Fourth Grade News
by Lorna Scholtus
February 21, 2012
Fourth Grade News
by Lorna Scholtus
The fourth grade students have been very busy this quarter. In reading class they have just completed a Black History unit for February. They learned about Thurgood Marshall and his fight for equal education opportunities for all students. Then they went on to study a variety of African-Americans who have made significant contributions throughout history. Throughout this unit they studied topic, main idea, supporting details, summarizing, character traits, drawing conclusions, and using two different resources to research famous people. The students then created individual projects and presented that project to each other in groups so that all the students had an opportunity to learn about different people studied within the classroom. Then representatives from each group presented to the class to determine the person who should receive our fourth grade Black History Character Award. This award was based on how the students persuaded each other using factual data and character traits discussing the person’s integrity, accomplishments, and how what they did affects all people today. The students awarded the Black History Character Award to Rosa Parks and Barbara Jordan. The fourth graders continue to work diligently on Accelerated Reader striving to reach their point and comprehension goals set every quarter.
In English class they have increased their writing ability by completing units on capitalization/punctuation and sentence fluency. The students have also been working with the keyboarding program called Typist. This is being used to teach proper keyboarding skills so that the students may become more proficient with the computers used in the classroom. The goal for the end of the year is for the students to be able to type their own English story on the computer properly using their keyboarding skills.
In math class the students have been working on long division. In this unit hands on activities as well as book assignments have been used to enhance learning. Several computer programs have also been utilized. The students continue to work on their goals set for Accelerated Math.
In science the fourth graders are completing their metric measurement unit. In this unit the students learn how the metric measurement system works and participate in 24 different metric measurement activities. A lab station test will be given at the end of the unit.
In social studies the students are hard at work learning about the Southwest region. During this unit students learn about the history and the major changes that are occuring in the Southwest.
The fourth graders also busy preparing in all of their classes on test taking strategies. We would like to remind parents that Iowa Test of Basic Skills is approaching quickly. The fourth graders will test March 21-23. Please encourage your child to do his/her best. Getting plenty of rest and eating a healthy breakfast will also help.
