Brandon Elementary 4^th Grade Handbook

This handbook includes a summary of key areas that we as 4^th Grade teachers want to convey to students and parents for this coming school year.

 Reading At Brandon Elementary involves many areas of the curriculum.  Our Reading series is written by the Harcourt School Publishers.  It has a scope and sequence of skills and strategies that prepares our students for state and national tests.  The comprehension skills, and vocabulary are covered in each story.  Each story for the week includes a set of vocabulary words associated with the story that students are expected to learn.  Included with each story is a phonics section or rule that helps children decode words.  Writing skills, oral language, and critical thinking skills are also important activities that we include with our reading each week. English will include nouns, pronouns, possessive nouns, singular and plural, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, capital letters, punctuation and common and proper nouns.

We also include other novels in our reading period.  Some of the other novels we may read as a class include: Frindle, Holes, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, The Report Card, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

  Accelerated Reader is an important part of our Reading curriculum in Fourth grade.  After taking the STAR test, students are given a point goal, book level goal, and percentage goal (85%) they need to meet each quarter.  If the AR point and % correct goal are met by the end of the quarter, your student will be able to attend the AR party for that quarter.  The points and percentage goals from AR will also count as one-fourth of your student’s Reading grade for the quarter.  A maximum of 92% will be used for grading but a minimum of 85% will be used to attend the A.R. party.

 Word Study (Spelling) is included with our Reading series and usually relates to our phonics rule for the week.  On Monday we will practice our words with a cursive list.  Our list consists of twenty words with five challenge words to count as bonus points on the test. All tests will be on Friday.

  Math is taught through Houghton Mifflin math series.  The following units will be covered in 4^th grade.  Place Value, Multiplication, Division of Whole Numbers, Measurement, Geometry, Fractions, Decimals, Probability, Algebra, and Graphing.  It is important that the student have their basic multiplication and division facts mastered for the start of fourth grade.  Accelerated Math is a supplemental program we use to spiral our Math series.  Please take the time to look at your child’s Tops Reports to see their progress.

  Math Facts are practiced through a computer program that allows students to work on their basic math facts.  It begins with addition and subtraction facts, and continues to include multiplication and division.  Students log on to www.multiplication.com and are timed while they do thirty-six math problems.  The program’s goal is to have them do the problems in two minutes with 100% accuracy. 

  Social Studies involves the study of Regions of the United States.  You can access our textbook and many other resources tied with Social Studies by going to www.macmillanmh.com . South Dakota History will be taught during our Social Studies rotation.

  Science is taught through the Harcourt Science Series.  The units that will be covered are Forces, Water, Weather, Space, and Vertebrates and Invertebrates.  Science classes will meet two days out of the week. 

Writing follows the 6+1 writing traits.  The traits we will cover are: Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Ideas, Conventions, and Organization.  We will also cover the four modes of writing: Descriptive, Narrative, Expository, and Persuasive.

 Handwriting follows the Zaner Bloser handwriting rules.  Students will be expected to use cursive throughout all of 4^th grade.

Physical Education and Music are taught by Mr. Duncanson and Mrs. Norberg respectively.  We visit each of them twice a week.  Please check out our class schedule.

 Computer & Art are taught by Mrs. Reid and Mrs. Lee.  We visit each of them once a week.

  Library: We visit the library once a week and students are allowed to check out 2 books unless given specific directions by their teacher.

 Grading is based on the district grading scale.  A  95-99;  A-  92-94;  B+  89-91;  B  86-88;  B-  83-85;  C+  80-82;  C  77-79;  C-  74-76;  D+  71-73;  D  68-70;  D-  65-67;  F  0-64.

For all content areas except Social Studies and the specials like PE, Music, and Computer, Fourth grade students will receive letter grades.  For Social Studies, students will receive E, S+, S, S-, N.

  Homework in 4^th grade varies from day to day.  Students are usually given enough time in class to finish any assignments they may have.  Sometimes students that work a little slower may have work to finish at home.  We will always let you know when a test is coming; it will be listed in the planners and on the weekly letter. We have devised the following policy to help everyone understand the expectations on the students for the coming year.

4^th Grade Homework Policy

1.  Fourth Grade is a big adjustment for most students from Third grade.  There are often daily assignments and the students are expected to study for tests at home.  The Fourth grade teachers feel that the first quarter is a time of learning new study skills, so they will not dock for late papers during this time.

2.  The Fourth grade teachers will start using the missing assignment slip during the     first quarter.  Each student is expected to fill the slip out and give it to the teacher when a paper is late.  The missing assignment slips will be shown to the parents at conference time or sent home with the late paper.

3.   Each Fourth grade student will be expected to have his or her planner signed daily.

4.  At the start of the second quarter a late paper will be docked 10%.  Late papers are papers not turned in on the due date.  Papers turned in incomplete will be considered late.  An assignment that is late will not be accepted more than 2 days after it was due.

5. There will be no redoing work, quizzes, and tests that have been done poorly.   We believe that this is going to encourage the students to work their hardest and achieve their best on their initial effort, rather than relying on redoing their assignment after it’s already been returned to them.

 4^th Grade Dakota Step Test will be administered in April.  This test is the government test given to go along with the No Child Left Behind Act.  These scores will also be included in the selection of the 5^th Grade Awards at the end of their Brandon Elementary career.  To achieve the Presidential Award in 5^th Grade the students need to score above the 85^th percentile in Reading or Math on their Dakota Step Test, as well as maintain a 3.5 grade point average.

 Discipline is important in our classrooms.  Our rules are as follows.

1. Listen Carefully.

2. Follow Directions.

3. Work quietly- do not disturb others around you.

4. Respect others- be kind with your words and actions.

5. Respect the school and personal property.

6. Work and play safely.

The 4^th Grade teaching staff at Brandon Elementary wishes all students the best for this coming school year and look forward to having another great year!

Mrs. Eitreim

Mr. Giles

Mrs. Matzke

Mr. Mueller