Welcome to
Arts and Lette 4G
Curriculum Night 2015
The teachers: a little
about us
Mrs. Katie Adams
has been a teacher in New York City for 8 years. This is Mrs.
Adams 4th year at Arts & Letters. Prior to joining the amazing Arts & Letters
community, she taught 5th and 6th grade ELA in Crown Heights. She is passionate
about teaching and learning, and when she is not at school she enjoys spending time
with her family in Prospect Park.
Ms. Reena Shah
has been an educator for almost ten years, working in New York
City and in Pune, India. She received her Master of Science in Education from Pace
University as a Teaching Fellow and her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in
English literature. While in India, Ms. Shah had the opportunity to work with students
from kindergarten to 10th grade and strove to make learning a joyful and meaningful
process for all students. This is her first year at Arts and Letters.
Ms. Grace Hunter
graduated from NYU with a BA in creative writing and
literature. When attending NYU, she taught at PS 305 in Bedford Stuyvesant. Following
NYU, as a member of the JET Program, she taught English in a rural elementary school
in Japan for two years. She has taught in 5th grade at Nest + m on Outside of the
classroom, Ms. Hunter loves to read, bike, and practice yoga.
Homeroom/Morning Meeting
Some details about how your 4th grader will start the day
• Every day, your child will have homeroom with their
homeroom teacher(s)
During that morning meeting:
• Just like grades K-3, they will still have a morning
meeting to start their day. Morning Meeting has the
following components:
• Greeting
• Share
• Activity
• Morning Message
3
A New Agenda for the Morning Meeting
Vocabulary Study
• Using a program called “Word Up”, students will learn new vocabulary
through engaging songs
• They will learn a new song about every two weeks
• 10 words per unit/song
What will Math and Science look like?
Welcome to our STEM department….
Spotlight on Math
• Monday & Wednesday will be a double block of math
that will include a lesson. We will also be focusing
real world applications of the skills being taught.
• Tuesday & Thursday will be single periods of math,
with ample time for math stations and
differentiated small-group work.
• We will still be using Math In Focus as our curriculum,
but will be supplementing with:
• Abacus (Grace Church School)
• insidemathematics.org
• Metamorphosis
• IXL program for at-home math enrichment
Math Assessments will be from Math in Focus and there
will be weekly quizzes on Fridays.
Math Units
•
Place Value to 10,000
• Multiplication of two digit
numbers
• Division of three digit numbers
• Data, tables, and graphs
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Measurements
• Angles
• Perimeter/Area
• Symmetry
What will Math and Science look like?
Welcome to our STEM department….
Spotlight on Science
• Science Labs will include hands-on science
investigations
As well as:
• literacy-based science, which could be:
• Research projects
• Reading/Discussing an article in
preparation for the lab
• Reading clubs about science topics that
connect to integrated units of study
• Current Events on Science Topics
We will be using Foss Science Kits this year
as well as Engineering is Elementary.
Our Major Science Units
Properties of Water
Electricity and
Magnetism
Animals and Plants in
their Environment
Interactions of land, air
and water
States of matter, floating and
sinking, NYC water system, density
etc. End of unit projects students
will design a boat and create a
water filter.
Students explore magnetic poles,
how electricity works. They will
build circuits! We will also create a
maglev train that floats! Field trip
to the Queens Museum of Science.
Students will study
ecosystems and the food
chain/web. We will zoom in on
the ocean ecosystem. Students
will work in partnerships to
research one organism.
In this unit students will learn
about weathering, erosion, and
deposition. We will study
natural disasters and how
they affect humans and other
species.
What will Humanities look like?
The intersection of ELA and Social Studies
Reading Instruction
• CAFE Mini-Lesson
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Comprehension
Analysis
Fluency
Expand Vocabulary
Independent Reading
Strategy Groups / Book Clubs
Small Group Instruction
Individual Conferencing
Humanities Workshop
READING - WRITING - HISTORY
Building Inquiry and Research
• Research clubs connected to history units of study
• Writing Projects
• Developing analytical skills and independent
thinking
6 Traits of Writing
• Ideas
• Organization
• Word Choice
• Voice
• Sentence Fluency
• Conventions
The Writing Process
• Brainstorm
• Organize
• Draft
• Revise
• Edit
• Publish
Humanities Units of
Study
• Exploring Ourselves and
Our World
• Iroquois Confederacy of
New York
• The American Revolution
• Immigration
Writing Genres
- Personal Narrative
- Persuasive Writing
- Informational Writing
- Historical Fiction
- Poetry
What’s happening
with 4G?
Please check our blog for updates
throughout the year…
www.artsandletters4g.weebly.com