Fourth Grade
The goal of education is to teach the child how to learn, not what to learn.
Welcome to 4th grade at the Madeleine School!
Mrs. Julie Slavik is your teacher this year. She has been teaching 4th grade at Madeleine for 11 years. All of her children are grown, and she really enjoys traveling and visiting with them. Mrs. Slavik loves to read, to travel, and to cook (and eat!), and that is what she loves about summer time. She also loves 4th grade. You will be able to guess what her favorite animal is once you have visited the 4th grade classroom!
Fourth graders are independent and curious, and quite capable of doing homework on their own. Mom and Dad still need to be around to check over the work, and to answer questions. Fourth grade brings about many changes in learning, also. Up until this point, children have been learning to read. From here on, much more time is spent reading to learn. You will most often find the fourth graders working in cooperative groups, both when reading content and when working on projects.
Fourth graders begin the school year by writing a book report. The book report is about a book the student read over the summer. This provides a good review of summary writing and gets everyone ready for the challenging writing we will continue all year.
One major focus in 4th grade is the study of the Oregon Trail. Fourth graders learn all about Oregon history, and spend a lot of time learning about how people made it all the way out to Oregon. This usually includes a visit to Fort Vancouver and some classroom speakers. There are wonderful exhibits and activities, as well as interesting stories to hear that make these studies come alive. In recent years, the fourth grade has taken advantage of an overnight Oregon Trail field trip. Some of the activities we participate in there are candle making, twisting rope, journal writing, singing songs, sawing logs, and much, much more. It is really a highlight of the year!