4th grade completely bored in class

[Anonymous]

Sorry, posted before I was done. Part 2

I was trying to say he could be reviewing maps on whatever they are studying. If it was Africa there is so much to learn with the conflicts and constant changing names.

He could be reading about the American government and how it works. That’s always fun.

When he doesn’t have anything to do what are the other students doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4th and 5th grades are boring. The only way I can see a student having free time is if he finishes a test early and even that isn’t a lot of time. Teachers talk a lot and write things on the board. The kids get into little groups for projects.

If they are writing essays he can write a longer essay because he has the time. He could be looking at maps at whatever they are focusing on just one continent.

There’s a bunch of of time when they are supposed to stuff on iPad — they have come to the end of the internet in some way, the iPad doesn’t allow any advancement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4th and 5th grades are boring. The only way I can see a student having free time is if he finishes a test early and even that isn’t a lot of time. Teachers talk a lot and write things on the board. The kids get into little groups for projects.

If they are writing essays he can write a longer essay because he has the time. He could be looking at maps at whatever they are focusing on just one continent.

There’s a bunch of of time when they are supposed to stuff on iPad — they have come to the end of the internet in some way, the iPad doesn’t allow any advancement.

If they allow IXL, that math app keeps going and gets more challenging. We just got it in elementary this year and it's on iPads now. You might see if it could be available. It's not expensive if you have to pay for it yourself.

[Anonymous]

If he likes to read, then have him write about what he’s reading. Write informative papers, persuasive essays, creative writing. Have him bring his writings home and you work on the mechanics with him. Talk about structure, expanding with detail, etc. Have him make you presentations about what he learned.

It’s hard for a teacher to provide individualized instruction to every kid in the class. So you do some at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally speaking, the Core Knowledge series is excellent. They have a whole series of books What Your ____ Grader Needs to Know. You could start with the 4th grade one:
https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Grader-Needs-Revised-Updated/dp/0553394673

Will she have access to a computer? There are some fantastic websites for instruction and enrichment.

What is her math level? I had a mathy daughter, so I can make done suggestions for enrichment, but I’m not sure what “topped out” means in those case.

Does she have any specific interests? She could do some in-depth projects or explore some subjects that are outside of the standard curriculum.

As other posters have pointed out, you’ll basically be homeschooling her, even though she’ll be at school. You might want to post in the Homeschooling forum for ideas from people with experience in providing their kids a full curriculum.

This is generally excellent advice. I would skip the computer stuff for now, though.

[Anonymous]

Homeschool. If you can’t homeschool during the day, then you do it after school/work.

As far as what you can send with her…maybe Beast Academy workbooks and plenty of books on various interests. Go to the public library for these or buy them. School library selections have go far downhill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

[Anonymous]

Colleague says they sent books for their DC to read quietly if they finished their work early. They coordinated with the teacher, who was fine with that. Parent choosing the books for DC to read let the parents mix fiction with factual books - and also let parents pick age-appropriate and reading-level-appropriate books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

[Anonymous]

If there is still a grade level above your kid at that school (that the school does not end after 4th) someone should have access to worksheets to give your kid for math. Our teacher suggested setting up a khan academy account for our kid for higher level homework than she would normally assign to the class. You could see if the school was willing to do either of those things. Neither is a super heavy lift and you could do khan on your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

Why not give your kid assignments to bring with them to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

Why not give your kid assignments to bring with them to school?

I’m looking for ideas for resources like that in fact. That’s this thread. We are both full time in office workers, and no education background so looking for places that might have engaging project plans etc.

I looked into a writing prompt creative writing journal, I like the idea of logic puzzles, we have some logic game cards, not anhuge fan of more screen time despite very much liking khan academy in general.

We have math enrichment already, and work on that home. We want something more project like where practicing planning, executive function, etc. come into play. Not worksheets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

I sincerely doubt your kid is the only one. But it sounds like you're in public school, and expecting a teacher to design specific interventions for your kid is probably asking more than they're willing to give. But yes, sending in books for your child to read and sending in workbooks with more challenging content are all ways for you to ensure your kid isn't "completely bored" in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

Why not give your kid assignments to bring with them to school?

I’m looking for ideas for resources like that in fact. That’s this thread. We are both full time in office workers, and no education background so looking for places that might have engaging project plans etc.

I looked into a writing prompt creative writing journal, I like the idea of logic puzzles, we have some logic game cards, not anhuge fan of more screen time despite very much liking khan academy in general.

We have math enrichment already, and work on that home. We want something more project like where practicing planning, executive function, etc. come into play. Not worksheets.

This doesn’t sound like the type of thing he can independently do at school. Projects assigned by you and executive function work are for home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA should be more than just getting to a Lexile level. They aren’t doing writing assignments or identifying themes etc in stories? Ask the teacher if she can hold your kid to a higher standard, have them write longer assignments, do some outside research on a topic, etc.

+1 This. Have you talked your kid's teacher OP? My kid was a very advanced reader as a 4th/5th grader, and the teacher just gave him some books that are common on the middle school curriculum and told him to read them and write about them. Even if your teacher doesn't want to do that, you can pick out some texts from higher level reading lists and just send them with your kid if the teacher is ok with that.

Yes we talked with our teacher. They said sending in books to read is fine. But we weee hoping for some work project based work or writing assignments. We can’t home school. I can’t believe we are the only student in this class cohort of 150 students at this level — those kids should be addressed with appropriate assignments to that group. We aren’t looking for 1-on-1 instruction but any level appropriate guidance.

Why not give your kid assignments to bring with them to school?

I’m looking for ideas for resources like that in fact. That’s this thread. We are both full time in office workers, and no education background so looking for places that might have engaging project plans etc.

I looked into a writing prompt creative writing journal, I like the idea of logic puzzles, we have some logic game cards, not anhuge fan of more screen time despite very much liking khan academy in general.

We have math enrichment already, and work on that home. We want something more project like where practicing planning, executive function, etc. come into play. Not worksheets.

This doesn’t sound like the type of thing he can independently do at school. Projects assigned by you and executive function work are for home.

+1 Or hire a private therapist (occupational therapy) to work on your kid's executive function if it's an area of concern for you.