December Birthdays

The last 15 minutes of Friday, December 23rd has been designated to celebrate any December birthdays. If you would like to send in a special snack, please contact your child’s teacher by Monday, December 19th.

Holiday Shop Schedule

Tuesday, December 6th: Ms. Glassberg’s Class

Wednesday, December 7th: Ms. Anderson/Ms. Ballow’s Class

Thursday, December 8th: Mrs. Laub’s Class

Mrs. Rodriguez’s Class Mr. Walczyk/Mrs. Weber’s Class

Mrs. Pilgrim’s Class

FOURTH GRADE NEWSLETTERDECEMBER 2011

! !

! FRANKLIN PARK SCHOOL

Dates to RememberMonday, December 5th Report Card Distribution

Monday, December 19th Minimum Session Day Monday, December 26th -Monday, January 2nd Winter Recess Classes will resume on Tuesday,

January 3rd

This month’sWords of the Week

December 5th - defiance

December 12th - prejudice

December 19th - dilemma

*Please encourage your child to use these new and exciting vocabulary words at home!

Dear Families,

We wish you and your loved ones a very happy and healthy Holiday Season. Have a wonderful winter break and see you next year!

Sincerely, The Fourth Grade Team

Reading• • •

Students will continue to study nonfiction texts by building on all of the essential nonfiction comprehension reading skills taught during the previous unit. Students will work in small research groups to not only restate what a text teaches, but also analyze and evaluate the information. They will be taught skills to help acquire and apply technical vocabulary, use note-taking strategies to help develop their thinking as they read, gather information from multiple sources, and develop essential skills of researchers. Students will be encouraged to make connections across the texts, draw conclusions, design their own informed opinions and apply their new-found knowledge by creating instructional materials for their peers and communities.

Writing• • •

During the month of December the fourth graders will continue working on their personal

and persuasive essays. They will craft and develop a global idea they feel strongly about. Students will build on the skill of making a statement and supporting it with evidence, examples and specific details to get their point across. The students will continue the use of their writers’ notebooks to help with the drafting process. They will also revise and edit to continue the process of evaluating their writing.

Math• • •

During the month of December the students will be exploring geometric properties and measurement." Students will understand and apply concepts involving lines, angles, and circles." Students will select and use appropriate standard units of measurement tools to solve real life problems." This includes solving problems with area, perimeter, and elapsed time." In addition to that, all students will collect, generate, organize, and analyze data on a graph." Students will also"continue

to strengthen their ability to problem solve and communicate mathematical ideas throughout each lesson."

Science• • •

This month the Fourth Grade students will take a closer look at the three different types of rocks and how these rocks are formed. They will gain an understanding of the rock cycle and how rocks are broken down by a variety of forces and changed into other types of rock. They will have an opportunity to observe, examine and test rocks and share their results with their peers.

Social Studies• • •

This month in social studies, we will continue to learn about the roles and responsibilities of the branches of the United States government." We will also begin to study the impact of early European settlers on the Native Americans, and the influence Native Americans have had in New Jersey.

This Month’s Curriculum

Classroom Highlights Mrs. Laub’s Class: Mrs. Laub’s fourth grade class shared a morning of thanks with Mrs. Kelly’s Kindergarten class on Wednesday, November 23rd. The students created finger turkeys and wrote a letter to each other stating a reason to be thankful for the opportunity to work with a partner. Our class is currently reading non-fiction, both expository and narrative nonfiction material. We are incorporating both science and social studies topics and our nonfiction unit. The students will soon read a biography and will present to the class a book project about their biography study.

Ms. Glassberg’s Class: Students have been building upon their multiplication skills. Not only are they becoming more fluent in learning their basic facts, but they have also practiced solving multiplication problems using a variety of strategies. Students created a multiplication flip book illustrating the different ways to solve a problem; including drawing a picture, using a number line, creating an array or though repeated addition.

Ms. Anderson and Ms. Ballow’s Class: Our class has been studying nonfiction texts and we are becoming experts on many different topics.! Students have the opportunity to participate in a Nonfiction Response Board for extra credit.! We look forward to sharing interesting facts and teaching the class new information.! !!

Mrs. Rodriguez’s Class:

In order to express our love of reading and our holiday spirit, on Friday, December 16th our class will be having a class book exchange. This is an excellent opportunity for students to share the books they love with others. It also allows us to discuss the reward of giving, being thoughtful and being thankful.

Mrs. Pilgrim’s Class: This month we’ll be creating X-ZONE poster reports, which will demonstrate how we are learning to use text features and characteristics of expository literature to help us comprehend non-fiction text.

Mr. Walczyk and Mrs. Weber’s Class Mr. Walczyk and Mrs. Weber's class will be working on a nonfiction project.! The students will gather a variety of information from a nonfiction text.! They will then create and write different activities, such as word searches or vocabulary matching, to cover a cereal box with. Once all the cereal boxes have been completed the students will trade and read each others boxes while enjoying a bowl of healthy cereal....just like they do at your own kitchen table.

The art of researching is one that requires both time and practice. Students start learning how to research in elementary school. As they get older, the degree of research will begin to increase in complexity. By fourth grade, students should be able to gather information by using various types of resources like encyclopedias, almanacs, newspapers, the Internet and more. There are several skills that will help a fourth-grade student to do research, which include knowing the organizational features of non-fiction text, being able to take notes and being able to summarize information.

Below you will find suggestions that can help you teach your child how to research at home.

1. Take your child to the local library to see the plentiful research materials available. Local libraries are brimming with information, and there is almost nothing that you can not find there. Libraries provide research materials like maps, encyclopedias, almanacs, periodicals and computer access to the Internet. Show your child the various parts of the library or get professional guidance and make an appointment to take a tour of the library with the librarian as a guide.

2. Introduce your child to reliable websites, such as those belonging to specific businesses, local libraries, government offices or universities. Reinforce that not all sites can be considered reliable places for research because they just represent individual opinions and not fact.

3. Teach note-taking skills. Taking notes is an important part of research because it helps students to keep track of significant information that is found throughout their reading. The first step to taking successful notes is to know what topic you are researching. Then use the five Ws to guide your research: who, what, when, where and why. Use note cards to keep track of information, allowing only one idea per card. This method will help in the latter stages of research when your child needs to organize his/her information.

4. Reinforce the art of summarizing. That is a key skill for research so that students can avoid plagiarizing an author's work. A good strategy for students to use is to read the information,then close or put away the resource and tell another person what they read. This helps students to avoid copying information word for word and helps them to identify the key points in their research.

5. Challenge your child and reinforce research skills at the same time. Ask a question of the day or question of the week and give your child time to come back with the answer for you.

Reading Strategy of the Month:Ways You Can Help Your Child Learn to Research