Waters Landing Elementary School
Fourth Grade Newsletter
May 2013
Important Dates
May 9
Field Trip Brighton Dam
May 14
Olympic Day
May 18
Evening Drama
performance
May 17
Drama Performance
7pm-9pm
May 18
DOLPHINMANIA
12pm-4pm
May 23
Volunteer Tea
Art Show
Spring Concert
May 22-May 29
BOOK FAIR
May 27
MEMORIAL DAY
SCHOOLS CLOSED
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The end of the school year is quickly approaching. We are still working to prepare your child for their upcoming 5th grade year. We have several topics in all
subject areas to complete by the end of the school year. You can help us to
make it a smooth transition to 5th grade by continually monitoring their Friday folders and daily assignment books. Also, please ensure that your child
has the appropriate materials needed for the remainder of the school year, i.e..
pencils, erasers, etc.
Important Dates:
May 9th WSSC 2013 Children’s Water Festival at
Brighton Dam
**Please remember to bring a bagged lunch this day...NO
LUNCH BOXES, all Lunch items must be disposable.
Remember to wear your WSSC t-shirt on the field trip.
Arrange for pick-up of your child at WLES by 5:15pm.
May 14th Olympic Day
Reading
In May we will finish up our study of poetry. Students have had
the opportunity to read poems by many great poets as well as compose
poems of their own. Once poetry is completed we will be begin the
study of how mystery’s are written. We will spend about two weeks studying mood, tone, character development, and plot of mystery.
We will continue novel study in small guided reading groups as
well as reading to be informed. Look for differing types of literature to
come home for reading, review, and comprehension.
Social Studies
We are finishing up our study of immigration with lessons on the founding of
“New America” colonies. We have studied the “how's” and “whys” Europeans
came and settled in St. Mary’s City, Plymouth, and
Jamestown. We have looked at their governments,
their hardships, and their triumphs. As we finish out
the remainder if the school year we will be focused on
the foundations and functions of government today.
We will study the three braches of government, the
rights and responsibilities of individuals, and apply this
knowledge to real world scenarios
Science
In Science we are wrapping up our study of matter and will be
starting our final unit which is Rocks and Minerals. Students will be
learning about the three types of rocks. They will be conducting
investigations to determine the difference between rocks and minerals. They will also be discovering what makes up rocks with their
“mock rock”, and be able to “dig” for fossils.
4th Grade Math
We continue our in depth study of fractions. We have introduced and continue
to use new vocabulary words in our class. Ask your child to share definitions of the
following words with you: partition, fractions greater than a whole, fractions less than
a whole, decompose, and many more. We continue to discuss how to partition fractions into equal parts on a number line, identifying the unit fraction , and discovering
the relationship between the unit fraction and a fraction with the same denominator.
We will begin to compare and order fractions with differing
denominators, decomposing fractions, and adding fractions. As always we appreciate all of your
support with this exploration of
fractions.
5th Grade Math
The students are reviewing for their Unit 5 Assessment which will be given
next week. Ask your child how to find the area, perimeter, or volume of a given
shape. Unit 6 is our last unit, and will focus on probability, and evaluating expressions
including positive and negative integers. Students will be learning how to express the
probability of an event occurring in words and as a fraction and a ratio. They will
learn about the order of operations, and use that to simplify and solve numerical expressions.
Writing
We will focus on writing for personal express on during the
month of May. We will ask students to write poetry, mimicking poetry
styles studied in class. In addition we will ask students to free write
short stories and/or respond to paragraph starters.
A Big Thanks/Good Bye/Congratulations
Mr. Leyva, UMD student intern in Mr. Warner’s class ,will be leaving us shortly. Mr. Leyva has completed his program and will be graduating in May. Upon graduation Mr. Leyva has hopes of securing a
teaching position with the MCPS school system. If you see him wish
him success and luck in his future endeavors.
Thanks,
Mrs. Everhart, Ms. Guy, Ms. Kanner,
Mr. Leyva, and Mr. Warner