4th Grade Newsletter
February 23, 2021
Language Arts
What are we learning?
We are beginning our poetry unit!
Throughout the unit we will…
- Become immersed in poems that have language to help us elicit strong feelings, tell a story, and paint a picture
- Uncover the deeper meaning of the poem, and think about how the authors perspective compares to your own perspective
- Use poetry to share our thoughts and emotions
- Understand that responding to poetry through movement, speech, or art, furthers understanding and interpretation
- Understand that the meaning of a poem is constructed by the poet and the reader interacting with the text
- Explore how poetic tools reveal images, evoke feelings, and produce sounds to create a message for the reader to interpret
- Use different poetic tools to develop meaning in poems:
- Rhyme
- Rhythm
- Repetition
- Onomatopoeia
- Alliteration
- Simile
- Metaphor
- Hyperbole
- Idiom
- Personification
Home/School Connection
- How can poetry help you share your thoughts or emotions?
- How can we make a poem come to life?
- Create your own poem that uses different poetic tools! How many can you use?!
- If a child does not know the meaning of a poetic tool, look up that poetic tool! Then, challenge yourself to use that poetic tool in a poem that you create!
- Read a poem with your child and ask them the questions…
- How does this poem make you feel?
- Does this poem make you picture anything? If so, what?
- How does the poet help me understand the poem?
- What does the poem reveal about the author/poet?
- Create a poem of your own using the same topic!
Math
What are we learning?
We will be continuing our decimals unit! Throughout this unit we will...
- Read, write, represent, and identify decimals expressed through thousandths
- Round decimals to the nearest whole number
- Compare and order decimals
- Given a model, write the decimal and fraction equivalents
- Add and subtract with decimals
- Solve single-step and multistep practical problems involving addition and subtraction with decimals
- Recognize and demonstrate the meaning of equality in an equation
Home/School Connection
- What have you learned about decimals?
- What do you notice about the coins and their values?
- How can we use decimals in our everyday life?
- Can you represent money ($1.50, $2.50, $3.75) in multiple ways? What coins can you use? What different values can you use?
- How are fractions and decimals similar?
- How do we write ____ as a fraction? As a decimal? (you choose the number!)
- How do we write that decimal in word form?
- Can you find the equivalent fraction of (insert fraction here)?
- How are you feeling about...
- decimal understanding?
- Comparing decimals?
- Different strategies for comparing decimals?
Science
What are we learning?
- Students will construct a simple circuit (virtually) consisting of a bulb, battery, and wire.
- We will discover a closed circuit allows electricity to flow within the circuit. If there is an opening in the circuit, electricity will not flow.
Home/School Connection
- Flip the light switch on and off. Ask if it is open or closed in each position.
- Let them hold a light bulb and see the different parts that electricity flows through. Can they name the parts?
- Talk about how electricity flows through your home and out of the outlets.
Social Studies
What are we learning?
We will begin our Revolutionary War unit. In this unit we will…
- Identify reasons why the colonies went to war with great Britain, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence
- Identify various roles of American Indians, whites, enslaved African Americans, and free African Americans in the Revolutionary war era
- Learn about the roles that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, the Marquis de Lafayette, James Lafayette, Joseph Harris and Sarah Osborne played
- Identify the importance of the American Victory at Yorktown
- Explain the reasons for the relocation of the Capital from Williamsburg to Richmond
Home/School Connection
- How do people create lasting, positive change? How do you make positive changes?
- When conflict occurs, how do people decide what to do? What would you do if you had a conflict with a friend, family member, or other?
Positivity Project
- Students show enthusiasm by building relationships with others and communicating with others!
- A sense of community is so important for student growth. By communicating with others, sharing ideas, and thinking about others ideas, we build a stronger community!
- To help us build our online community in the coming weeks, your child could (these are options! They are NOT required)…
- Chat by turning on your microphone
- Chat in the chat box
- Turn your video on so others can see your face
- Change your icon to agree, disagree, show confusion, or excitement!
- Vote when polls are displayed!