Famous American Biographies:  Students should begin thinking about who they would like to research. We will start working on our famous American biography writing and presentations at the middle or end of April. Our focus is Famous Americans who have made a contribution to science, civil rights or a humanitarian effort. Students will study a famous artist in fourth grade so please save those ideas for next year. Examples of Famous Americans would be:

George Washington
John F. Kennedy
Abraham Lincoln
Alexander Graham Bell
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Harriet Tubman
Sojourner Truth

Math - Module 4 -  Understanding Area

 Students began in earlier grades to build arrays, showing multiplication and division as a series of rows and columns. In 3rd grade, they begin the transition to understanding these types of problems in the context of an area model. As students move through the grades, the area model will be a powerful tool that can take them all the way into algebra and beyond. One of the goals in A Story of Units is to first give students concrete experiences with mathematical concepts, and then build slowly toward more abstract representations of those concepts. The area model is a tool that helps students to make that important leap.  

Module 5- Fractions on a number line. Fraction Equivalence, Ordering, and Operations.

How you can help at home: Continue to practice and review multiplication and division math facts – this greatly supports work with fractions!  Look for opportunities in daily life to discuss fractional parts and divide objects into equal parts. In this module, students explore fraction equivalence and extend this understanding to mixed numbers. They compare and represent fractions and mixed numbers using a variety of models. Toward the end of the module, they use what they know to be true about whole number operations to apply to fractions and mixed number operations. 

Writing:
We will begin our unit on fairy tales next week. We will first be reading the classic versions of Cinderella, Little Red Writing Hood, and Three Billy Goats Gruff. We will then be examining several adapted versions of these stories and spend time discussing why the authors have chosen to adapt the story, and students will work to identify the purposeful changes and consequential actions the authors have made. We will also be examining the plot structure of the fairy tales. Students will then choose to adapt Little Red Riding Hood or Three Billy Goats Gruff using their own imagination and creativity.


Grammar: We will be focusing on the proper use of quotation marks this week, as our fairy tales have a lot of rich dialog within them. We will also be working on building simple sentences into rich, descriptive ones that create an image in the minds of readers.