2010-11

Third Grade Newsletter

Third Grade Newsletter Quarter One Strategies, Skills, and Topics
Social Studies   Geography The Five Themes: location, place, region, movement, and people & places change each other Map Skills: features of a map (borders, compass rose, key), and types of maps (physical & political)   Communities What are they? Where are they? What types are there?	Language Arts   Reading Themes: Adventures, Celebrating Traditions, Poetry, and Trickster Tales   Reading Strategies: Predict and Infer, Monitor and Clarify, Question, and Summarize   Reading Skills: cause & effect, inferring character traits, understanding poetry, author’s viewpoint, character relationships, main ideas & details, and understanding trickster tales   Writing Practices: paragraphs that explain, personal narratives, poetry, compare & contrast, and instructions (how to)
Science   Life Science Topics   Plants – How they grow Parts of a plant, and how they are grouped   How Animals Live How they are grouped, grow & change, and past & present animals   Where Plants and Animals Live Ecosystems, ecosystems with few trees, forest ecosystems, and water ecosystems
	Mathematics   Number Relationships & Computation: place value, even & odd numbers, money, adding & subtracting, and word problems   Algebra: whole numbers on a number line, and patterns using skip counting   Geometry: identify and describe geometric shapes (cube, polygons, quadrilaterals), congruent shapes, symmetry, and slide, flip & turning shapes   Measurement: estimate and determine the perimeter and area of a shape
Health   Your Amazing Body: bones, muscles, & nerves, breathing & digestion, and taking care of your body   Taking Care of Yourself: skin, teeth, & gums, ears, eyes, & nose   Food for a Healthy Body: Why we need food, my pyramid, wise food shoppers, and handling food safely
Volunteers Please feel welcome to volunteer in your child’s classroom.  There are many tasks you could help out with.  Contact your child’s teacher to set up a day and time.  We look forward to hearing from you!   Upcoming Events: Field trips We are currently working on putting together a field trip to the Bladensburg Waterfront Park for this quarter.  The park is located along the Anacostia River and offers its visitors the opportunity to take a pontoon boat tour of the river and attend an interactive lesson on wildlife.  Keep an eye out for more information about this great trip!

**Please Note**

Be sure to check your child's book bag each night to see if any correspondence or homework has been sent home.

Fourth Grade Newsletter

Hello fourth grade family,

        The fourth grade team thought it would be a great idea to share with you what the students of fourth grade will be learning in school. Listed below is a guideline of what we, the fabulous Mr. Sarich, the stunning Ms. Dorris, and the wonderful Mrs. Harvey, will be teaching. With this inside knowledge, your child can practice the skills from the classroom, as well as get a head start on the skills that we will work on in the future, from you at home.

THIS WEEK:

Monday, September 13, 2010 = Jersey Day, Mr.Sarich’s Class went to Owens Science Center

NO SCHOOL = Tuesday, September, 14^th = Election day

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 = Mrs. Harvey’s Class went to Owens Science Center

Thursday, September 16, 2010 = Fingerprinting in the Library, RITA’S of laurel 5-8pm

Friday, September 17, 2010 = Individual Pictures for the Yearbook – in UNIFORMS, Ms. Dorris’ Class went to Owens Science Center

UPCOMING EVENTS:

~ Band has begun. If your child is signed up for band, they will miss two 30 minute blocks of class time a week. If grades fall due to band, we will let you know ASAP!

~Chorus will begin soon. Information went home in Friday folders.     

~Hispanic Heritage Month... mid-September – mid-October      

~NO SCHOOL: Friday, September 24, 2010

~Progress Reports – October 5, 2010

~1/2 day: Thursday, October 14, 2010

~ NO SCHOOL: Friday, October 15, 2010

~1^st Quarter ends: Friday, October 29, 2010

READING             First Quarter         AT- A- GLANCE

Story: Akiak –Strategy Focus:  Summarizing               Focus Skill: Effect of Character on Plot

Bringing Words To Life Spelling Words:  Refuge,      Rooting, Courageous

Word Work: Base words and Endings, Multiple-meaning words

Grammar: Kinds of Sentences

Writing: Writing a Newspaper Article

Story: Grandfather’s Journey – Strategy Focus:  Predict / Infer                     Focus Skill: Author’s Viewpoint

Bringing Words To Life Spelling Words:  Astonished, Bewildered, Marveled            

Word Work: Suffixes, Alphabetical Order

Grammar: Subjects and Predicates, Sentence Combining

Writing: Personal Narrative                                                                                           

Story: Finding the Titanic – Strategy Focus:  Monitor / Clarify                       Focus Skill: Main Idea

Bringing Words To Life Spelling Words:  Distress, Drenched, Loomed          

Word Work: Syllabication, Using a Thesaurus

Grammar: Compound Sentences, Sentence Combining

Writing: Personal Narrative

Story: By the Shores of Silver Lake- Strategy Focus:  Question                      Focus Skill: Character Traits

Bringing Words To Life Spelling Words:  Jolting, Dreadful, Lurching              

Word Work: Word Roots, Dictionary Guide Words

Grammar: Homophones

Writing: Friendly Letter

MATH                 First Quarter         AT- A- GLANCE

Students MUST know their basic facts! Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication FACTS!  0-12

·        Patterns

·        Function Tables  -  in / out tables

·        Algebra =         variables – letters that represent numbers

·        Equations =     8X = 56

·        Expressions, and Inequalities =          7+4 ___ 17-12      a. >  b. <   c. =

·        Matching Word phrases and Number expressions 24-(10+2) or (24-10)+2  which equals more?

·        Line Plots = what is an outlier?

·        Coordinate Grid = Start at 0. Over to the X, Up to the Y   (3, 7)

·        Line Graphs = Titles for graph, X axis, y axis, decreasing data, increasing data

·        Median= (all #’s in order from least to greatest, middle #= median)

·        Mode= (all #’s in order from least to greatest, the # that appears the most= mode)

·        Range= (all #’s in order from least to greatest, largest # - smallest #= range)

·        TIME!! Elapsed time – time spent on an activity, units of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries…)

·        Multiplication – factors, multiples, estimation (Magic #5)

·        Multiply larger numbers = 743 x 4 =

·        DIVISION = divisor, dividend, remainder  STEPS: Divide, multiply, subtract, bring down

·        DIVISIBILITY= 2- even #, 5- last digit is a 0 or 5, 10- last digit is a 0, 3and 9- add digits and if answer if a factor of 3 or 9

Stay tuned…More exciting news is coming in the next issue!

**Please Note**

Be sure to check your child's book bag each night to see if any correspondence or homework has been sent home.