Welcome to 4RSinead Ryan

sryan@uasdubai.ae

Welcome to Grade 4 at UAS!

Building Partnerships

Strong parent-teacher communication is essential and I look forward to building a positive partnership with both you and your child!

About Me….

Limerick, Republic of Ireland

11th year of teaching.

Egypt (1 year before I qualified) England (4 years), Dubai (7 years).

I’ve lived in Ireland, England, Egypt, Jordan, France and now Dubai.

Communication

The class blog will be used as main place to obtain information about what’s happening at school. http://sites.uasdubai.ae/

The blog will be updated once a week so that you can see what we’ve been doing. You can also subsribe to the page so that you can get notification when I’ve updated it.

You can also send me an email or come into the school to see me once you have made an appointment via email or phone call to the school.

Attendance and Punctuality

Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time and prepared for learning. Students go inside at 7.45am. We do mental mathematics reflexes at this time and it is really important that your child does not miss this.

If students arrive before this time, they should stay outside on the playground until the whistle blows. They then line up and come upstairs with the rest of their class.

Homework and Assignments

As in Grade 3 – the children will have a ‘homelearning quilt’ where they can choose different activities to do each evening.

They should do at least one activity from each column and then they may choose 3 additional activities from any column.

They keep the same learning quilt for one week. They should return it to school the following Sunday in their homelearning folder.

Links to the study links for math will be put on the class blog page.

PYP

 Higher level thinking skills are developed as students learn how to begin to ask questions that lead to their own inquiry.

Promotes life-long learning

Focuses on the whole child

Teaches students how to formulate questions independently

Involves problem solving in a variety of contexts.

PYP Units of Inquiry

How we Express Ourselves

How the World Works

Who We Are

Where We Are in Time and Place

Sharing the Planet

How We Organize Ourselves.

Math We will be studying a variety of units

We began with Geometry – we are currently on Unit 1.

While we are studying a specific unit, we review and preview other units. This gives your child a much bigger chance of retaining his/her learning.

In Everyday math there are lots of games that the children play to practice skills. This ensures that their interest is kept.

Every Day Math

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=H8XUrh7TWGs

Children will also take part in inquiry based activities into the nature of mathematics.

They will do projects as part of some of the units.

We aim to make links between our Unit of Inquiry and our Math program where we can.

We aim to spend at least 70 minutes per day on Math.

Great Maths Websites

www.coolmath4kids.com – awesome website with games, lessons and activities covering many areas of maths.

www.aaamath.com – sorted by grade level; covers many areas of the math curriculum.  Lots of good, interactive activities.

 www.math-drills.com – a good range of drills for basic facts practice

Unit Pre-test to inform teaching.

Post Assessment Progress Towards Mastery of Mathematical StandardsThis will be sent home at the end of each unit for each child along with resources for standards not yet mastered

Teaching the Grade Level Standards Student Friendly “I CAN” Learning Targets Parent Friendly Examples of Learning TargetsShared with parents at the beginning of each unit of study

www.ixl.com

• All of the children received a login for this website last year.

• This will be a part of their homelearning quilt every week.

• They can practice Math and Language/Arts skills on this site.

• If your child does not have a login for this site please let me know.

PYP UNIT OF INQUIRY & DATE(Science & Social Studies Integrated)

LANGUAGEGeneral Topics

(Integrated where possible)

MATHEMATICSGeneral Topics

(Integrated where possible)

How We Express Ourselves (Language) 

Recount writing, poetry, short stories- Language Features- Characters, Setting, Plot, etc-Novel studies, Poems and Short Stories (reading) -PM Benchmark (reading)

-Spelling & Grammar taught all year-Reading strategies are taught all year

Unit 1 Naming and constructing Geometric Figures. Unit 2Using Numbers and Organizing Data.

Sharing the Planet (Science) 

-Non- Fiction (reading) -Non-Fiction (report writing) -Lab reports/scientific method (writing)

 

Unit 3 Multiplication and Division Number sentences and Algebra.Unit 4Decimals and their uses. 

Who We are (Social Studies)

 

Historical Fiction-Fiction (reading)

-Novel Studies (reading)

Unit 5Big Numbers Estimation and Computation. Unit 6Division, Map Reference Frames, Measures of Angles.

How the World Works (Science) 

-Procedural/ Expository (writing) -Lab reports/scientific method (writing)- Non- Fiction (reading)-PM Benchmark (reading)

Unit 7Fractions and their uses, Chance and Probability. Unit 8

Perimeter and Area 

Where we are in Time and Place (Social Studies)  

 Fiction (reading)-Myths and Legends (writing)  

Unit 9Fractions, Decimals and PercentsUnit 10Reflections and Symmetry. 

How We Organise Ourselves(Social Studies) 

Persuasive Writing. Unit 113-D Shapes, Weight, Volume and Capacity. Unit 12Rates.

Programme of study.

Language Arts

Your child will receive a weekly, differentiated spelling list.

We will do activities based on these words each day for about 10 to 15 minutes.

These words will be generated from our Unit Of Inquiry, our Math program and our Language/Arts program.

Developing literacy is the school wide goal for 2015-2016

Clear expectations for growth in language, reading, and writing

Students spend 1 1/2 hours a day on literacy

Independent ReadingWord Study (spelling, grammar, vocabulary)Reading Workshop

Balanced Literacy: The How of our Instruction

Common Core Standards set the expectations for what we want students to know, do, and understand

We use grade-level benchmarks to plan instruction and assess students

Reading:

Each student has been issued with a Reading Log.

It is the expectation that each student reads for approximately 25 minutes each night.

Please ensure that the Reading Log is filled in.

Reading Resources

-PM Benchmark Leveled Readers

-Rigby Literacy Leveled Readers

-A-Z Leveled Readers

-Classroom Library

-School Library

-Science/Social Studies text books

-Internet

Raz-kids.com

What are the PM Benchmarks?

The PM series was developed to ensure that children would have positive experiences and enjoy reading from the first moment they are exposed to books

Over 700 different titles covering fantasy, history, fiction, folktales, verse, song, and informational text

Sentence structure, choice of words, and introduction of high frequency words have been carefully chosen

Children have been recently reassessed to ascertain their current reading level – they will receive instruction at this level within their reading group.

Science in the PYP

- In the PYP, science is viewed as the exploration of the biological, chemical and physical aspects of the natural world, and the relationships between them.

-Science within the PYP leads learners to an appreciation and awareness of the world as it is viewed from a scientific perspective. It encourages curiosity and ingenuity and enables the student to develop an understanding of the world. The science focus is also used for the basis of the literacy lessons.

- In Grade 4, our science units are:

How We Organize Ourselves

Sharing the Planet

How the World Works

Classroom Management

Table Points

Marbles towards golden time.

Student of the Week.

Assemblies.

Positive encouragement and praise.

Praise and Encouragement.

Nutrition and Health

Please avoid sending your child to school with foods that contain peanuts.

Please ensure that your child eats a healthy snack and lunch each day.

Aim for a litterless lunch!

What can you do at home?

Assist with organization (Agendas, Reading logs, homework)

Listen to your child read.

Assist them with their Math

Assist them with finding additional material for our PYP units.

Communicate with them! Communicate with me!

Thank you very much!

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions

sryan@uasdubai.ae