4th Grade MP3 Campus

School Data is open on the first of each month for parent reviews. These are due by the 5th. We hope the cut and paste grade level newsletter will be helpful to supplement your remote learning plan reviews. Thank you for submitting in a timely manner and if you need help, please reach out to your SLPC.

Topics: Fractional equivalence, proportional thinking, numerators and denominators, review of fourth grade skills

Activities: This month we spent our class time focused on fractional thinking as well as throwing in some skill review. We explored different ways to show that two fractions are equivalent as well as producing additional fractions that are equivalent. We worked on making rectangles with a given fraction of each color and tied it back to our knowledge of equivalence. We also completed a math mystery which allowed students to practice fourth grade skills including geometry, multiplication and division, unit conversion, rounding, number lines, and much more. Our month wrapped up with a series of application problems about hosting Thanksgiving and students were able to use multiplicative and fractional thinking to show their ability to use their math skills in a real-life situation.

Teacher Tip: Encourage your student to think in fractions instead of always framing a problem as division. Instead of what is 54 divided by 9 try asking your student what 1/9 of 54 is. Many students get lots of real-life practice with fractions in the kitchen but don't realize they are using fractions in a variety of other settings as well.

Teacher Info: Mrs. Kurashige, skurashige@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: narrative writing, strong titles, “show, don’t tell” how characters feel, revising, editing, quality publishing, 7 Minute Writes to build writing fluency

Activities: In this review period, we wrapped up our narrative writing unit. Students applied strategies for making strong, catchy titles. We also practiced making our characters more interesting with the “show, don’t tell” strategy. Students published their stories as books and then celebrated their hard work during our Gallery Walk. During the Gallery Walk, students enjoyed reading each other’s books and then wrote positive feedback to each classmate.

We continue to do our 7 Minute Writes to build writing fluency and practice generating writing ideas.

Teacher Tip: Has your student told you about our 7 Minute Writes? Roughly every week, we start our class with writing for 7 minutes. I always provide a prompt, but students are welcome to write about anything they wish. The goal is to write for the whole seven minutes. After students write, we take time for volunteers to share. The purpose of this activity is to build writing fluency and strengthen our ability to generate writing ideas. You might want to try 7 Minute Writes at home. If your student does the 7 Minute Writes in a notebook or journal, it will be powerful to see the growth over time!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Giesen, jgiesen@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Reading - making predictions, comprehension, character traits, text evidence, writing organization

​Activities: ​​Our literacy studies continued with the completion of the novel Frindle. Through this book, fourth graders practiced responding to comprehension questions, locating text evidence, sequencing events, and comparing and contrasting characters. It was exciting to reflect on how our opinions about one of the main characters, Mrs. Granger, changed from the beginning of the story to the end​. In connection with Veterans Day and to incorporate informational reading, we explored a ReadWorks article titled “Meet a Soldier.” Students then worked in their table groups to write and share an acrostic poem using the letters in V-E-T-E-R-A-N​. ​Nearly all students have already completed​ their “Who Is/Was…” book or another biography highlighting their person of interest. Prior to the ​Thanksgiving break, we also practiced writing introductory paragraphs by using a question to capture the reader’s attention.​ Our Faces of History celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, leaving us with just three campus days to finish our writing and complete display boards. With this ahead, our goal is to have the informational essay completed before winter break. This will require great diligence on the part of our fourth graders, and it’s wonderful to see the excitement they already have for this project!

Teacher Tip: Most of the work for the Faces of History project will be completed in class. However, I may reach out if your child needs additional time to work on writing and organizing their ideas. If possible, take a moment to ask questions and discuss the individual your child has chosen to research. It’s a great way to deepen their understanding. Keep an eye out for more details coming after the new year!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Elgersma, gelgersma@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Keyboard Identification and Fluency, Google Sheets

Activities: This month we have continued practicing keyboarding skills. At the beginning of every class students practice for 10 minutes and at the end of every month take a one minute timed test and a fill-in-the-keys paper test. Many students have already met the fluency goal of 20 words per minute and many have already memorized 16 (or more) keys on the keyboard.

Our main focus of the month has been increasing skills in Google Sheets. At the beginning of November students were given a quick review assessment in which they were asked to create a data table and graphs of a classmate's Halloween candy. After this we reviewed creating tables, bar graphs, and pie graphs. Students practiced creating chart and axis titles, changing font size, color, style, and changing colors on the graphs. Our main lessons this year have been learning the SUM and AVERAGE functions to let the computer do the computation. In each lesson, students have been given a series of data to chart and then use the function keys for computations. Once students finished the lesson series, they were provided with a pet care challenge project where they had to determine the cost of caring for a pet for a month and then year. This project is preparation for next year when we will move to more project based units that will utilize the skills learned in grades 1-4. Finally, students who passed the pre-assessment, were given a different task of tracking and recording classroom donations for the food drive. They kept daily charts of items donated by classrooms which were shared with our leadership students to encourage a friendly competition. Because of their work, our school was able to exceed 2,000 donated food items!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Montgomery, rmontgomery@meridian.wednet.edu

Topics: Elements of Art: Shape, Line, Texture, Space, & Color; Principles of Design: Balance & Unity; Techniques: Drawing techniques

Activities: During this short month, we recognized Native American Heritage Month by viewing and discussing contemporary artworks made by Native American artists. We completed our forest squirrels by adding textured backgrounds, and all of our hand-drawn & painted images. This mixed-media collage was so much fun to create, used a variety of artistic skills and techniques, and the best part - no two are alike! Our next project was inspired by the book We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell, a member of the Cherokee Nation. It offered students a glimpse into Cherokee culture while encouraging the expression of gratitude for things throughout the year. We were excited to have two guest speakers in our class this month. Two young members of the Lummi Nation visited our class to share about their culture and family traditions. We learned about their favorite cultural celebrations (canoe racing) and traditions of smoking salmon, deer hunting, and cedar bark weaving. This helped students brainstorm the traditions they each have with their families, and these were included in their artwork. Students first divided their paper into fourths - one for each season. They used different types of lines to draw a tree as a focal point with details to show the changing seasons in the space surrounding the tree. A few cuts were added to this piece to create lift-the-flap sections to reveal four hidden, mini gratitude lists.

Reflection Questions: Ask your student to tell you about each season and share their gratitude list!

Teacher Info: Mrs. Warnock, swarnock@meridian.wednet.edu