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Reading
Island of the Blue Dolphins was an exciting reading experience for the first month of school and we have now begun our RTI reading groups. Our first theme's focus is on Journeys with the adventures of our characters taking us around the globe. Each reading group will explore the different aspects of the week's story, such as reading comprehension, vocabulary, response to literature skills, and making inferences. Classes will rotate Monday through Thursday with quizzes every Thursday during the RTI period. Students should be reviewing their vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and weekly skills work in order to prepare themselves for these quizzes.
Writing
We are continuing to focus on Narrative Writing Skills in class through our journal topics, Writer's Workshop practice, and daily examination of good writing strategies. Look for some exciting "Scary" stories to be followed by stories with a "Thankful" theme. Students should continue to focus on utilizing descriptive sensory details, “active” verbs, and really “showing” the story not just “telling” it.
Math
As we finish up our review of Multiplication and Division Math Facts and move into Quadrilaterals, we are still finding that many students need to review their basic math facts for improved accuracy and speed. These facts will be used in everything that we do all year, so this is an important foundation to continue to work on this month.
In this Quadrilaterals unit, we will focus on perimeter and area; intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines; and many other "fun" Geometry concepts. Many students find working with these shapes and lines to be easier than our math work with numbers, so we will sprinkle in these Geometry units throughout the year.
Science
We are continuing to learn more about the natural world through our study of ecosystems and their inhabitants. We’ll look at how different species are dependent on each other, how changes in the environment can affect these ecosystems, and how species adapt to survive in their particular ecosystem. We are also focusing on note-taking strategies that are used throughout our content area units of study. It is important that students be able to read the material for content and understanding, learn to scan and review for main ideas, and are able to process how the material relates to their world.
PE and Health
Students are rotating through each Fourth grade teacher’s group as we work on Basketball, Baseball, and Astronaut Aerobics skills. Our SPARK fitness activities continue every first and third Monday and we urge students to actively practice those sit-ups, push-ups, and laps throughout the month and at home.
We will be working on our Health activities throughout the year and encourage students to make healthy choices in their daily lives. One of those healthy choices is to stay home from school if they have a fever or are not feeling well. Our thanks to our parents who have been following these health guidelines and are helping your child’s classmates to stay healthier too!
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Office: (949) 936-6900 
Fax: (949) 936-6909 
