Fourth grade summer work
Dear Families,
Over the summer, it is recommended that your child spend time maintaining their academic skills.
Math
We would like our rising fourth graders to practice their multiplication and division facts 1-10 through the summer so that they will be fluent and automatic with these facts by the start of school. There are many ways to accomplish this. You might choose from the following list of websites and games or you might choose flashcards. These triangle flashcards are great for seeing the relationship between multiplication and division facts. However you and your child decide to practice, please work with them 3 times a week for 15 minutes. Your rising fourth grader should keep track of their math fact practice with this Math Facts Practice Log.
We have also created a short summer packet of math work that students should complete in August. You can access this packet here. You can print this out at home, or look for it in a mailing coming from the school in early July. Mr. Griffin can also get you additional paper copies if you write him at ggriffin@gordonschool.org. Please bring your completed work with you that day. We recommend that you spend 15-20 minutes three times a week working on the math packet. This way, you will keep these concepts and skills fresh in your mind, which should make the start of the year easier. Please bring the math packet to your fourth grade teacher on the first day of school.
Reflex Math
Students will have access to Reflex Math accounts through the summer. We recommend that they continue using the app three times a week. If you need a user name and password to log in, please contact Eric Kravitz, the schoolwide math specialist, at ekravitz@gordonschool.org. If they are fluent with their facts in all four operations this will greatly increase their ability to do more cognitively challenging tasks like multi-digit multiplication, long division, and fraction operations.
Informal math conversations
Incorporate math into daily routines. Make change at a store. Determine how many hours you will swim over the course of the summer. Cook with your child using fractions and calculating the measurements you need.
Bedtime Math
This is a great website with daily short stories and problems that will provide you with great mathematical conversation starters. http://bedtimemath.org/
Gregtang.com
Go to Gregtang.com and click on online games.
Thinking Blocks
Students can go to http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html. This is a great way for them to practice bar modeling which is a powerful method to solve challenging word problems.
Reading
Rising fourth graders should continue reading this summer, too. Ms. Martindale has put together a summer book list with wonderful options for you to read to your children and for them to read on their own.
Incoming fourth graders will use some of their summer reading time to prepare for the Battle of the Books. A practice of reading daily for thirty minutes is highly recommended. A book is appropriate if the student can:
1. Stay with a book until the end
2. Decode and read the majority of the words on a page
3. Understand the majority of the words in the book, the greater plot of the story, and recall important details from the text
Students should be able to demonstrate their understanding through a book discussion or in a written format. This can also be creative and a student could create a book review to post or a video book review to share with relatives.
Some time should be devoted to reading aloud to someone or something (create a video, read to a pet, a sibling, etc..). Students should be offered a variety of genres - nonfiction informational texts, graphic novels, picture books, chapter books, picture book biographies, etc…
Rising fourth graders should also read or listen to these four Battle of the Books titles:
Allergic by Megan Lloyd Wagner
Building Zaha: The Story of Architect Zaha Hadid by Victoria Tentler Krylov
Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson
Fourth graders should fill out the reading log linked at www.gordonschool.org/fourthsummerreading.
And all third and fourth graders should read:
Mi Casa is My Home by Laurenne Sala
In My Family En Mi Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza
¡Vamos! Let's Go to the Market! by Raul the Third
Enjoy!
Your third grade teachers