May 2019 News from Grade 4
Dear Parents,
We hope that this newsletter finds you well. It is hard to believe that we are in the last two months of school. Where has the time gone? The Grade 4 students have been busily working on many activities.
Social Studies:
We are continuing to learn about the Explorers and the impact this had on the First Nations Peoples. The Europeans began to explore North America just before the 1500’s. We are reading about John Cabot, Christopher Columbus and Jacques Cartier. We are talking about a the Fur trade and the consequences this had for Canada. Our Social Studies text book provides information for our students but they are also encouraged to seek out other reading material from their local libraries or the main branches in Vancouver or Burnaby. It is important for the Grade 4’s to practise reading a variety of informational texts. As a parent, you can review some of the important features of an informational text with your child.
Some of these features include:
- Pictures or photographs
- Maps or graphs
- Captions
- Glossary, labels. bolded word,
- Timelines
- Table of Contents
- Index
- Text (facts)
Language Arts:
We are finishing up our Novel Study and will begin our diorama project next week. We will then be moving into poetry and poetic forms. Poetry is fun. You get to play with words and sound. Students can work with rhyming couplets, haiku, limericks and free verse. They can experiment with rhyming words to create images by showing and not telling.
Who Has Seen The Wind Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you;
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing through
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by
The students will learn about various poets and write some of their own poems. Poets that your child may like are:
- Shel Silverstein
- Jack Prelutsky
- Dennis Lee
- Langston Hughes
- Judith Voirst
- Robert Frost
- Paul Janeczko
- Christina Rossetti
Dates to remember:
- May 16 Science workshop in class
- May 20 Victoria Day (no school)
- May 24 SFX Bazaar Set-up (no school)
- May 25 SFX Bazaar (both classes will be singing together at the bazaar)
Thank you for your co-operation, volunteering in the classroom and on field trips and for participating in your child’s learning. Enjoy your Victoria Day long weekend. Also, we would like to wish a very special Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in the 4L and 4S classes. May God continue to bless you all with good health, happiness and peace.
Sincerely,
Ms. S. LeRose and Mr. M. Brooks