer crust that we live on;

The plastic-like mantle;

The liquid outer core;

The solid inner core.

The fourth grade scientists will be able to describe each layer. They will also explore the processes that shape our Earth. They will be able to identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to explain changes in a landscape over time. The fourthgrade scientists will learn about the effects of weathering--the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. They will analyze and interpret topographic maps to describe patterns in Earth's features. As a class, they will brainstorm and compare multiple solutions on how we can help reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
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 will learn various mutliplication strategies to solve real-life scenarios. The purpose of learning different strategies is to help each mathematician find a method that is the most efficient and accurate for him or her while understanding that there are mutiple ways to reach the same solution. The strategies being used in our classroom include a number line, ratio table, arrays, and tile arrays.

The fourth graders will also explore the inverse relationship of multiplication and division.  In the past, we have asked our students to memorize the fast facts of the four operations. The fourth graders will review and learn the Zeros Facts (x0), the Ones Facts (x1), Doubles Facts (x2), Doubles Plus One Set Facts (x3), the Doubles-Doubles Facts (x4), the Half-Ten Facts (x5), the Half-Tens Plus One Set Facts (x6), the Double-Double-Doubles Facts (x8), the Tens Minus One Set Facts (x9), and the Tens Facts (x10).

* Friday, October 12: NO SCHOOL!

* Thursday & Friday--October 18 & 19: CONFERENCES!

* Monday, October 29: NO SCHOOL!

* Wednesday, October 31: Halloween Carnival.

* November 5-7 (Monday - Wednesday): Accreditation Visit

* November 12-13: NO SCHOOL!

*Wednesday, November 21: Noon Dismissal

* November 22 & 23: NO SCHOOL--HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

* Friday, November 30: Noon Dismissal--End of First Trimester

Fourth Grade

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What's happening in fourth grade?