Communication:
- My email address is: [email protected]
- Parent Conference will be by appointment. I will send out link through Parent Square later in the month.
- Website: pcy30.weebly.com
- Parent communication is mainly through email.
- Friday folders will be sent home weekly. Tests and school announcements are sent home in the Friday folder. Please review it with your student and sign return the next day.
- Any parent meetings will be by appointment only.
Classroom Rules and Expectations:
Students are expected to come to school prepare and ready to learn. I expect students to try their best everyday. This year the course work will be rigorous but also very fun. In fourth grade, the students will focus on independence and responsibility.
Classroom Rules:
1. Show respect to others.
2. Use self-control. (Keeping hands, feet, and objects to yourself and controlling your talking.)
3. Follow directions immediately.
4. Be an active listener.
5. Practice kindness.
6. Try your best everyday.
I'm really big on positive incentives (Group Points, Marble Jar, and acknowledgement for being a good leader, Cougar coupons). Students are encouraged to use " I statements" and active listening skills to work out conflicts.
Every child will have chance to be Student of the Week. Hooray, their posters have been completed in class. Please take a look at your student's poster before you leave BTSN.
Students are expected to come to school prepare and ready to learn. I expect students to try their best everyday. This year the course work will be rigorous but also very fun. In fourth grade, the students will focus on independence and responsibility.
Classroom Rules:
1. Show respect to others.
2. Use self-control. (Keeping hands, feet, and objects to yourself and controlling your talking.)
3. Follow directions immediately.
4. Be an active listener.
5. Practice kindness.
6. Try your best everyday.
I'm really big on positive incentives (Group Points, Marble Jar, and acknowledgement for being a good leader, Cougar coupons). Students are encouraged to use " I statements" and active listening skills to work out conflicts.
Every child will have chance to be Student of the Week. Hooray, their posters have been completed in class. Please take a look at your student's poster before you leave BTSN.
Homework:
- Students are responsible for writing down their homework assignments in their agenda daily, packing up necessary items, completing it, and bringing it back on time. Points will be deducted for late or incomplete work. I will send a parent email if your student misses two or more assignments in a week.
- Grade level requirement is 40 minutes a night. 15-20 minutes of reading daily is highly encouraged.
- A typical night of homework (Monday through Thursday) is a page of Math (Home Links) and a page of Language Arts (Readers Notebook or ELA worksheet). In addition, there is nightly reading and sometimes studying. Social studies homework is assigned as needed.
- It is very important for students to practice concepts learned in class and come back with questions if they didn't understand the homework.
Grades:
- All students receive a report card every trimester.
- Students will receive a letter grade in the areas of Reading, Writing, Language, Math, Social Science, Science (Your student's science teacher will give the Science grade), and PE (Coach Ty gives PE grades).
For Example: 100-98% A+, 97-93% A, 92-90% A- - Students will receive Outstanding, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, or Unsatisfactory in the areas of speaking and listening, citizenship, work habits, and special classes.
Writing Styles: Narrative, Informative, and Opinion
Reading: There is a shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" in 4th grade.
Students will use their reading skills to learn new information and ideas and begin to develop critical thinking skills.
Weekly Quizzes /Unit Test: 60%
Story Skills/Text Dependent Questions/Homework :30%
AR Scores: 10%
- All weekly reading quizzes are open book.
- Accelerated Reader in an online program that students use to take quizzes on books they have read independently. Students received their individual reading levels after taking the STAR test in class. Students are expected to read 1 book in their ZPD per month and take a quiz and pass with a 70% or better. Students can take AR quizzes in class and will be keeping a record of their quizzes on their AR contract in class. Book levels (BL) can be found at www.arbookfind.com.
Journeys Anthology
•Anchor Texts and Paired Selections: Students have online access to their textbooks.
•Reader's Notebook (RN)
Core Literature
•The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
•Two Years Before the Mast (abridged) by Richard Henry Dana
•Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Language
Vocabulary: 30%
Grammar: 25%
Spelling: 25 %
Homework: 20%
Vocabulary skills, grammar concepts, and spelling words can be found in the Reader's Notebook.
Math
Unit Tests: 50%
Quizzes: 30%
Assignments & Homework: 20%
- Students will complete study guides in class. We correct the study guides together in class but students are responsible to make sure if it is filled out correctly. They have 1 day to study it in preparation for a quiz and 2 days to study it in preparation for a unit test.
- Home links is the workbook sent home to practice the skill or lesson learned that day or previously. At the start of every unit there is a parent letter that details what will be covered in the unit and answers to the Home links. I found easiest to keep it in the Home links but you are more than welcome to take it out.
- Differentiation will occurs through math games, level of questioning when the students are doing math talk, and the use of flex days for reteaching or enrichment.
- Multiplication review is given every week. I believe a strong understanding of multiplication and division facts will benefit your child in fourth grade math. Your student has a multiplication/division practice folder.
•Unit 1: Place Value; Multi-digit Addition and Subtraction
•Unit 2: Multiplication and Geometry
•Unit 3: Fractions and Decimals
•Unit 4: Multi-digit Multiplication
•Unit 5: Fraction and Mixed-Number Computation; Measurement
•Unit 6: Division; Angles
•Unit 7: Multiplication of a Fraction by a Whole Number; Measurement
•Unit 8: Fraction Operations; Applications
Social Studies Alive! California's Promise
1. California's Golden Landscape
2. California's Native People
3. Exploration and Settlement
4. The Mission System
5. Mexican California
6. California Becomes a State
7. The Gold Rush changes California
8. Connecting California to the Nation
Science
Science Notebook: 70%
Projects & Lab: 30%
*Life Science (Hong):
•From Molecules to Organisms
*Physical Science (Lloyd):
•Energy
•Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
*Earth Science (Lesko):
•Earth’s Place in the Universe
•Earth’s Systems
•Earth and Human Activity
*Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science (Arbucci):
•Engineering Design
Stemscopes Science is an online science program. Students have access to it through Classlinks. Students will learn about energy, waves, animal senses, and fossils this year. Students will be switching for science so they will rotate through each of our classes.