Fourth Grade
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I can’t mask how excited I am to have you in my class!
No matter the distance, we will have a strong connection. That’s because this year’s Fourth Grade Team is made up of dedicated innovators.
They are WORLD CHANGERS!
This year...We will design.
We will create memories.
We will successfully manage our work.
We will connect and reconnect.
We will imagine and invent new ways of thinking.
We will live and make the world better!Education is the most powerful tool which we will use.
Our connections will be strong.
The FUTURE of the WORLD is in this class.
Welcome to 4th grade!
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 learn about discipleship and continue to grow as faith-filled learners. They learn about empathy. Having empathy for others helps the fourth graders better understand how to spread happiness. They know why Jesus gave us The Beatitudes to spread joy to others.
What are the Beatitudes? They are the teachings of Jesus that describe the way to live as disciples. The fourth graders investigated the meaning of all eight. They rewrote the Beatitudes in kid-friendly terms for our younger schoolmates. Our self-aware and engaged fourth graders thought of ways to live out the eight Beatitudes. Remember--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. Read and enjoy the amazing work of our World Changers.
Here is the 4th grade World Changers version of The Beatitudes:
How do we live out The Beatitudes every day to help us grow as
faith-filled learners, responsible decision makers,
and self-aware and engaged learners?
One way is to connect The Beatitudes to the Ten Commandments!
The fourth graders will begin to understand their conscience, their guide, in making decisions as we begin our next unit centered around The Ten Commandments . The 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.
To help us live out The Ten Commandments, 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
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."
Growth Mindset--
The fourth graders will learn about ways to exercise and train their brains to have a Growth Mindset instead of a Fixed Mindset.
LA: Spelling, Reading, & Writing
Spelling---
The fourth graders participate in the Rebecca Sitton Spelling Program.
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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.
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The fourth graders participate in Stretch It, a Rebecca Sitton activity, that teaches the fourth graders how to add detail to their thoughts.
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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.
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Weekly, the fourth graders learn grammar essentials to assist in their spelling and writing skills.
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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.
Our first 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.
One second word wall is our Homophone word wall. Homophones are words that sound the same, are spelled differently, and have different meanings. This virtual wall will consist of pairs/groups of homophones. It is important for our fourth graders to recognize homophones because learning them helps them to grasp the context of sentences that have words with more than one meaning.
The students will keep track of these words in their very own copy of The Words I Use When I Write.
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 will receive and store the packet "Tap Into Expository Writing" in their LA sections of their binder. This is a great resource to use when writing responses and/or compositions across the curriculum.
Your child will also recieve a copy of our Holy Family Editing marks as this is a tool he/she will use when experiencing the revising and editing stages.
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, Technology, & Reading--
The fourth graders have finished reading Sarah, Plain and Tall, a chapter book written by Patricia MacLachlan, and the information text If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie. We predicted and analyzed these two literary works to prepare the fourth grade historians for our units on Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail. The fourth graders have gained a better understanding on how life was like in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
The fourth graders will study 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 or handwritten/handdrawn 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 in small groups--reading, discussing, and recording important details on a provided graphic organizer. The tours will allow the fourth graders to better understand the experiences of the Corps of Discovery. Our engaged historians will summarize each stop to retell twelve stops on this two year expedition. These summaries will become the foundations for their storyboards they create on Pixton Creator. 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--
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;
Th e 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 fourth grade 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.
The fourth graders will explore the past and present pattern of where volcanoes exist on the earth. In the activity "Mapping Volcanoes", students plot volcano locations on a world map and look for patterns. Students analyze these maps to discover that volcanoes form a “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean.
MathThe fourth graders are growing as faith-filled learners as they work in math partnerships, helping their peers practice new concepts. They are learning a variety of strategies for each concept, helping each of them determine the most effective and accurate strategy to use to solve mathematical inquiries.
Bridges is the math curriculum we use at HFCS. 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 and activities. It is amazing what our engaged mathematicians see, understand, think.
The engaged fourth graders are learning to multiply double-digit factors with the use of the break apart (distributive property) method and expanded algorithms. This area model helps them understand the process of multi-digit multiplication. These engaged, responsible learners will expand the factors, illustrate the area, determine the partial products of each area, and add these partial products, resulting in the final product. We will continue with this when we return from break, and the fourth graders will learn the long process of multiplying 2-digit by 2-digit numbers.
It is extremely important to practice fast facts in the areas of addition, subtraction, and multiplication with your child on a regular basis. We want the fourth graders to have automaticity with these facts. Flash cards and computer games that assess your child's fast facts’ knowledge are wonderful and provide immediate feedback to the students. Check out the fourth grade class website for online math games. Please give your child random problems to solve in the car, while on a bike ride, or while you're waiting at the doctor's office. Practice makes better!
Keep practicing your multiplication and division fast facts!
We are learning so much in fourth grade!
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Links
- The Beatitudes--A Video Examining these Teachings
- Lewis & Clark Expedition Google Earth Tour
- Your Brain is Like a Muscle
- The Magic of Mistakes
- Newsela
- Oregon Trail Virtual Tour
- Oregon Trail Facts
- Oregon Trail Landmarks
- Oregon Trail Game 1992
- Oregon Trail Game (Mrs. Masini's Time)
- Pioneer Diary Entries
- Map of the Louisiana Territory
- Louisiana Purchase Activities
- Lewis & Clark Interactives
- The EPIC Journey of Lewis & Clark
- SOAR--A Silent Film Promoting Growth Mindset
- Oregon's 7 Regions
- Travel Oregon: 7 Regions
- Oregon Blue Book
- Oregon.gov
- Broken Treaties: A Documentary on the 9 Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon
- The Beatitudes Sign Language Song & Dance
- The Amoeba Multiplication Game
- Multiplication Mash Up
- Fact Monster
- Fraction Games
- Free Math Games (i.e. Mad Minute drills)
- Interactive Educational Sites
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