myhighmeadows.org - 4th & 5th Grade Classes

Welcome to the 4/5 website. This is your resource for curriculum information, important dates, forms, links to educational websites, and glimpses into the classrooms through photos and newsletters. Please check back often as it is continually updated throughout the year.

The Language Arts instruction in each classroom focuses on four primary areas: reading, writing, grammar, and spelling. Within each room, the teachers use a variety of resources and approaches to meet our curriculum standards. Our reading and writing instruction is designed to supplement and support understanding with our current Unit of Inquiry. For the next six weeks the students will be reading a variety of historical fiction novels related to the immigration experience. Through Literature Circles, the students will practice authentic reading skills in a conversational format. Our first writing piece will be a personal narrative about an experience that changed us. Through Writers' Workshop we will discuss the genre of personal narratives, read mentor pieces to guide us, and take our own writing through all the writing process stages to a final published piece. Spelling instruction is rule based and incorporates weekly pre- and post-tests. Grammar instruction takes place both within our own writing as well as in mini-lessons to provide opportunities to practice rules.

For Unit 2 of Everyday Math, the fourth graders will be working on organizing and displaying data by utilizing the maximum, minimum, range, mode and median of the data set and creating tally charts and bar graphs. They will also practice the partial-sums and column-addition methods to solving basic addition problems along with practicing the traditional addition algorithm. They will also practice subtraction algorithms including the trade-first, counting up and partial-differences methods of subtraction. Students will review basic place values up to hundred-millions.

In Unit 2, the fifth grade students will focus on procedures for addition and subtraction of whole numbers and decimals. They will review place values, partial-sum and column-addition methods of addition, and partial-differences and trade-first methods of subtraction. They will practice solving number stories and estimating the products of multi-digit numbers. They will work on solving multi-digit multiplication problems utilizing partial-products and lattice multiplication algorithms.

In addition to the Everyday Math curriculum mentioned above, the 4/5 teachers regularly review and reinforce basic math concepts with our students via Mad Minutes, logic problems, morning math word problems, math games, chess and other related exercises.

The central idea for this unit is people move for different reasons, and these movements impact themselves and the lives of others.We will be inquiring into how and why people relocate, how new arrivals adapt to the existing community and culture, and how the existing community and culture are impacted by new arrivals.Students will be exploring their ancestry, primary and secondary sources, and books about immigration. They will simulate a boat trip to America, develop a family tree, and produce a puppet show related to immigration.

Get ready for a “Hair Raising” experience if you are in 4/5! “Shocking!” will begin on October 6 and will run until October 31. We will discover how electricity and magnetism became two of the main forces that have shaped our world. The children will learn about the characteristics of electricity and magnetism and the link that occurs between them. Our focus will be using the Scientific Method to set up experiments and log our hypotheses and our results. We will do some of the same experiments in each class and then rotate classes for a culminating experience that will demonstrate what the children have learned. Look for our “Hair Raising” booth at the Fall Festival on October 11 where the children of High Meadows can experience the Van de Graaf generator.

The Gators (Burke/Hendry)                             1 to 1:30
The Road Runners (Antonelli/Portis)                  1:30 to 2:00
The Pink Panthers (Denning/McElvaney)          2:00 to 2:30
The Monkees (Buffum/Ivey)                               2:30 to 3:00

IMPORTANT DATES

September 29 - October 7	Puppetry Enrichment
October 6	No School
October 7	S.H.A.R.E. meeting
October 8	Puppetry Performance
October 13	Road Runner Canoe Trip
October 11	Fall Festival
October 16	Volunteer Orienation
October 20	Rock -n- Roll Monkee Canoe Trip
October 27 - 29	5th Grade Trip to Rock Eagle

Volunteer Training

We will be having one final New Classroom Volunteer Orientation October 16th from 6:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Primary Commons for those who were unable to attend September’s sessions. Please be sure to email Sue Chalek, schalek@highmeadows.org, if you haven’t done so already indicating your interest in attending the October 16th session so she can plan accordingly.