Hello Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed your weekend! It is nice to have some fresh air again!! 

Assessments: 

Your child will receive the DRA assessment in reading in October. Your child was assessed in 3rd grade in the fall and winter of last year. The schedule for this assessment along with information about how it will be conducted in a distance learning platform will be given out in the beginning of October. This is an aligned approach that is planned by the educators and administration. 

Your child will receive formative and summative assessments in math. At this time, your child should be: watching the daily video lesson, completing the lesson with the teacher and completing any assigned packet and workbook pages as independent practice. Let me be clear, homework and workbook pages are not assessments. They are practice. That said, it is important that you correct these pages with your child so that your child gets to see what is going well and where areas of need arise. Please have your child circle missed problems and when they join their small group the next day, those problems can be looked at with the adult and group. This is a crucial step in our partnership and provides opportunities for reteaching and support in small group. 

Singapore digital bench mark assessments are to be taken independently. It is perfectly fine if you would like to sit and work with your child on the learn, guided practice and assisted practice. However, the benchmark is their formative assessment on the teaching point and should be completed independently. This data is reviewed for small group work and reteaching purposes.

Times table packets went home the second week of school. Your child is responsible for having their math facts memorized 2's-12's. It's called automaticity. Your child should spend 5-10 minutes nightly on math facts until they are fluid. Here is the multiplication music that your child should listen to while pointing to and reciting their math facts on each page: "4 times 1 is 4, 4 times 2 is 8" and so on. This link will be on your child's daily schedule in the math section so that they have access to it as well. Here is the math facts checklist (for parents) that you should use to check off memorized and orally recited math facts.  Students should strive to have these under their belts by October 30th. At that time, please sign, scan and email these to me so that I can see how your child is progressing. I will assess students privately in the beginning of November. 

**Fourth grade math requires fluid math facts. Your partnership with this skill is vital and will help your child succeed in math now and in the future.

4th Grade Standards

Math: We are studying factors this week. I will dip into division, but the unit on division is coming, and it will be specifically studied in depth as we go through the operations in math.

Writing Project: The Book Review on The Tiger Rising was due last week.  Please make sure these are turned in on google classroom.  If you have not returned The Tiger Rising Novel in the box on the 4th grade table, please do so as soon as you are able. We really appreciate that!

New Novel: Little House in the Big Woods. We are beginning our study of one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's classics. There is a student Little House in the Big Woods web site that accompanies this novel which gives your child enrichment and access to questions, vocabulary, figurative language and videos on this wonderful book and brings it all to life! We will have some hands-on enrichment projects as well. There is a daily reading assignment and your child will answer questions for the novel on their reading log. They do no need to complete any website assignments at this time. This is just for digging deeper into the novel. I will show your children how to use this site as a helpful and powerful tool on zoom.

History Social Sciences: Chapter 3 "California's Human Geography" Your child has been assigned roughly 2 pages of reading per night in their packet Monday-Friday--refer to packet and Tuesday schedule for these page numbers. When time allows, we will discuss in greater detail. This is modeled on zoom.

Lesson 3: California’s Human Geography 

Monday: pages 26-28

Tuesday: pages 28-29

Wednesday: pages 30-32

Thursday: pages 32-33

Friday: pages 34-36

Science: please welcome special guest and educator Mollie Behn from the Coastal Water Shed on Monday at 9:30. She will join us with her colleague, Sam, in educating us about the San Lorenzo River and the power of erosion. These are enrichment pieces from a third party. There are activities to finish in the afternoon that are explained and scaffolded on zoom. Your child can write responses on the paper Coastal Watershed Journal.

Thank you,

Heather