Fourth Grade Curriculum
Fourth Grade Mission Statement
Fourth grade will be an adventure in growing faith, learning independence and expanding responsibility. The subject matter is more complex and there is more of it to cover. Once, your child was learning how to read, now he/she will be refining those skills as well as learning new skills to aid in reading to learn.
Religion
Fourth grade religion deals with helping your child with the ability to choose right from wrong. We will cover the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and Saints. In everything we do, we emphasize living the Gospel and following Jesus' example of loving one another.
Reading
We will be using differentiation with a variety of resources, such as, Reading A-Z, Book Room, and individual book bins. Among the skills your child will learn to help him/her read to learn are: use of context clues, classification/categorization, making inferences, sequencing, summarizing, and drawing conclusions.
Writing
We utilize the writing process in all of our writing but particularly when working on pieces for our portfolio. Our writing portfolio is a yearlong project that will include narrative, descriptive, persuasive, and creative writing pieces as well as a how-to article and a research report.
Grammar
The workbook used for Grammar is titled Daily Grammar Practice. The idea behind Daily Grammar Practice is that students are receiving their daily grammar “vitamin”. They aren’t being overloaded with grammar for a whole 40 minute class period. Instead, they are practicing for 5 or 10 minutes a day and learning new grammar concepts each week. Students will study the parts of speech, including noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, and preposition. They will also study the sentence and its structure, capitalization and punctuation.
Social Studies
We will begin the year studying the geography of the United States, which will also cover landforms, resources, and climate. In addition, we will study Americans and their history, the U.S. government and what makes it special and unique, and the U.S. economy to include how resources are produced, delivered, and used. We will finish the year taking a deep dive into each of the five major regions of our great country.
Spelling
Our spelling textbook is Spelling and Vocabulary. We will emphasize spelling rules, word analysis, vocabulary, and dictionary and proofreading exercises. We will be having weekly spelling assignments and tests.
Science
In Science, students will think critically and design solutions to the problems in their world. It is designed to help them think like scientists and engineers. Listed below are the topics we will be investigating Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Earth Sciences.
Math
Our math program helps students develop an understanding of important math concepts through problem based interactive learning using traditional math as a basis. It also provides ongoing assessments and interventions for students through differentiated instruction. We will continue working on speed and accuracy of math facts.