“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them

tasks and work, but rather

teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Dear Families,

Let’s start building our fourth-grade classroom community! Together, we

can make this year one for the books: we can build a foundation for future
learning, forge lasting relationships, and encourage a life-long love of
learning. I can’t wait to get to know each and every one of you and
welcome you to our classroom and our little world of learning.

Things to look forward to:

One of the most crucial skills your child will develop this year is an
enjoyment of writing. In order to enjoy writing, we have to foster our
confidence in our writing abilities. For young writers, this often means
building up their spelling skills, along with other literacy fundamentals. One
of my goals this year is to give your child some tools they can use to figure
out how to spell unfamiliar words on their own!

Our goals:
As writers, our spelling is the face our work shows to the world. It’s the first thing someone reading our work will notice. If we
take care with our spelling, no one will notice it at all. Just because it’s not the most glamorous part of writing, doesn’t mean
it won’t be fun to study! This year, your child will learn about:

• Homophones: words that sound the same but mean different things
• Latin and Greek Root Words: the building blocks of much of our language
• Dictionaries: how do you use one?

Our strategy:
You might remember memorizing spelling or vocabulary words in school. The
strategy we use in our class focuses more on the structure and meaning of words
than it does on memorization. It’s all about understanding! We call this “word study,”
and (good news): it’s FUN! We’ll learn about spelling rules by learning about the
bases of our language. Click here for more information about word study:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/word-study-learning-word-patterns

How it looks:
At the beginning of the year, we’ll figure out your child’s individual spelling understandings based on a fourth-grade word-
bank. We’ll start where your child is and we’ll mold our learning around each individual’s needs. Every week, your child will
be given a list of words that is personalized to those needs. Each week, the whole class will have a root word to study. We’ll
use that root word in our curriculum in as many ways as we can. Each day, we will study a new vocabulary word, that relates
to what we’re studying in literacy, math, science, or social studies. Every morning, we will begin the day with a discussion of
our word lists. Students will share their ideas about and difficulties with the words on their lists.

What you can do to help:

As a parent, I know you’re wondering how you can help your child be the best he or she can be. Even if you feel like word
study is unfamiliar to you, there are so many things you can do to help your child. The most important gift you can give your
budding writer is the gift of time spent reading together! The more your child reads, the better writer he or she will become.
Engage your student by asking about words we’re studying in class. Help your child practice his or her weekly list: we use a
strategy called “look, say, cover, write, check” that helps students figure out spelling for themselves. There are reading,
writing, and spelling games galore that your child and you can enjoy together – check out http://pbskids.org/games/spelling/
if you’re interested.

You are always welcome in our classroom. Please email, call, or drop in during our open house to talk more. I look forward
to helping your child build a lifelong love of our fascinating, complicated, funny language!

Your friend,

Mariah Brashar.

Forever learning to long for the endless immensity of the sea of learning