Fourth Grade
We are excited to share The Cricket in Times Square, a Writing Journal, and Building Writers with your fourth grader to help them prepare for fifth grade. Here are how to get started and encourage your student to read and write to achieve literacy success!
Tips for Reading to and with Your Young Reader
Dedicate 30 minutes for reading each day. Several studies indicate students’ reading abilities decline or stall during the summer because of a lack of exposure to literacy. However, students who read at least 30 minutes each day encounter more vocabulary and reinforce essential reading skills.
Pay Attention to Prefixes and Suffixes
When your learner uses a word with a prefix or suffix, occasionally stop to talk about it. Break down the word and say what the prefix or suffix and root word mean when they’re put together, and brainstorm other words that have the same suffix or prefix.
This classic story touches on universal themes of friendship, loyalty, honesty, and home; its fantasy is not tied to technology, but to imagination. The characters are as recognizable today as they were when the book was first published, and the beautiful writing is timeless. This is the story of a cricket from Connecticut who accidentally comes to New York City after getting stuck on a commuter train. He makes a few new friends, including a cat, a mouse, and a boy named Mario, whose parents own a troubled newsstand. He also discovers a natural talent for creating beautiful cricket music, enchanting most of New York City along the way.
During Reading
Read this story aloud with your learner. Yes, they are reading independently, but it is still very important to continue to read aloud with them. Read-aloud time boosts their reading comprehension and vocabulary, and opens important moments of dialogue between you and your child about their life, their concerns, and their hopes for the future. Many moments in this classic tale will resonate with your child and with you.
Make a “W” Chart: While you and your learner read books together, make a chart filling out the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the book as you both discover them.
After Reading
This reading and writing pack also includes resources to help your learner practice foundational writing skills while responding to reading in fun and creative ways.
Commit to 10–15 minutes of writing, 3 times a week. All it takes is 30–45 minutes per week to help students improve letter and sentence formation.
Writing Journal
The Writing Journal provides space for your child’s responses to the provided prompts, or their own reactions and descriptions of the story and its connection to their life.
Writing and Conversation Prompts
Help your reader respond to these prompts in their Writing Journal or in conversation with you.
• Chester the Cricket feels alone and frightened in New York City. After meeting Tucker Mouse, “Chester was feeling much happier . . . The future did not seem nearly as gloomy.” How does Tucker Mouse help Chester to adjust to his new home?
• Write about the qualities of each of the animals in the story.
• How are these characters different from real animals?
• Why does Tucker let Chester have his life savings?
• How many different combinations of coins can be used to make $2?
• What should you do if a friend asks you to lie about a situation and blame someone else?
Other Activities
• Design a cover for the book.
• Create a banner for the newsstand.
• Design a newspaper ad for Chester’s concert.
• Make a collage about the story. Look in magazines or on the internet to find pictures related to the story to cut or print. Arrange the pictures you found in a collage to recreate your favorite scene from The Cricket in Times Square
Pay Attention to Handwriting
After enjoying and talking about the content of their writing, look for any letters in the Building Writers or Writing Journal that are less legible. Point out a model of that letter in Building Writers and coach your learner to write a line of that letter in the Writing Journal, with coaching as needed, to improve legibility. To access the Handwriting Without Tears Letter Formation Charts go to LWTears.com/letter-number-formation-charts
CursiveCapitalsFormationChart
Building Writers
NumberNumberStories Stories startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigLinedown. inthecorner. startsintheStartingCorner.makes BigCurve.walksstopsinthecorner.awayonthebottom.startsintheStartingCorner.themakesaLittleCurvetomakesmiddle.anotherLittleCurvetothebottomcorner. startsintheStartingCorner.tomakesaLittleLinedownwalksthemiddle.acrossthedarknight.umpstothetopandsays, didit.”(BigLinedown)startsintheStartingCorner. middle.makesaLittleLinedowntothe startstorain. makes LittleCurvearound.toputsaLittleLineontop stoptherain.
startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigLinedown. inthecorner. startsintheStartingCorner.stopsmakesaBigCurve. inthecorner. walksawayonthebottom.startsintheStartingCorner.makesmakesaLittleCurveto anotherLittleCurvetothebottomcorner. startsintheStartingCorner.
startsintheStartingCorner.makesaLittleLineacross betterslidedown.” doesn’tdifferent.likecorners. beginsstartsatthetopcenter. withSandthen goeshome. hasissospecial. makesitsowncorner.paLittleCurveand tothecorner. makesaBigLinedown. usestwoplaces.
startsintheStartingCorner.goesisababybear.downtocurlupinisthecorner. hibernating. startsintheStartingCorner.makes LittleLineacross says,thetop. “ betterslidedown.” doesn’tisdifferent.likecorners. beginsstartsatthetopcenter. withSandthen goeshome. hasissospecial. makesitsowncorner.toaLittleCurveand thecorner.makesaBigLinedown. 0comesusestwoplaces. first. startsisnext.atthetopcenter.isfinished.
©2020LearningWithoutTears
2018LearningWithoutTears
Continue to help your child improve their writing ability by using Building Writers. Building Writers helps children develop key narrative, informational, and opinion writing skills by providing a step-by-step model to build confidence. Building Writers includes an easy-to-follow writing checklist to help children develop good writing habits.
Images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/teachers-guides/9780312380038TG.pdf
In addition to our Summer Reading and Writing Packs, we also have free resources to support your students. Be sure to visit our site for letter and number formation charts, strategies to build sight word automaticity, and much more! LWTears.com/resources/summer-learning
