Here we are in the last week before Thanksgiving break. Where has the time gone? Our racers have been keeping good pace as they move from subject to subject, and unit to unit. There is certainly a lot to learn in 4th grade, but if they keep working hard, they are going to see that finish line!
This week in class:
Math - We will be moving from 1-digit divisors to 2-digit divisors. Division is a multi-step skill that takes a lot of practice, which means a lot of patience! Please make sure to ask me any question you have regarding division. There is no shame in asking for help, my friends! It is also VERY important to master your multiplication (and division) facts! I can't say it enough: If you don't have those facts mastered, it makes everything else more difficult. Keep working hard!
Reading - We start our Fables/Folk Tales/Tall Tales unit this week. To begin the unit, we will be starting a new read aloud story, The Fabled Fourth Graders at Aesop Elementary. It is a fun adventure that we will be taking with an unruly class of fourth graders, tamed by a new teacher, Mr. Jupiter. Through this story we will be revisiting some old fables told in a new way - same morals, new stories.
Writing - As our monster stories have concluded, we will focus on a response to literature for our finshed read aloud, Rascal. We read the book. We watched the movie. Now we will create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two, then write an essay in response to that.
Language - We will continue practicing our simple/compound subjects and predicates, pronouns, contractions, and simple/compound/complex sentences.
Spelling - Our words this week come from Sort 14 in our Words Their Way book. The patterns this week are words that end with le (saddle, couple, angle, needle, bundle, struggle), el (level, angel, novel, vowel, cancel, jewel), al (total, metal, signal, pedal, local, journal), and il (April, fossil, evil, stencil, pupil, council), and 2 oddballs - special and fragile. Be sure to be looking for our spelling words AND words that fit the patterns to add to the "While We Are Reading" poster!
Social Studies - We will continue mastering landforms and the regions in which they appear. Our unit on Native Americans will also begin this week.