A guide to homeschooling and curriculum in the 4th grade classroom

1. Welcome to the 4th Grade!
2013-2014
A Parent Friendly Guide to the ins and outs of homeschooling your 4th Grader at
Coastal Academy

2.  I was born in Van Nuys, CA, but grew up in Vista, CA
 I attended California State University San Marcos where I graduated with
honors, receiving my Bachelor of Arts Degree in Literature and Writing Studies.
I continued at CSUSM to receive my Multiple-Subject teaching credential
through the education program
 My husband Matt and I are thankful to have a house in Vista close to our
friends and family. In our free time we like to take walks, ocean kayak, spend
time with friends and family, and explore the beauties of our own San Diego
county area. Our favorite places are the Cabrillo Monument in Point Loma,
downtown San Diego’s Seaport Village, and the San Diego Safari Park.
 At home I have 3 pet parakeet birds that I love, Petry, Tiki, and Captain Nemo.
 I enjoy baking and cooking for friends and family, spending time with my
husband and family, and discovering new ideas for arts, crafts, and recipes.

3. As partners providing the best education possible for your 4th grader
communication is very important.
 Email: Email is my preferred method of communication. I check my
email frequently and do my best to respond within 24 hours.
My email address is: mwright@classicalacademy.com
 Please be sure to check your email at least 2 times a week as you
may be receiving a note from time to time about classroom or school
wide activities.
 After School: I am available to meet with you by appointment after
school (2:45pm).
 Phone: Coastal Academy’s telephone number is (760) 631-4020

4. This year will be divided into 6 units of study, and all 4th grade
units will be available on the wiki:
Here you will also find tips, tricks, and hints to teaching the
curriculum in each unit!
Don’t forget to check our the parent resource page!
Go Green!
You assignment work record is live, just click on the links and
they will take you to each unit…no need to print!

5. The 4th grade is a year of tremendous growth
and transition. As with anything that is
worthwhile, these milestones come from hard
work and dedication from parents and
children alike. This year will be an exciting
time to watch your child grow from a
dependent learner, to a more independent
learner.

6. Subject Total Time
Allotted
Teaching and
Guided Practice
Time
Student’s
Independent
Work Time
Math/Critical
Thinking
60-90 minutes 10-15 minutes/
5 minutes
45-70 minutes
Literature 30-45 minutes 10-15 minutes
(varies by unit)
15-30 minutes
(reading and
assignment)
Parent Read
Aloud
15 minutes 15 minutes 0 minutes
Grammar/
Readingplus/Lexia
Spelling/Vocabulary
Handwriting
Writing/Journaling
65-85 minutes 5-10 minutes
10 minutes
5 minutes
10-15 minutes
10-15min./30 min.
10 minutes
5 minutes
15-25 minutes
PE 20 minutes As needed 20 minutes
History 45-55 minutes
(2 X’s/ week)
Varies with unit Varies with unit

7. The actual amount of time it takes you to homeschool your child changes
based on a variety of factors including:
 Your familiarity with the curriculum.
 How many other children you are homeschooling at the same time.
 Young children (infants and toddlers) you may need to attend to.
 Your student’s learning style.
It is fair to say that not every homeschool day will be the same, however it
does help to establish routines for home work time.

8.  Start each day with a Power Up (15 minutes):
Includes Fact Practice, Mental Math, problem solving, develops
speed, fluency, critical thinking, and pattern recognition.
 Teach the Daily Lesson (15 minutes):
Teach and review concepts, practice problems, check immediately!
 Written Practice (40 minutes or more!):
Student completes and corrects all errors

9. Scoring your work:
Saxon recommends a passing grade of 80% or more. If your child
does not receive 80% you might consider:
Is your student correcting on the mistakes in every problem.
Saxon recommends correcting all mistakes and discussing
them to avoid repeat mistakes!
Is your student hurrying and making careless errors?
Does your student need extra practice on the concepts?

10. Math in Class:
I will teach concepts and lessons
I will review lesson concepts with enrichment activities and lab work
 We will do some of the problems from the book but not
necessarily a full lesson…
 Students will need to be sure to bring their book to class
everyday

11. Lesson Videos:
For every lesson in Saxon at the 4th grade level there is a
corresponding video lesson on the wiki. You can use this video
to:
 Review the concept yourself before discussing it with your
student
 Guide you on how to teach the lesson/concept to your student
 Have your student watch the lesson on their own or with you to
learn the concept

12. Correcting Daily Work:
Solutions Manual – Step-by-step solutions: Written
practice solutions for every lesson in the book
Use the Solutions Manual when:
 You want more detail than just the answer
 Your student asks, “Why?”
 You want to know the steps to get the answer

13. Correcting Assessment:
A. Assessment Guide –
Baseline test (given at the beginning of the year)
Cumulative tests (Given every 5 lessons-beginning after lesson 10)
Power-up Tests (short math fact and problem solving tests given prior to each cumulative test)
Benchmark tests (given every 20 lessons)
Cumulative testing schedule
The Assessment Guide also includes answers to all tests
B. Performance Tasks-
After every cumulative test students will complete either a Performance task or a Test Day Activity
Performance Task instructions and worksheets are available on the wiki as well as all tests.

14. Re-teaching
Re-teaching Masters-
Re-teaching worksheet for each lesson: Worksheets include summary of lesson concept, examples and practice problems.
Other Resources
Instructional Masters-
 Blank pages for lessons
 Numbered graph paper, numbered boxed paper,
 Facts Practice Progress Charts and Facts Practice sheets
 Power-ups
 Test Day Activities

15. Our literature program will include the following
elements:
 Assigned literature book to read and study at
home. This will change each unit
 Parent read aloud book to enjoy with your child.
Please see unit for suggested books in specific
genres.
 Independent Reading book (A different book!) for
your child to enjoy on their own. This book should
be a book your child is comfortable reading on
their own.

16. In general, the two main objectives for reading are to increase reading comprehension and the
reading fluency. All literature units are designed to accomplish either one or both of these
objectives.
Abilities that will help achieve these objectives:
 Reading groups of words-chunking words together helps build fluency
 Reading with emotion also helps to build fluency
 Summary skills- A key to building comprehension. Have your child practice summary skills by
paragraph, and eventually by every chapter.
 Main Idea-Have your child describe the main idea, chapter or paragraph with supporting details.
 Independent Reading- The more your child reads the better they will become!
Independent reading will also help to improve vocabulary.
 Response to Literature- Start your child thinking about the author’s purpose or moral

17.  Unit 1: Cricket in Times Square
 Unit 2: Patty Reed’s Doll
 Unit 3: Love That Dog (Poetry)
 Unit 4: By the Great Horn Spoon
 Unit 5: Island of the Blue Dolphins
 Unit 6: Summer of the Monkeys

18. The Readingplus and Lexia are programs that are an important part of
our curriculum. The programs are very powerful as they offer:
 Reading
 Eye Training (visual efficiency)
 Vocabulary
 Reading skills training and so much more!
Readingplus and Lexia will be done on home days as well as
occasionally within the classroom
For our reading curriculum this year students will begin the year with
Lexia, finish through the levels, and continue on the readingplus.

19. This year each student will be receiving a grammar
workbook: Daily Skill-Builders Grammar & Usage
for grades 4 and 5.
 When necessary additional instruction and practice
is provided on the 4th grade wiki. The assignment
calendar will link directly to any supplemental
materials or lessons.
 Be sure to review your student’s work at the end of
each unit, as specified on the Assignment Work
Record.

20. Writing is an important part of 4th grade, and yes, there is a lot of
writing this year!
 Each unit will include writing concepts, instructions, and videos on
how to teach each concept.
 Writer’s Express will be an important resource and your handbook
to writing this year. It is a guide, not an assignment book, filled with
helpful hints and interesting writing ideas.
 Journaling is another useful tool to inspire and keep your child
writing this year. There will be journaling topics to help you in units
to come.

21.  Writing can be fun, take it slow, one step at a time.
 Don’t try to make everything perfect all at once. Pick one area, for example
run on sentences, and work on that.
 Work on supporting your child’s ideas with details and facts.
 Choose one piece of writing every two weeks to perfect. Send into class to
“publish” if you like!
 Have your child ask themselves:
Did I capitalize?
Did I indent?
Does my paragraph/ sentence make sense?

22. As you know California history is a large part of the 4th grade year,
so many of your literature books this year will include elements of
California history. In addition, I will spend time in class teaching
some of these history standards.
Field Trips
Your child will also have the opportunity to join our class field trip to
Sacramento!
 There will be other field trips throughout the year and I will keep
you up to date with all of the information necessary to participate.

23. All of world history will be taught at home this school year.
 Unit of Study #1: U.S History: Westward Expansion
 Unit of Study #2: U.S History: Civil War
 Unit of Study #3: U.S History: Immigration and Citizenship
 Unit of Study #4: World History: Story of the World,
Volume 2, Ch. 13-22
 Unit of Study #5: World History: Story of the World,
Volume 2, Ch. 23-32
 Unit of Study #6: World History: Story of the World,
Volume 2, Ch. 33-42

24. We will be studying the following topics this year…
Unit 1: Physical Science: Motion (forces, motion, and simple machines)
Unit 2: Physical Science: Electricity and Magnetism (electricity, magnetism and
electromagnetism)
Unit 3: Physical Science: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math concepts and
applications)
Unit 4: Earth Science: Earth’s Structure and Changing Surface (Earth’s layers, minerals,
rocks, rock cycle, natural resources, slow changes, erosion, deposition deposition,
weathering, rapid changes etc.)
Unit 5:Earth Science: Diversity of Life 1 (characteristics of living things, classification of
single-celled organisms through plants)
Unit 6:Life Science: Diversity of Life 2 (classification of animals)

25. All student are required to participate in 200 minutes of P.E. every 10 school
days. This may be accomplished through a variety of activities:
 Sports teams: soccer, baseball, or gymnastics
 Dance: Ballet, Hip hop, Tap, or Jazz
 Martial Arts
 Outdoor Recreation: running, biking, or hiking
 The Y.M.C.A in Oceanside offers a physical education program
 The Ecke center in Encinitas also provides a P.E. program
Please fill out the P.E. / Field Trip form and submit at conference time

26. In the 4th grade your student will study music every
workshop day! Just another reason 4th grade is
wonderful…
Music: Mrs. Ward
12:30pm-1:00pm

27. Please be sure your student comes to workshop with the following items
everyday:
 Math- Saxon Math book and Math journal/Composition book (preferred) or
binder with lined paper, 2 packs of index cards for math vocabulary.
 Language Arts- Language Arts Journal/ Composition book (preferred) or
binder with lined paper.
 Science- Science Journal/ Composition book (preferred) or binder with lined
paper.
 History- History Journal/ Composition book (preferred) or binder with lined
paper.
 Other- Silent reading book, 2 sharpened pencils.

28. You may choose to use a binder. If you do, just have the proper
labels on the dividers. I am asking for separate folders which may
be united into one binder:
Subject What to include
 Math: Include math AWR and graph paper
 Language Arts: Writing paper, a place to store writing
 Journal: Writing paper, a place for journaling

29. These items are always useful to bring in to share… or for your student’s use
personal use:
 2 highlighters (light colors only)
 Pencils
 1 set of 12 colored pencils or crayons, scissors, large eraser, glue stick
 Clorox wipes/ baby wipes for desk hygiene
 Extra supply of wide-ruled notebook paper to keep in classroom
 2 pocketed folders (preferably with binder clips in the center) one for
writing, and one for SRA
 Stickies-one package for the year

30. Room mom (one for A-track and one for B-track): This person is willing to take
on the responsibility to call parents who have not responded to me by my
email. In addition, this person may organize additional field trips for the 4th
grade class.
Meet the Masters Parent: This parent would volunteer to teach the art
program as scheduled by Diana Stein
Science Material Coordinator (either one for each track or one for both):
This parent would receive a copy of what items are needed in the classroom
and would purchase them for the class(es).
*In addition to these jobs, various classroom projects and lessons in the class will
call for more help in the classroom I will send out emails to invite parents to
come in and help. You may also let me know if you would like to come in
when you have time, and I can have some work ready for you.

31. Conferences are an excellent opportunity for us to discuss progress as well as review
work. Please note that you will keep the same conference time ALL YEAR!
 Conference run about 20-30 minutes long. In conferences we:
 Collect work for student’s state required audit file (Please see Parent Audit
checklist attached to the main coastal wiki). Answer questions and discuss
student progress.
 The sign up sheet is located on my wiki page under conference schedule.
Please follow the directions on the page to add your name to the schedule.
Parents often coordinate their time between their children’s teacher to minimize
their time.
 It is important to note that conferences are a busy time. Please be respectful
of the parents whose conferences are before and after yours and arrive
promptly and leave within the appropriate time frame.

32. Welcome again to the 4th grade! I am so excited to begin
this journey with you and your student!
Sincerely,
Maryanna Wright
4th Grade Teacher