4-M General Information

Reading: In fourth grade the students will be reading four novels during the year. Those novels include The Wish Giver, Maniac Magee, Call It Courage, and Charlotte's Web. These books will be read in class and the students will be tested on its contents. They will be tested about every 3 to 4 chapters. There will not be any final tests covering the whole book.

Spelling: The students are given a pretest every Monday and a final test every Friday. The Spelling words contain 10 words from the Spelling book and 10 words from the curriculum. The students will also be responsible for knowing the definitions of the 10 words from the curriculum. They will be given a vocabulary test on Fridays. Their homework will vary during the week however, they will also be responsible for completing the unit pages in their Spelling book.

Science: This year the students will begin working with a brand new Science series, called FOSS. The program is split up into four separate units: Magnetism and Electricity, Human Body, Ideas and Inventions, and Earth Materials. You can explore this program at the Foss Web Site, www.fossweb.com

Social Studies: In fourth grade the Social Studies curriculum focuses on our home state of New Jersey. We will be studying every aspect of New Jersey, from its involvement in the Revolutionary War to current day. The students will be responsible for writing a report on one of New Jersey's 21 counties. The year will be finished with a class trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Math: This year in Math our class will be using a new Math series. The series is called Math Trailblazers. You can find more information about it at www.mathtrailblazers.com We will still be covering the same curriculum, but in varying ways. In fourth grade the Math curriculum strongly focuses number recognition, review of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and word problems. We will also be spending some time on geometry and fractions.

English: The students will continue to study and learn the English language. With a heavy concentration on parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns). They will also study various forms of writing including: poetry, journal, autobiographical, and short story.

Writing: The students will be doing a lot of writing this year. Each student will be maintaining a writing portfolio in the classroom. They will be writing in many different formats including; short stories, poetry, creative stories, non-fiction stories, picture prompts. They will learn how to use a rubric to judge their own work.

ARP: The Brass Castle School library runs a program called the Accelerated Reader Program. The students can earn points for reading and testing on selected books. In this program the students can earn money which can be spent in the school store. How this applies to the classroom: I give the students a set amount of time to finish reading their book. I calculated the time by using the formula: 10 pages = 1 day. Therefore, if a student is reading a book that is 180 pages they have 18 days to read it. I will always round the number of days up. For example if a child is reading a book that is 181 pages they will get 19 days to read the book. Each student starts out the marking period with a 100% for his or her ARP test grade. If they do not test on the book within the given time they will loose one point on their ARP test grade for everyday.

Absences: If your son or daughter is absent from school they are required to make up all work. I would prefer if their work could be sent home with a sibling, a friend, or picked up at school. If that is not possible the student should make sure that they find out what work they missed. They can also go on-line to see what their homework was. If you know your son or daughter will be absent on a particular day(s) (family vacation, holiday) please let me know as soon as you can. If you have any questions throughout the year please don't hesitate to contact me. You can reach me at the following: e-mail : margolinr@warrennet.org ( I check it every morning and afternoon) phone: 908-689-1188 ext. 654 I am looking forward to having a great year!!!! I will be absent on Sept 28, Sept 29, and Oct 1 next week. I will be with our sixth grade class at Stokes.