ALWAYS FREE

PMAIKAI FOURTH
GRADE

ISSUE NO. 1

SAKUMA NEWS

THE WRITING COMMUNITY

During this
three-week
unit, students
will begin to
see themselves
as contributing
members of a
caring writing
community.
They hear and
discuss
examples of
good writing
and begin to learn about the writing
practices of professional authors. They
explore prewriting techniques and write
freely in their writing notebooks about
things that interest them. They will learn
cooperative structures that they will use
throughout the year, as well as discussion
prompts to help them listen and connect
their comments during class discussions.
Finally, they will begin conferring with one
another about their writing in a caring and
responsible way.

Reading Wonders Unit 1 Week 1

Dear Family Member:

This week our class will be talking about where

good ideas come from and how they can be
used to solve problems. We will focus on the
variety of ways that people come up with their
ideas.
Here are some activities that you can do with
your child to help reinforce the skills well be
practicing.
Word Workout

Words to Know: synonyms In this activity, youll

say a word and your child will find a word from the
word list with almost the same meaning, and then
use it in a sentence. You can use the hints to help
your child figure out the word.

Comprehension: sequence
Read the story with your child and have your child
describe the sequence of events. Then have your
child write a short paragraph that completes the
story.

QUARTER 1 SPECIALS
In quarter 1 the fourth graders will spend time looking closely at how fourth grade
functions and building relationships. We will look more in depth as to who we are, where
we come from, and what is our role in our community.
Social Studies- Land Formations, genealogy, creation stories
Science- Volcanoes, hot spot, observations, processes, chemical and physical changes,
Visual Arts- Elements of art and design
Library- Book care, returning and borrowing
Computers/laptops- Pre-assessments, getting to know school programs

Math- Module 1
Dear Parent/Guardian,
A firm understanding of our base-10 number system is the foundation for nearly all the
arithmetic that children learn in elementary school. Your child should already be
comfortable with representing one-, two-, and three-digit numbers using base-10 blocks
and the base-10 expander (a place-value chart that helps children see how every threedigit number actually represents a group of hundreds, a group of tens, and some ones).
In Grade 4, Module 1, children build on their existing number sense as they learn to
read, write, picture, compare, and order four- and fi ve-digit numbers. Your child should
already understand how to put three-digit numbers in order. The process is as follows.
First, compare their hundreds digits: the number with more hundreds is the larger
number (e.g. 314 > 279 because 3 hundreds is more than 2 hundreds). If the hundreds
digits are the same, then move right to compare the tens digits to decide which number
is larger (329 < 346 because 2 tens is less than 4 tens). Finally, if both the hundreds and
tens digits are the same, then move right to compare the ones digits (326 < 329 because
6 < 9). Similarly, we order four- or fi ve-digit numbers by comparing digits, always
starting by comparing the digits in the left-most place. Talk informally with your child
about number comparisons during everyday activities such as grocery shopping (prices),
travel (distances from a map, road atlas, or car odometer), or locating books on shelves
at the library (where they are ordered in numeric order if the Dewey Decimal system is
used). Tens, hundreds, and thousands are important benchmarks in our number system.
Knowing where other numbers are in relation to these benchmarks helps with
estimation. Lessons 1.8 and 1.9 focus on rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred,
or thousand. Note that these lessons purposely do not teach rounding rules that adults may have learned in school. Instead, they
focus childrens attention on visualizing where numbers are actually located on a number line. This makes the process of
estimating much more concrete. Consider, for example, the number 5,836. When we say round 5,836 to the nearest hundred it
means we should recognize that 5,836 is between 5,800 and 5,900, but we want to know which it is closer to. Imagine drawing a
number line, the midpoint between 5,800 and 5,900 would be 5,850. Clearly, 5,836 would be to the left of that midpoint, since 36
< 50. In other words, 5,836 is closer to 5,800 than to 5,900, so we say 5,836 is 5,800 when rounded to the nearest hundred.
Similarly, when rounding to the nearest ten, your child should be able to use a number line to see that 5,836 is closer to 5,840 than
to 5,830. Also, 5,836 rounded to the nearest thousand is 6,000 since 5,836 is closer to 6,000 than to 5,000 on the number line. In
Lessons 1.10, 1.11, and 1.12, children explore and describe number patterns using pictures, tables, number sentences, and word
rules. This is important preparation for latter work with number patterns and equations in the study of algebra.

HAWAIIAN STUDIES
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When: Weekly

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