Dear Parents,

Welcome to fourth grade! This will be an exciting year and the children will learn many new things.

Social Studies: The students will be identifying the early land and sea routes to California with a focus on the exploration of the North Pacific, noting the importance of mountains, deserts, ocean currents, and wind patterns. They will also describe the Spanish exploration and colonization of California, including the relationships among soldiers, missionaries, and Indians. In December we take an all day trip to Mission San Luis Rey. As the year progresses we will continue to learn about the development of California. In April we will get a chance to be forty-niners as we mine for gold in Julian.

Science: Within science they will be studying electricity, magnetism, energy in ecosystems, interaction of living things, rocks and minerals, rapid and slow changes to Earth and begin to use the scientific method with inquiry and guided inquiry investigations.

Language Arts: We are fortunate enough to be using new language arts textbooks, Imagine It. These books are broken down into six thematic units.  These units are, "Risks & Consequences", Nature's Delicate Balance", "A Changing State", "Science Fair", America on the Move", and "Dollars & Sense". Each unit is made up of five stories. We will be reading a story from the book each week. We begin writing much more and using cursive as our primary source of writing. We continue to work on spelling and vocabulary with quizzes weekly.

Religion: In religion we provide an on-going development of becoming more aware of the elements of effective catechists. The children encounter the Ten Commandments, the importance of appreciating diverse cultures, as well as develop an appreciation of Mary, Jesus and God.

Math: Our math work moves quickly and many more concepts are developed. By the end of the year, students understand the place value of whole numbers and decimals to two decimal places and how whole numbers and decimals relate to simple fractions. Students use the concepts of negative numbers, read and write whole numbers in the millions, explain different interpretations of fractions, solve problems involving multiplication and division of multi digit numbers by one-digit numbers, use and interpret formulas, identify geometry and algebra, and begin to represent data on a number line, coordinate graphs, tables, and charts.

With all this work, we do have a lot of fun as well. I look forward to a great year!

Ms. Laura Johnson