Benchley Weinberger - Filner2

Daily homework is assigned Monday through Thursday with the occasional project that could be worked on during the weekend. Homework should take no more than 1 1/2 hours, including the 30 minutes spent doing home reading. If you find your child is consistently spending longer than that, please contact me. If your child is unable do the homework due to family reasons, please send a note or stop by in the morning and let me know. When students do not turn in their homework, they are sent to work center at recess to complete the work.

News Flash	The fourth graders will be performing at the Spotlight Assembly on Friday, October 30 at 7:55.

We just began our second unit of literacy. Both fourth and fifth grades are studying fiction: Fourth Grade - "Motives Make the World Go 'Round: How Characters' Actions and Motives Impact Theme" Fifth Grade - "Friends, Enemies and the Stories They Create". The students will analyze the characters and central conflict and explore how the literary elements are interconnected. The fifth graders will also interpret and critique narrative text to reveal theme and support these interpretations with textual evidence.

In writing we will be drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and sharing several fiction pieces in things such as:
Response to Literature
Narrative

Word Study

Word Study in Grade 4 and Grade 5 is more than a spelling program. It is a 2 week program each time. Students are pretested on some of these new words the Thursday or Friday before the actual unit starts.

The first week their work involves all the words as they do the pages of the Word Study packet each night for homework.

Monday: page 2

Tuesday: page 3

Wednesday: page 4

Thursday: 4th - catch up on or correct any pages/items missed

5th - page 5 and catch up on or correct any pages/items missed

The second week they focus in on their own individual 20 words.

Monday: Write words 3 times in cursive

Tuesday: Write words in sentences – if they do not know the meaning of the word they can look up and write the definition instead.

Wednesday: 4th - At least 6 words written in a story

5th -At least 10 words written in a story

Thursday Study for word test.

Friday: Students take their word test and hand in all homework

Be sure:

• You are spelling the words right as you write them.
• When you use words in a sentence we should know what the word means by what you write. Do not simply list them.
• Underline your 20 words in the sentences and story.
• You may use more than one word in a sentence if it makes sense.
• All Word Study work must be complete and handed in to go to Design Time.

The first few weeks of school we will be working on statistics. We will be collecting, organizing, and studying data in surveys. We will learn various ways to collect and display data such as line plots, bar graphs, line graphs, etc. We will also work on interpreting the data by discussing the median, mode, scales, intervals, etc.

We will also be jumping right into our review of the multiplication facts. If your child does not know these yet please spend some fun time trying to learn them.

Our study of science in 4th grade will begin with the Solid Earth Unit where we will be thinking about the properties of rocks and minerals, effects of weathering, and basic land forms on the earth's surface. The fifth graders are studying the dynamics of weather and water cycling in the Earth's atmosphere. The fifth graders have science with Ms. Hasselbar or Ms. Armstrong.

California is the main focus of 4th grade social studies and we'll begin our work with a better look at the four main regions of the state itself. Students will be making their own state maps in the process.

Our Physical Education time is at 12:25 on Thursday.

We will be doing our first art project on Monarch butterflies. All 4th graders will be participating in a Symbolic Migration of their butterflies to Mexico in a program called Journey North. We will also be doing a mixed media monarch for the room.

Choral music for the fourth graders is every other Thursday at 1:30. The fifth graders have instrumental music on Tuesdays at 8:55. On Friday, October 30 the fourth graders will be performing at the Spotlight Assembly.

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
7:45	Math Journals	Writer's Notebook	Math Journals	Writer's Notebook	Math Journals
8:05	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy/Word Study - Fri.
9:00	Literacy	Literacy/ 5th Music	Literacy	Literacy	Literacy
9:45	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess	Recess
10:05	Interactive Reading	Interactive Reading	Interactive Reading	Interactive Reading	Interactive Reading
10:30	Math	Math	Math.	Math	Comp/Lib/Math
11:25			Lunch
11:45	Lunch	Lunch	Dismissal	Lunch	Lunch
12:30	Science	Science		P.E.	Science
1:30	Social Studies	Social Studies		Social Studies/ 4th Music	Design Time
2:20	Dismissal	Dismissal		Dismissal	Dismissal