JKES 4th Grade Newsletter
Second Quarter of School - October 2026
🍁 Welcome to the Second Quarter of 4th Grade! 🍂
Dear 4th Grade Families,
Welcome to Quarter 2! We are so proud of how our 4th graders have settled into their classroom routines, built strong friendships, and stepped up as leaders in our school community. Watching their curiosity and confidence grow every single day has been such a joy for our teaching team!
As we jump into this new season, our classroom learning is leveling up with deeper critical thinking, creative hands-on projects, and rich historical exploration. We have a wonderful quarter ahead filled with growth, discovery, and memorable moments. Below is a peak at what your child will be exploring over the next nine weeks, along with exciting upcoming events and simple ways you can support their learning journey at home.
🦅 S.O.A.R. Behavior Focus:
This quarter, we are placing a special emphasis on our S.O.A.R. expectations across all 4th-grade classrooms:
S – Safety: Making safe choices in the hallways, classrooms, and on field trips.
O – Outstanding Effort: Putting forth best effort on every assignment, test, and project.
A – Accountability: Taking responsibility for our learning, classwork, and choices.
R – Respect: Showing kindness and respect to peers, teachers, and school guests.
Ask your child how they demonstrated S.O.A.R. behavior at school today!
📚 What We’re Learning This Quarter:
🔢 Mathematics
Probability: Understanding outcomes, likelihood, and basic probability concepts.
Fraction Number Sense: Building conceptual understanding of fractions, equivalency, and ordering.
Multi-Digit Multiplication & Division: Mastering multi-digit multiplication strategies and division with single-digit divisors.
💡 How to help at home: Continue practicing basic multiplication and division facts (0–12) for 5–10 minutes daily! Fact fluency makes multi-digit operations and fractions much smoother.
🔬 Science
Weather: Investigating weather patterns, atmospheric conditions, and meteorological tools.
Plant & Animal Structures: Exploring how structural adaptations and physical characteristics support the survival and growth of plants and animals.
📚 Shared Reading
Character Transformation & Historical Challenges: Students will analyze how characters transform through historical challenges and interpret complex story structures that blend personal narratives with primary sources to uncover themes of cooperation and leadership.
Social & Situational Pressures: Students will examine how characters respond to social and situational pressures to understand how personal growth is influenced by history.
✍️ English Language Arts (ELA)
Narrative & Opinion Structures: Students will explore narrative and opinion structures by investigating historical events and contrasting viewpoints.
Vocabulary Development: To support these skills, students will work on mastering complex vocabulary by using clues within a sentence and breaking down multi-syllabic words into their smallest units of meaning to unlock the definitions of historical and political terms.
🏛️ Virginia Studies
Growing Virginia: Students will learn about the growth of Virginia during colonial times.
The American Revolution: Students will investigate the Revolutionary War and Virginia’s pivotal role in shaping the nation.
📝 Quarter 2 Culminating Task
Persuasive Historical Letter: Students will synthesize their historical knowledge to independently plan and write a persuasive letter, using text evidence to construct a strong argument from a specific historical perspective.
🎭 Special Events & Field Trips
Field Trip to the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum (Winchester, VA): Our 4th graders will take a hands-on learning trip to explore interactive science and historical exhibits! (Permission slips and details will be sent home soon.)
Student Play – "The Jungle Book" at JKES: We are excited to support our talented John Kerr Elementary School performers as they present "The Jungle Book" live on stage!
🗓️ Important Quarter 2 Dates to Remember
October 29th: Field Trip to Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum
October 30th - Fall Fun Run - fundraiser
November 3rd: Teacher Workday / No School for Students
November 19th: JKES Student Performance: "The Jungle Book"
November 25-29th: Thanksgiving / Fall Break (No School)
December 21-January 4th: Winter Break (No School)
🌟 Classroom Reminders & Tips for Success
Daily Homework & Reading Logs: Students should be reading independently for at least 20 minutes every night.
Dress for the Weather: Temperatures are dropping! Please make sure your child brings a coat, jacket, or sweater labeled with their name for outdoor recess.
Focus on Study Habits: As assignments and assessments involve multi-step processes, setting aside a quiet, distraction-free study space at home helps build strong testing habits.
💌 Stay Connected!
We love partnering with you to support your child’s growth. If you ever have questions, concerns, or updates to share, please reach out!
Thank you for all that you do at home to support our classroom communities!
Sincerely,
Your 4th Grade Team of Teachers
John Kerr Elementary School
Winchester, VA
