Fourth Grade Curriculum

Math: Saxon Math (spiral curriculum) - Lessons are taught consecutively. There will be study guides that are completed in-class the day before the test to help your child prepare for the exams. The first exam will be given after lessons 1-10 have been taught. After that, the exams will be given after the next five lessons have been taught. Timed tests will be given before each lesson throughout the week. These are used to help reinforce basic skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These timed assessments are not graded and the children are encouraged to set short term goals of achievement for completion of the activity. Homework will be daily and if your child should struggle with independent work at home, there will be a page number in parenthesis that tells your child which lesson to look back to for help. For example, (26) tells you to look back at lesson 26 where that concept had been taught.

Social Studies: “Social Studies Alive” – Hands on learning program that allows the students to learn about the geography, economy, government, and history of the different regions of the United States. We will learn the states and capitals in each region as that region is taught. Illinois will be studied in depth and the children will demonstrate what they’ve learn through various projects to be named at a later date. Assessments are performance based. Paper and pencil assessments are only a portion of the student’s grade. Group work and participation are factors as well.

Science: We will be covering the following units throughout the year. Electrical Circuits, Motion and Design, Land and Water, and Animal Studies. All units are hands on learning and assessments are performance based.

Language Arts: “Imagine” reading basal as well as various guided reading fiction and non-fiction literature will be used. The students will also complete various novel studies with accompanying reader’s responses and book reports. Students will be taught skills such as summarizing, inferring, word analysis, self-monitoring, and point of view, among others. We will also have an independent reading block that the child is responsible for. A calendar will be sent home where your child can log his or her reading minutes each evening. I require that each child reads at least 20 minutes independently at home each evening. The children also participate in the “Accelerated Reader” program which works well with the independent reading block. Each month, the students are responsible for meeting their AR goal which has been determined for each grade level. If a student reads 20 minutes each evening, he or she should easily meet the goal.

“World of Language” textbook is used to teach and reinforce new grammar skills such as subjects, predicates, pronouns, etc.

Writing: We will be writing frequently in journals as well as formal narrative, expository, and persuasive pieces. Organizational and content skills will be taught from a “Four Square and 6 + 1 Traits of Writing” framework.

Spelling: Students will be learning and practicing specific skills based lessons from Evan Moore. Each lesson focuses on a specific concept or spelling pattern. We will have pre-tests on Mondays and final tests on Fridays. Students are responsible for completing independent practice packets that are due on Friday mornings at home. Word wall words are introduced monthly and are used to reinforce commonly misspelled words. These may or may not be used as bonus words on the weekly spelling test.

Assignment Notebooks: Assignment notebooks are used in fourth grade to help organize the student. All assignments will be written in the assignment notebook. The notebooks need to be signed every night by a parent even if the student has finished all homework in class. Exceptions are only allotted in emergency situations or if the student has been ill for that day. This tool is only one of the many study skills that is taught and reinforced in fourth grade.