4AW Weekly Newsletter April 29- May 3

Grade 4

Weekly Newsletter

April 29 - May 3, 2019

Language Arts 
In our Reading unit, students will be introduced to their Historical Fiction Book Clubs. Book Clubs assist students in developing interpretations in the company of their peers, which provides a sounding board for students to clarify their thinking. Students will begin to track the setting, character, mood and theme of their historical fiction text.

We will also examine, using our mentor text, Number the Stars, how character perspectives are  by their roles. Readers are encouraged to step into characters shoes and conclude that their thoughts and actions are shaped by both their roles and the times in which they lived.
In our literary essay unit, students are discovering how to craft a thesis, honing their skills in discovering a big idea and determining what they really want to say. The students will learn to purposely angle their stories to highlight the way it supports their claim.

Math
This week students will be showing equivalent decimals and fractions. They will be using the area model as well as number lines to decompose decimals and fractions to understand their the place value up to the hundredths place. The students will also use base ten blocks and place value mats to model their work.  The students will be using their toolkit of number lines and area models to order and compare fractions.

Social Studies
This weeks sees us continue our work on products and finding out what resources are needed - in terms of natural, capital and human resources. Later in the week we will be focusing on natural resources and finding out what these are and where in the world these are found using map- starting off here in our host country of Malaysia.


Announcements
Monday, April 29th: MAPS Testing - Grade 4 students will continue taking their MAP tests.
Wednesday May 1st is LABOR day and so there is no school.
ES Dress Up Days: none this week


Resources
Quizlet: there is a lot of vocabulary connected to our Social Studies Unit of Trade and Resources. Here is a quizlet that students can use to learn these new words.

If you are interested in extending your understanding of how to think about and teach  fractions take a look at the link below:
Recovering Traditionalist