Curriculum Updates Oct. 19-28

Fall Festival -Thank you so much to all the parents who helped plan, organize, and run our 4th grade Fall Festival parties.  The kids had lots of fun eating caramel dipped apples with pretzels, making pet rocks and their homes, dancing, and playing a word-making game.

Reading - We began Unit 3; High Interest Informational Text Sets this week.  The main focus of this unit is to be able to understand the underlying structures of texts to help them understand the overall text structures of non-fiction.  This unit will address students' abilities to determine the main idea of a text and summarize the text, including how key details support the main idea.  In addition to work on determining main idea, this unit places a strong emphasis on supporting students' abilities to make inferences and grow ideas, always grounding their ideas in text evidence.  The unit will also work to support students in describing text structures of texts or parts of texts.

Priority Standards for unit:
● RI4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
● RI4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details;
summarize the text.
● RI4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or
technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific text information.
● RI4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g. chronology, comparison, cause/effect,
problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.
● RI4.6 Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or
topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.
● RI4.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a
text.
● SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,
and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and tests, building on others’
ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Writing - Students are putting the finishing touches on their realistic fiction stories.  We can't wait to share their hard work with you at Parent Teacher Conferences!

We'll begin Unit 3; Boxes and Bullets this week.  This unit begins with a quick intense immersion into the whole process of writing this new kind of text. This unit meets the needs of 4th grade opinion writing. In this unit, students will learn a variety of more sophisticated strategies for introducing their topics, and students will learn to provide reasons to support their opinions, as well as facts and details to elaborate on these reasons.

Priority Standards for unit:
● W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
and information.
a. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational
structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
b. Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
c. Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g. for instance, in order
to, in addition.)
d. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.
● W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
● W.4.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing
as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
● W.4.7: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of
different aspects of a topic.

Social Studies:  Students are finishing up their economic business plans this week.  We're creating study cards and will take our final economics test this week.  We'll switch to science and start our Force and Motion unit which is always lots of fun because there are several experiments.

Math:  We'll finish up Topic 4 on addition, subtraction, and estimating this week by reviewing and taking our test.  We'll share results with you soon.  We'll begin Topic 5; Multiplying by 1-digit numbers after conferences.