4th Grade

Fourth Grade Newsletter 2025-2026!

Continuing Module 9 Global Guardians:  Students are continuing to listen to, read, and view a variety of texts and media that present them with information about conservation. There is a genre focus on persuasive texts that provide students with opportunities to identify ideas and support, text and graphic features, and author’s craft in order to better understand unfamiliar texts. Students will also encounter a graphic novel, realistic fiction, and a biography to build knowledge across genres. As students build their vocabulary and synthesize topic knowledge, they will learn that it is up to all of us to work together to preserve our planet and its natural resources.

 

Reading: Over the course of Module 9 we will read texts that will help us answer the following

Essential Question: What can people do to care for our planet? We will develop and work on the following reading skills and strategies: author’s ideas and support,  making inferences, text and graphic features, theme, figurative language, retelling, summarizing, text structure, author‘s craft, and literary elements

  

Home Connections

Discuss the Topic: Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic: 

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week. 
• Ask about the texts your child is reading and what he or she has learned.

Explore the Genre:The genre focus in this module is persuasive text. Discuss with your child how to analyze the reasons given in a persuasive text to decide if they are convincing. Ask your child to read to you each day and make time to read together.

Look for texts that:  • spark your child’s curiosity • tie to the module topic • use descriptive language

• have engaging photographs or illustrations

 

Build Vocabulary: Use these ideas to help your child build a rich vocabulary. The Big Idea reinforces the topic words ecology, recycle, conservation, and sanctuary in everyday conversations with your child. 

Using prompts like these: 

• What items can we recycle?. 
• How could we help the conservation movement?
• What Does It Mean?
• Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words.

 

What Does It Mean? Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words. Quiz each other on their meanings.

 

Word Hunt Look for words with the suffixes –able, –ible, –ful, -ous, -less, -en, ic in books, magazines, and online texts.

 

Reinforce Reading Skills

Your child’s IXL account is linked with this Module and all skills that are taught weekly from this module. Please have your child use the IXL platform daily to reinforce these skills and other teacher recommended skills. 

The use of iReady at home is also another  good app to use to reinforce reading skills at home. You can access it through Teachhub and go through Clever. 

 

Summary of Module 12 Genre Study: Fiction:  In this module, over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about fiction. We will read different forms of fiction, including realistic fiction, folktales, and historical fiction. Students will revisit texts we have read in previous modules. 

 

Reading: We will revisit texts from previous modules from this past year. Each week will focus on a different fictional genre and essential question. 

 

Week 1: Focus on Realistic Fiction. The Essential Question we will discuss through this week will be What are the characteristics of realistic fiction?

 

Week 2: Focus on Traditional Tales. The Essential Question we will discuss through this week will be What are the characteristics of traditional tales?

 

Week 3: Focus on Historical Fiction. The Essential Question we will discuss through this week will be What are the characteristics of historical fiction?

 

Home Connections

Discuss the Topic: Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic: 

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week. 
• Ask about the texts your child is reading and what he or she has learned.

 

Explore the Genre: The genre focus in this module is fiction. Discuss with your child the characteristics of this genre. Ask your child to read to you each day and make time to read together. 

Look for texts that: • Spark your child’s curiosity 

• Provide interesting characters, settings, and plots 
• Have unique formats and graphic features

 

Build Genre Knowledge:  Use these ideas to help your child build genre knowledge. 

 

The Big Idea: Reinforce genre by having your child point out and explain genre features in the books he or she chooses. 

Use prompts like these: What parts of this book tell you it is fiction? 

                                          What kind of fiction is this? How do you know?

                                          What Have I Read? 

Have your child keep a growing list of the fiction books that he or she has read. Next to each title, have your child note the book’s genre features. 

 

Reinforce Reading Skills

Your child’s IXL account is linked with this Module and all skills that are taught weekly from this module. Please have your child use the IXL platform daily to reinforce these skills and other teacher recommended skills. 

The use of iReady at home is also another good app to use to reinforce reading skills at home. You can access it through Teachhub and go through Clever. 

Have your child read for at least 20 minutes each night. They can choose a book from their classroom library or take a trip to the public library to check out a book that sparks their interests!

Writing: 

In Module 12, students will read about how small changes can lead to a big change. They will encounter examples of perseverance in focal texts and discuss how few problems are solved on the first attempt and that developing perseverance will help them persist until a problem is resolved. Students will then brainstorm and discuss changes they would like to see in their school and community. They will write an editorial explaining what they would like to see changed and why. Editorials will include an introduction, claim, counterclaim, research and information and a conclusion. Students will continue to include transition and linking words to connect ideas and organize their writing. They will also continue to build their typing skills by writing their editorials on their laptops.

Math Curriculum: 

 

Your child is extending his or her skills by converting units of length, capacity, weight, and mass within the customary and metric measurement systems. It is likely that your child is more familiar with customary units (inches, gallons, pounds) than metric units (meters, liters, grams). The best way to help your child become more familiar with metric measures is to use them more often. You can help by using metric units to do some measuring activities together.

 

Your child is learning how fractions and decimals relate to each other. He or she is also learning how to compare numbers to two decimal places. To do this, he or she is learning how to apply the concept of place value to decimals. For example, in 563.21, the 2 is in the tenths place and the 1 is in the hundredths place. In 563.19, the 1 is in the tenths place and the 9 is in the hundredths place. 563.21 > 563.19 because 2 tenths is greater than 1 tenth. Help your child practice comparing decimals by playing the following game together.

 

At Home Connection:

Metric Scavenger Hunt - Challenge your child to go on a metric scavenger hunt. The task is for your child to find items that are about the following measurements. They should find at least one item for each measure.

1 centimeter                  1 kilogram                    100 milliliters

                                         1 liter                               100 grams                     2 meters

 

Make the Greatest Decimal

Materials index cards, paper and pencil

Make a set of ten number cards using 0 through 9. On another index card, write a decimal point.

Place the number cards face down on a table but leave the decimal card face up. Turn over one

number card and place it to the left of the decimal point. Player 1 turns over two cards and

arranges them to the right of the decimal point to make the greatest possible number. Player 2

turns over two more cards and places them to the right of the decimal point on top of Player 1’s

cards to make the greatest possible number. Have your child record both numbers and read both

numbers aloud. The player with the greatest number is the winner.

Science: 

Earth’s Features

In this unit, students will play the role of geologists. Students will  investigate how a dinosaur fossil found in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park formed, which serves as the anchor phenomenon for the unit. Students make inferences about the history of the park based on the fossil itself and the rock layers in which it is embedded. Investigating how the fossil formed leads students to learn about sedimentary rock formation. Students use books, hands-on investigations, and the Earth’s Features Simulation to figure out how fossils and sedimentary rock form and how different sediments build up in different environments, forming different rocks in those environments. This helps them learn how to tell the environmental history of a place by observing the rock layers present. Finally, in an effort to explain a new anchor phenomenon, why two different canyons in the fictional Desert Rocks National Park have different amounts of exposed rock, students figure out that rock can be broken down and layers can become exposed by things in the environment, such as water.

 

Vision & Light

In this unit, students explore how animal senses—especially vision—help with survival. They investigate a real-world–inspired problem: why the number of Tokay geckos is decreasing in one area of a rainforest in the Philippines. Along the way, students learn how human changes to the environment, like adding lights at night, can impact animals in unexpected ways.

Through hands-on activities, reading, discussion, and interactive simulations, students discover how light travels, how eyes work, and how different animals are adapted to see in bright or low light. By the end of the unit, students use what they’ve learned to explain how increased nighttime lighting can affect the geckos’ ability to survive

Social Studies 

In this exciting unit, our 4th graders are diving into the important role of global conservationists and learning how they can make a positive impact in their own communities. Through exploring environmental challenges, from climate change to endangered species, students will understand the connections between local actions and global effects. They'll investigate ways to conserve natural resources, protect wildlife, and take steps toward sustainability. By the end of the unit, each student will have developed their own action plan to make a real difference. 

 

We are also excited to announce we will be starting our Civics For All Service Learning project. Fourth graders will be collecting empty cans and empty plastic bottles school wide. With this collection, we are then going to understand the importance of recycling and how that makes a difference in the world. We will use the proceeds of the recycling to donate to the Ronald McDonald House for children and families in need. This will also assist in the awareness of environmental issues and how recycling helps not only the community but those in need. We're excited to see how their ideas and passion will spark change both at home and around the world!

Stay tuned for more updates as our young conservationists begin their journey to protect the planet!

Music

Students in the Fourth grade have been working on a unit about musical fables, to tie to their current HMH unit on Tricksters and Tall Tales. The students have been learning the musical version of the fable “Stone Soup.” The students will be performing this for families on May 21st at 8:30am. Students may practice with the resources available on Google Classroom.

  

SPARK New Victory Theater: Students are completing a fifteen workshop residency with teaching artists from New Victory Theater. The students learned previously about clowning and characters, which ties to their story reading in HMH. The students also learned about the fundamentals of acting and will be applying this knowledge to their upcoming performance of “Stone Soup” Currently the students are learning about juggling and acrobatics. The students will be culminating this knowledge in a circus that will be performed for their peers

  

Art 🎨

Fourth grade artists will connect to their HMH module by creating artwork that relates to fiction. Students will create different characters and create backgrounds relating to themes and settings. Students will make artwork that relates to realistic fiction and traditional tales.

Physical Education:

It’s been an exciting and active year in Physical Education for our fourth graders! I am proud of all the effort, improvement, and positive energy students have shown throughout the year.

Students have reinforced their skills in a variety of activities, while also learning the importance of teamwork and fair play. They practiced strategies, improved coordination, and challenged themselves to keep getting better.

In addition to physical skills, we focused on building healthy habits and understanding how regular exercise helps keep our bodies strong and our minds sharp. Students showed great sportsmanship, supported one another, and demonstrated responsibility during games and activities.

As we head into summer, please remember to stay active—whether it’s playing sports, swimming, biking, or playing at the park. Have a great summer!

 

Student Voice:

Joseph 401- I liked that we get to use protractors to measure angels

Christa 401- I liked the Tricksters and Tale Tales Module in reading. The Traditional Tales were fun and exciting to read

Melody 402-  In writing I enjoyed writing about interesting artists. In Math I liked measuring angels and learning how to use a protractor. For Reading, I am enjoying learning about being a Global Guardian and enjoyed the story Luz Sees the Light. 

Fiad 402-  Something I liked about math is measuring angles and finding different types of angles.