Fourth Grade Quarter One Newsletter
L o i s P . Ro c k w e l l El e me n t a r y S c h o o l
2 4 5 5 5 C ut s a i l D r . D a ma s c us , M D 2 0 8 72
( 3 0 1 - 2 5 3 - 7 08 8 )
September 2015
Announcements and Reminders
Upcoming
Events:

Your child has homework every weekday night (Monday-Thursday). This usually
includes word study and math homework. Each child is also expected to read
a “just right” book for at least 20 minutes nightly and practice his/her basic
math facts. Please make sure your child is completing this work and putting it
back in his/her binder each night.

Each student is keeping track of his/her behavior daily with a color code in the
assignment book.
OCTOBER
 2nd– Early Release
 16th-No School
 26th– Fieldtrip
to Historical
Agricultural
Farm Park
 30th First Quarter Ends
NOVEMBER
 2nd-No School
 11th & 12th
Early Release
for parent
Conferences
What is your child learning this quarter?
READING
The first part of the quarter
our instructional focus is on
literature. Our focus is on
the genre of historical fiction. Students will :
Identify & describe story
elements (setting, characters, & plot)
 Identify and compare
different narrators’ points
of view
 Use text evidence to
support ideas
 Make inferences using
text support
 Identify and compare
themes within literature
(stories, poems, and
plays)
The remainder of the quarter
students will be focused on
informational texts.
With
these texts students will:
 Make inferences using
text support
 Identify and support
main ideas with details
from the text
 Explain the relationship
among a series of events
or procedures
 Identify & explain the
text
structure
(chronology and cause
and effect) an author

uses to explain ideas,
events, or information
 Compare & contrast
firsthand
and
secondhand accounts
of the same event using a variety of texts
 Gather and interpret
information from multiple forms of media
(charts, graphs, websites, etc.)
In guided reading, students
will read texts at their instructional level and focus
on before, during, and after reading strategies that
good readers use. They will
be working with vocabulary, responding to comprehension questions, answering writing prompts,
and discussing questions
about the text.
WRITING
This quarter students will be
writing narrative, opinion,
and informative pieces.
Students will:

zational structure in
which related ideas
are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
 Provide reasons that
are supported by facts
or details
 Link opinion and reasons using words and
phrases (for instance,
in order to, in addition)
 Provide a concluding
statement or section
related to the opinion
presented
Students will be instructed
on the 6 traits of writing:
ideas, organization, voice,
word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.
Throughout the school
year, students will work
through the entire writing
process (drafting, revising,
editing, final product) with
some pieces.
Introduce a topic
clearly, state opinion,
and create an organi-
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Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School
MATH
In math this quarter we are
working on two measurement
topics; Number and Operations
in Base Ten and Operations and
Algebraic Thinking. In Number
and Operations in Base Ten students will be working to:
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Demonstrate an understanding of place value of
whole numbers up to one
million. They will:
Read and write whole numbers from zero to one million
using numbers, words, and
expanded form.
Compare whole numbers
using the symbols, <, >, or =.
Explain the value of a digit
based on its position in a
number using the base-ten
system.
Round whole numbers to
any place (tens, hundred,
thousands, etc.)
Add and subtract whole
numbers (up to one million)
using the standard algorithm
Fourth Grade Newsletter
Students should continue to practice their basic facts at home every
night. Mastery of these basic facts
is essential to students’ success with
our math curriculum.
SOCIAL STUDIES
This quarter our social studies focus topic is geography.

SCIENCE
The first unit in science is focused on
ecosystems and living things. The
students will construct their own terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem with
living and non-living organisms. Students will observe how plants and
animals rely on one another and be
able to identify the basic needs of
living things.
We will also discuss the roles of producers and consumers in an ecosystem and relate what we have
learned to our own classroom ecosystems that we have created.
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Construct and interpret a variety of maps using map elements
Use photographs, maps,
charts/graphs, and atlases to
describe geographic characteristics of MD & US
Identify and locate natural/
physical features and humanmade features of Maryland
Identify and locate natural/
physical features and humanmade features of the United
States
Describe and analyze population growth, migration, and
settlement patterns in MD &
the US
Describe how people adapt
to, modify, and impact the
natural environment
As the students observe their ecosystems, they will also be required
to record their observation data
and analyze their findings. Students
will:

In Operations and Algebraic
Thinking students will be working
to:
 Solve multiple step word
problems that include addition/subtraction & determine if the answers are reasonable
 Recognize that situations
can be multiplicative and
additive comparisons
 Represent and solve addition comparison word problems
 Represent and solve multiplication comparison word
problems
 Use variables to represent
unknown numbers
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Observe and compile a list of a
variety of animals or plants in
both familiar and unfamiliar environments
Classify a variety of animals and
plants according to their observable features and provide
reasons for placing them into
different groups
Given a list of additional animals or plants, decide whether
or not they could be placed
within the established groups or
does a new group have
to be added
Fourth Grade
Describe what classifying
Teachers’ Email Addresses:
tells us about the relatedness among the animals
[email protected]
or plants within any group
[email protected]
[email protected]
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