February 14th Bi-Weekly Update

LITERACY

During literacy time your child is reading many articles through a variety of different media- ranging from books to websites and articles. Dr. Purcell has come to all fourth grade classes and taught students how to cite the source of their research. What an important skill!

All classes are working on their persuasive essay on the human impact on the environment. Your

child has  committed to a thesis statement and can list three reasons to support their thesis. The next process is the research stage, which takes quite a bit of time and perseverance. A template has been provided to help streamline the process.  We are noticing that your children are understanding how the process of researching is a long, but necessary procedure that involves quite a lot of steps.

MATH

Our math unit on both multiplication and division will wind down in the next few weeks. In this unit your child has learned several different ways to both multiply and divide. Some of these include partial product, dividing using place value disks as well as the traditional algorithm. We are also asking students to check their work and apply the required strategy to multi-step word problems. This takes time and patience and we encourage your child to practice their multiplication and division basic facts at home to ensure the automaticity of their responses.

Social Studies

Last week we started our trade and economy unit. This unit is both relevant and hands, and  students love it. It includes the basics of economy with an emphasis placed on markets and global trade. During this unit we will be asking parents who are interested to come and speak about how their profession relates to the global market. We will also be going on another field trip, which will show first hand some of the global markets in Brazil. To end this unit, students will participate in their own market here at Graded. Stay tuned for more details!

Our overnight field trip was just wonderful!  Everyone was engaged in the activities that ranged from caves, to feeding animals, sliding on two different slides, hiking, swimming, mazes, competitive games, lots of eating and of course dancing.   By the end of each day both kids and students were exhausted and ready to sleep. Everyone was sad to say goodbye.