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.

Park Hill Earns the Missouri Quality Award Again!

Interim Superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd announced recently that the Park Hill School District received the Missouri Quality Award for the second time.

Park Hill was the first school district to earn this distinction when we received it in 2009, and we are now the only district in the history of this award to earn it twice.

The Missouri Quality Award recognizes an organization's commitment to meeting its customers' needs and to using the best-available processes for everything it does. This award is aligned with the exacting standards of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Park Hill’s processes align with these standards, which the Excellence in Missouri Foundation determined by carefully reviewing our district application and conducting a thorough site visit of our schools.

The Missouri Quality Award demonstrates to the Park Hill community the world-class level of excellence that our schools are achieving.

It also comes with a detailed report from the site-visit team, which will identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement. As we did last time, Park Hill will take that report and use it in our continuous improvement efforts.

Monster Scholastic Book Fair

Our annual Book Fair is coming soon!  Again, this year the Book Fair will be held in the Media Center during the times offered for Parent-Teacher Conferences.

October 28 from 5:00 - 8:00 pm
October 29 from 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Curriculum Oct. 12 - 15

Cardboard Challenge- One highlight of our week was the opportunity to participate in the English Landing Cardboard Challenge!  Students first watched the video of Caine's Arcade  to see what the cardboard challenge is all about.  Then our 4th graders worked with their 1st grade buddies and their imaginations to make a plan and then they used cardboard boxes and tape to create their idea.  We ended up with some super cool creations!

Reading- We continued our discussions of theme this week both in our book club books and our classroom read aloud, Tiger Rising.  Students also learned how authors use symbolism in their books and worked to identify symbols in their books.  Next week we will wrap up our unit by having one last book club meeting.

Writing - Fourth graders continued to work on writing their rough drafts of their realistic fiction story.  Students are working to type their stories using Google Docs.  Our plan is to be finished with our stories by the end of next week!

Math - In math, students worked on adding and subtracting larger numbers, using mental math strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems, and using estimates to check the accuracy of their work.  Next week, we'll finish Topic 4 by reviewing and taking our final test.

Social Studies- We continued our economics unit by learning about taxes, and the difference between savings and investments.  Students applied their knowledge to their economic business plan.

Curriculum Updates October 5 - 9

Reading - This week students practiced summarizing their book club books.  They also began thinking about the larger, universal lesson that the author is trying to teach us.  Students began to determine theme in both our classroom book; Tiger Rising and their book club books.  Next week we'll continue to work on determining themes.

Writing - Our realistic fiction stories are all in the drafting phase.  Students are drafting their story's scenes.  Fourth graders learned about dialogue and why author's use dialogue in their writing. Next week, students will finish their drafts and will begin to revise their writing.

Math - This week students took their pretest for Topic 4 and began learning some strategies for mental math.  They also are learning to round numbers in order to find an estimate when either adding or subtracting.

Social Studies- In our economics unit students learned about supply and demand and how these affect the price.  We discussed how consumers, producers and the government are independent.  Students applied their knowledge to their business that they are creating.

PowerBlock - Look for a letter in your child's back pack about PowerBlock which begins next week!