Curriculum Overview 2024-2025

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Happy Wednesday!

The following should be written in your child's planner and kept inside their zipper binder.  

Reading
3rd graders - Read 20 mins (minimum) each night
4th graders - Read 30 mins (minimum) each night
(Bring in a chapter book to read in class. You will keep your book inside your binder)

Word Study - No new lists. Please Show your weekly spelling test scores to your parent in Powerspelling Click Scores/Results
If you still have any games from any list in your account, please play them to clear them out of your account BY THURSDAY 5/30. 
Well done completing 25-word lists this year - Now, the challenge is remembering what you have learned as you write!

Writing 
Talk About: What Michigan Public Policy Issue did you base your poster on? What facts did you include in your poster?
Previous Talk About Topics: 
Explain how to write a Haiku poem (5 syll, 7 syll, 5 syll)
- Explain the parts of your Opinion writing (Hook, thesis statement, reasons, counter, conclusion)
Share the plot of Poppy thus far
How did your research presentation go? Explain the best parts of presenting your project
What you wrote in your letter to a new future student
Explain how 2 of the 4 vocabulary words were used in the Historical fiction Story, The Sign of The Beaver
What did Attean do that he hasn't done before (character development)
What did Matt realize when he told Attean the story from the bible?
Explain how Matt has changed in the story? Do you think Matt and Attean are friends?
- Explain inferences (use the story - Sign of the Beaver or your Dat/Night worksheet)
Explain the difference between the Main Idea (what happens) and the Theme (What you learned/ the lesson in the book)
Show your personal narrative to a parent (go to your Google Drive)
- Summarize your reading
 Explain how to punctuate dialogue in a story
- Tell a parent a vivid verb from your personal narrative
-Retell your Pumpkin Contest story to a parent
Summarize The Hundred Dresses (setting - the main character(s) Predict what might happen next)
- Explain one type of lead and one type of ending in your narrative writing
Show your Pixton Summary to a parent. Need help logging in? Use the class join code azu3t4
- Summarize what we read from our class novel, Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing
- Tell 3 facts about Constitution Day (use page 144 in your planner to help you)
Talk About - Summarize what we read from our class novel, Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing

Math
4th Grade - None
3rd Grade - 30 mins of iReady Math MyPath each week
(you may split this into shorter 15-minute sessions 2 times per week if you prefer)
Xtramath 3 times per week Complete 1 session (about 5-7 mins - Click "continue" until Mr. C says, "You're done!")
To access iReady:
- Go to the Birmingham Public Schools Website
- Scroll Down to ClassLink (bookmark this site) Log in
- Click on the iReady App and select Math Pathway
To access Xtramath:
Account setup directions were sent home on the XtraMath flyer.
- Type XtraMath into your browser (bookmark this site)
- Login with your 4-digit PIN (the last four numbers on your account number)
- Complete 1 session (about 5-7 mins - Click "continue" until Mr. C says, "You're done!"
Click the link to access Illustrative Math Family Support Materials 
Click the link to access Illustrative Math Family Videos

Social Studies
Talk About - What is the difference between Local and State government? What is each level responsible for?
Previous Talk About Topics:
What are 3 Tourist attractions in MI? Why did the percentage of cars made in MI decrease over the years? 
 What foods are grown in Michigan and are exported elsewhere in the US and the rest of the world. What can you make with these foods?
- What happened in the 1930s that affected the working population? 
- What underground resources were mined in MI in the 1900's
- Explain what you learned from the Liberty's Kids episode
Who was Father Jean Marquette?
Tell a fact about Veterans Day (Show your Remembrance Day poppy to your parent)
- What did Native Americans use from nature?
- What is Indigenous Peoples Day (Who was Christopher Columbus?)
Tell a parent about cardinal directions
- Tell a fact about a Michigan Lake

Science
Talk About: None
Previous Talk About Topics:
What is Photosynthesis?
What makes up a food chain? How do all food chains/webs start?
-Explain the Isopods preferred environment.
Explain how you constructed a topographic model and drawing (use vocab: contour lines, slope, elevation)
describe how you created a shell fossil in the science lab
Explain your observations of erosion from the flood flow test in your stream table. 
What is chemical weathering? Explain how the acid/vinegar reacted to the minerals inside the four rocks (Basalt, marble, limestone, and sandstone)
 Explain the tumbling experiment (Physical weathering - conglomerate vs granite)
Explain what you learned about floods or monsoons (natural hazards)
Explain the Water Cycle (Evaporation-condensation-precipitation)
- Explain the Hot/Cold water density experiment (Less dense = floats/ more dense = sinks)
- What were the temperatures of 3 different cups of water?
What surprised you when you tested water drops on rocks, leaves, and wood chips
- Explain what surface tension is
- How does water react to different surfaces?