JUNE
MAY
MATH
- Division (Started in April and continuing through May)
- Represent algebraic expressions in multiple ways (eg: a ÷ 4 = 7)
- Apply the properties of 0 and 1 for multiplication and the property of 1 for division
- Describe and apply mental mathematics strategies to determine basic multiplication facts to 9 × 9 and related division facts
- * Understand and apply strategies for multiplication and related division facts to 9 × 9. Recall multiplication and related division facts to 7 × 7
- Demonstrate an understanding of division (1-digit divisor and up to 2-digit dividend) to solve problems by:
- • using personal strategies for dividing with and without concrete materials
- • estimating quotients
- • relating division to multiplication.
- Fractions (Starting end of May and continuing in June):
- Demonstrate an understanding of fractions less than or equal to one by using concrete, pictorial and symbolic representations to:
- • name and record fractions for the parts of a whole or a set
- • compare and order fractions
- • model and explain that for different wholes, two identical fractions may not represent the same quantity
- • provide examples of where fractions are used
- Demonstrate an understanding of fractions less than or equal to one by using concrete, pictorial and symbolic representations to:
- Waste in Our World (Started end of March and continuing through mid-May):
- Students learn about wastes produced through natural processes and human technology. In studying natural systems, students learn that all plants, animals and other living things are made up of materials that are recycled through the environment again and again. In studying human consumption and wastes, students identify wastes produced within their community and learn the methods used for disposal. They learn that some waste materials are biodegradable, that some are reusable, and that others are toxic. They learn that personal action in reducing, reusing and recycling materials can help decrease the waste we accumulate.
- Lights and Shadows (Starting end of May and continuing through June):
- Students learn about light by studying the effects of light on things within their environment. They learn about light sources, about materials that light can pass through and about what happens when a material blocks or changes the path of light. By observing shadows and their motions relative to a light source, students discover that light and shadows fall along a predictable path. They discover that mirrors, prisms and a variety of other materials can affect that path by reflecting and refracting light and by splitting light into colours.
April
MATH
SCIENCE
- Division (Started in April and continuing through May)
- Represent algebraic expressions in multiple ways (eg: a ÷ 4 = 7)
- Apply the properties of 0 and 1 for multiplication and the property of 1 for division
- Describe and apply mental mathematics strategies to determine basic multiplication facts to 9 × 9 and related division facts
- * Understand and apply strategies for multiplication and related division facts to 9 × 9. Recall multiplication and related division facts to 7 × 7
- Demonstrate an understanding of division (1-digit divisor and up to 2-digit dividend) to solve problems by:
- • using personal strategies for dividing with and without concrete materials
- • estimating quotients
- • relating division to multiplication.
SCIENCE
- Waste in Our World (Started end of March and continuing through May):
- Students learn about wastes produced through natural processes and human technology. In studying natural systems, students learn that all plants, animals and other living things are made up of materials that are recycled through the environment again and again. In studying human consumption and wastes, students identify wastes produced within their community and learn the methods used for disposal. They learn that some waste materials are biodegradable, that some are reusable, and that others are toxic. They learn that personal action in reducing, reusing and recycling materials can help decrease the waste we accumulate.
MARCH 🌸
Mathematics
- Participate in number talks to build and share mental math strategies on multiplication facts to 9 x 9
- Understand and apply strategies for multiplication facts to 9 x 9
- Recall multiplication facts to 7 x 7 – every week, students complete 50 multiplication facts, within the 50, students are asked to identify 5 multiplication facts they need to practice. Every week, students will receive 5 new flashcards where they will write these facts and practice throughout the week.
- Apply the properties of 0, 1 and 10 (annexing 0’s)
- Demonstrate an understanding of multiplication (2- or 3-digit by 1-digit) by using the following strategies:
- Doubling/halving
- Using arrays
- Using known facts
- Estimating products
- Using personal strategies with and without manipulatives
- Word-based problems
French and English reading
- Students will work on comprehension, accuracy and expanding vocabulary strategies using non-fiction texts on social studies and science topics.
- Comprehension strategies:
- Check for understanding - reflecting throughout reading by asking “does this make sense?”
- Back up and reread - if the text is not making sense, reread the passage or paragraph
- Use prior knowledge to connect with text – making connections with social studies and science curriculums
- Making and adjusting predictions
- Making inferences – using text clues and prior knowledge to make conclusions
- Making connections with personal experiences, world experiences or other texts
- Using text features – this will be emphasized as it is crucial when reading nonfiction texts
- Summarizing – identifying main idea and supporting details
- Accuracy strategies:
- Looking carefully at letters and sounds
- Cross checking – do the pictures/text features make sense with what you are reading? Do the words sound right? Have I heard this word before?
- Use beginning and ending sounds
- Blend sounds – stretch sounds out and reread
- Chunk letters (separating into syllables) and sounds together
- Skip the word, then come back
- Trade a word/guess a word that makes sense
- Recognize words at sight
- Expand vocabulary strategies:
- Use prior knowledge and context to predict and confirm meaning
- Use pictures and text features
- Use word parts to determine meaning – is there a smaller word within the larger?
- Ask someone to define the word for you
- Use tools such as dictionaries or personal dictionary
- Comprehension strategies:
French and English writing
- Students will continue to write paragraphs with a focus on editing their own work and teacher samples to practice self-correcting. Students will check for:
- Logical sequence of ideas
- Including describing words to make texts more interesting
- Checking grammar concepts such as capitalization, punctuation, correct spelling of words looked at in class, plural nouns and adjectives, feminine or masculine nouns and adjectives, contractions and proper verb tense.
- During the daily 5 centers, students will continue working on word work. In this center, students practice spelling curricular or high frequency words using the following strategies:
- Separating into syllables and sounds and using letter-sounds combinations
- Knowing words at sight
- Practicing by writing with finger in the air, using stamps or writing down on paper
Social Studies
- Students continue to work on learning about the stories, history and culture of Alberta communities. We have started the unit by discussing the ways of living of the First Nations groups that lived in Alberta and will follow a timeline and study how Alberta has grown and changed culturally, economically and socially since 1905.
Science
- Students are finishing up their Rube Goldberg machines. Once completed, we will start our next unit, “Waste in our World”. Students will learn about waste produced through natural processes and waste produced by humankind. They will learn about the 4 R’s: rethink, reduce, recycle & reuse and come up with sustainable inventions to minimize waste in our landfills. In this unit, we will have two presentations from Green Calgary to talk about vermicomposting and landfills. We will also have a field trip to the Calgary Mayor’s Environment Expo in June.
Health
- Discussions on this month’s virtue, helpfulness
- Nutrition
January/ February
French Language Arts
Students continue to work on the unit of Simple Machines.
- Students continue to work on organizing their notes from researching a region of Alberta into paragraphs.
- Self and peer-editing their paragraphs for grammar concepts learned in class.
- Once paragraphs are edited, students will represent their work using a Google Slide to prepare a presentation of their region.
- In February, students will practice applying reading strategies with a novel study with the book "Valentine Picotée" by Dominique Demers.
- Students will write a paragraph
- Students continue to build reading and writing skills through the novel study on How to Train Your Dragon.
- Students will start a poetry unit and explore different types of poems.
- Students will compare the 6 different regions of Alberta and reflect on how the 6 geographical elements are different in each region.
- In February, students will start a new unit "The Stories, Histories and Peoples of Alberta".
Students continue to work on the unit of Simple Machines.
- Students discovered Simple Machines around the school.
- After reading the book "Rube Goldberg's Simple Humdrum School Day", students drew and explained in a paragraph their machine to perform a simple task.
- In February, students will create a Rube Goldberg machine that will either raise a flag or kill the Seadragonus Maximus Giganticus (dragon from our novel, How to Train Your Dragon).
- Students continued reflecting on positive and negative relationships.
- Mme Harbinson came in to talk about the "Stoplight" to re-iterate expected behavior at school.
- Nutrition
- Learning strategies for mental math (including learning addition and subtraction basic facts)
- Addition of numbers with 3 and 4- digit numerals, including regrouping
- Subtraction of numbers with 3 and 4 digits numerals, including regrouping
november/ december
English Language Arts:
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/grade4.html
- In English and in French, students are continuing to work on building cohesive paragraphs.
- In English, we are reading the novel "How to Train Your Dragon". Throughout the novel, students will be working on comprehension strategies and writing tasks related to the novel.
- I can maintain fluency when I read by automatically read High Frequency words
- I can maintain fluency by attending to letter-sound combinations
- I can read at a good pace (reading is not slow and mechanical)
- I can use my knowledge of oral language to predict words
- I can monitor my reading and make self-corrections when necessary
- I can problem solve the pronunciation of a new word by looking at words within words, saying common rhymes, understanding prefixes
- I can predict text
- I can confirm my predictions
- I can select pertinent information from the text to support my reading comprehension
- I can monitor my reading comprehension by rereading passages when necessary
- I can ask questions, make predictions, and recognize relationships among the story elements, and I can draw conclusion from it
- I can identify the main idea and identify supporting ideas
- I can make inferences (or reading between the lines) by recording my observations that I can refer to construct meaning, during my reading
- I can use appropriate prior knowledge and experiences to make sense of new ideas and information
- I am developing an extensive vocabulary
- I can use my own experiences as a base for exploring and expressing opinions and understanding
- I can visualize what I’m reading
- I can combine information together from my personal experience, to other books I’ve read (including the way a text is structure), to events in the world (from conversation, interaction and exposure to world events), to enhance my reading comprehension
- I can write legibly, using a style that demonstrates awareness of alignment, shape and slant when answering questions in my notebook
- Students are working on their French book report.
- Reading non-fiction texts in French to research a given region of Alberta in Social Studies.
- Gathering pertinent information from research to write paragraphs using proper format and sentence structure.
- Self-editing with a focus on applying learned grammar concepts such as capitalization, punctuation, spelling of curricular vocabulary and plural nouns and adjectives.
- Oral French skills demonstrated through their presentation on their book report.
- I can organize and record the information into proper categories
- I can examine the gathered information to identify if more information is required, using rubrics as a reference point
- I can rewrite my notes into proper sentences and paragraph format (introducing the topic in an interesting way and develop the content in a logical sequence)
- I can examine my paragraphs to identify if more information is required
- I can revise to ensure an understandable progression of ideas and information
- I can revise to identify and reduce fragments and run-on sentences
- I can edit for subject–verb agreement
- I can underline words that cause me trouble spelling and search for strategies and tools to solve the correct spelling
- I can use the spell-check function and the on-line dictionary to confirm the spelling of unfamiliar wordsM
- I can demonstrate an understanding of congruency, concretely and pictorially
- I can demonstrate an understanding of line symmetry by identifying symmetrical 2-D shapes, creating symmetrical 2-D shapes and drawing one or more lines of symmetry in a 2-D shape
- I can demonstrate an understanding of line and rotation symmetry.
- I can find the area of regular and irregular rectangles.
- I can compare and contrast numbers up to 10 000.
- I can represent numbers up to 10 000 symbolically, pictorially and in a decomposed format,
- I can round numbers to the nearest tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
- Students are learning about simple machines: how they are assembled, how they work and how they are used in daily life.
- Exploring simple machines such as gears, wheels and axels, pulleys, levers and inclined plane through centers in the class.
- Throughout each center, students will be asked to discover how the machine works, how it helps us and examples found in the real world.
- Discussions related to our virtues: perseverance and generosity
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/grade4.html
october
Language Arts:
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/grade4.html
- Start regular French and English grammar homework.
- Practice reading and writing strategies reviewed in September.
- French novel study "Julie et le Bonhomme Sept Heures" to learn new comprehension reading strategies such as pre-reading, questioning, re-reading, etc.
- Students will be introduced to non-fiction reading materials related to Social Studies.
- Start French book report at the end of October.
- In writing, students will use graphic organizers to sequence ideas.
- Students will be introduced to paragraph writing.
- 6 regions of Alberta .
- 6 geographical elements of Alberta which divide Alberta into 6 regions.
- Together as a class, students will practice non-fiction reading and note taking skills on the region of the prairies.
- Finish unit on calendar and time
- Start geometry and measurement unit
- 3-D shapes
- Congruency
- Symmetry
- Area
- Continue unit on Plants.
- Roles and function of different parts of plants.
- Local plants found in the prairie region of Alberta.
- Different needs of various plants, adaptations to survive in their environment.
- Virtue of the month: Respect
- Various discussions around the virtue.
- Zones of Regulation
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/grade4.html
september
Math
- I can read and record calendar dates in a variety of formats.
- I can read and record time, using digital and analog clocks, including 24-hour clocks.
- I can describe the importance of plants to humans and their importance to the natural environment.
- I can identify and describe the general purpose of plant roots, stems, leaves and flowers.
- I can recognize that plant requirements for growth; i.e., air, light energy, water, nutrients and space; vary from plant to plant and that other conditions; e.g., temperature and humidity; may also be important to the growth of particular plants.
- I can identify examples of plants that have special needs.
- I can recognize that plants of the same kind have a common life cycle and produce new plants that are similar, but not identical, to the parent plants.
- I can identify where Alberta located in relation to the other provinces and territories of Canada.
- I can describe the major geographical and natural vegetation regions, landforms and bodies of water in Alberta.
- I can describe the factors that determine climate in the prairie region of Alberta.
- I can identify the significant natural resources in the prairie region of Alberta, and where are they located.
- I can describe the provincial and national parks in the prairie region of Alberta and their importances to the sustainability of Alberta's natural environment.