4th Grade
Virgina Keating-Miller: 4th Grade Teacher
B.A. Education Concordia College Bronxville, 1999
M.S. Education Iona College New Rochelle NY 2003
Teaching at Thornton-Donovan since 2002
Students receive instruction in Math, Reading Language Arts, Social Studies and Science on a daily basis. “Specials” include Physical Education, Music, Art and World Languages (two Romance languages).
MATH: Students develop fluency with both multiplication and division, generate and analyze patterns, add and subtract fractions and be able to analyze and solve word problems with mixed operations. In addition to the textbook and workbook, students also make use of IXL.com to help develop their fluency
READING: Students learn how to explore and analyze nonfiction vs. fiction text more and support their answers with text evidence. Students use specific examples from the text to explain characters' motivations, main events, central themes, or ideas about a text. Students are expected to interpret and connect information from illustrations, graphs, charts, and other diagrams related to text. Students will read grade-level texts with accurate comprehension, pacing and expression.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary. Students learn the different parts of speech more extensively and can put it into practice to write well-developed sentences. Students move from the one-paragraph model to writing more extensively in a three-paragraph essay, composed with a well-developed, topic - body -conclusion format. Students learn the meaning of different prefixes and suffixes to expand their vocabulary.
SOCIAL STUDIES: Students begin their American History journey learning about the early formation of the 13 Colonies, The Revolutionary War, the development and writing of the Constitution of the United States and end their journey to the rising tension between the Northern and Southern States.
SCIENCE: Students learn about energy, heat, motion and electricity. They have an introduction to plants, animals and finish with Earth's resources.
ITALIAN: Students learn similar topics to Italian 2/3, but with a heavier emphasis on grammar and memorizing conjugations and vocabulary in language learning. Students even write a short composition.
SPANISH: Students learn similar topics to Spanish 2/3, but with a heavier emphasis on grammar (potentially learning -ar verbs) and memorizing conjugations and vocabulary in language learning. Students even write a short composition.
FRENCH: Students are introduced to basic/everyday vocabulary of things around the house and the classroom. They learn the basic grammar for forming plural words and the conjugation of verbs ending in -ER.
TECHNOLOGY: Students are taught introduction to computer hardware & software. This includes the following: hardware components necessary to understand and build a computer - Major Operating Systems such as Windows, Mac OS and Linux - Google Application Suite such as Docs, Sheets, etc. - Introduction to Cloud Technology - IP addressing, Binary & Hexadecimal numbers - Different type of hackers such as Ethical, Black-Hat & Gray-Hat - Introduction to the World Wide Web.
MUSIC: We continue the instruction with interactive drum circles, instrument playing and note reading, as well as exposure to more thematic aspects of the year. We incorporate instruments and songs, as well as some complicated dances from around the world.
ART: Guided watercolor paintings, crayon/watercolor resist paintings, mixed media watercolor and acrylic, "melted" magic marker painting, simple palette knife technique in acrylic painting, mixed media watercolor and pen work, model magic sculpting, more advanced origami folding techniques.