Grade Level Curriculum Guides

Fourth Grade

LANGUAGE ARTS

In fourth grade, a high priority in language arts teaching is the focus on speaking and listening as well as meaning and thinking. Carefully planned teacher modeling, demonstration, and discussion help students in understanding a selection. This encourages the development of critical thinking, auditory, and visual discrimination, language concepts, and comprehension strategies. Ultimately, it is our goal to inspire students to read for knowledge, information, and enjoyment in order to satisfy their curiosity about the world in which they live. We will reinforce the following skills throughout the year to obtain these goals:

ORAL COMMUNICATION

·        Speaking clearly using grammatically correct language with appropriate volume.

·        Speaking to persuade, influence, or change an opinion to variety of audiences within a specified time limit.

·        Responding to the ideas of others both in group discussion and conversations, recognizing the need to take turns.

·        Development of appropriate questioning techniques.

·        Describing the relationship between various ideas, state and draw conclusions, and make generalizations.

·        Using figurative language and imagery while speaking.

·        Expressing personal reaction to a piece of literature while incorporating appropriate body language and gestures.

·        Development and expansion of paraphrasing and summarizing skills.

·        Ability to organize, set priorities, and give multi-step directions in sequential order.

·        Predicting outcomes and stating inferences.

·        Listening for a specific purpose and gain information.

·        Through listening, appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of language.

·        Giving the speaker one's undivided attention.

·        Accurately follow verbal sequential directions.

·        Asking appropriate questions for clarification based on accurate listening.

·        Identifying the speaker=s purpose.

·        Identification and understanding figures of speech.

·        Begin to recognize differences in first and third person=s point of view.

·        Able to solve analogies

READING

·        Show an interest in reading by selecting a variety of literature and literary genre.

·        Reading literature independently for enjoyment.

·        Demonstrate good comprehension by predicting; inferring; drawing conclusions; interpreting mood, tone, plot, and theme; following sequence.

·        Show an awareness of reading strategies by using pre-reading activities, pictures/charts for clues, contextual clues, word analysis, and table of contents, index, and glossary.

·        Elicit vocabulary meaning from context clues and use learned vocabulary in writing and discussion.

·        Relate personal experiences to literature through discussion and writing.

WRITING

·        Relate ideas to personal experiences or prior knowledge.

·        Develop and extend paraphrasing, summarizing, and brainstorming techniques.

·        Identification of main idea, details, and signal words as an aid to understanding.

·        Use poems, riddles, tongue twisters, limericks, figurative language and free prose.

·        Utilize dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, and resource technology.

·        Participate in journal, personal, expressive, and informative writing that develops narration, description, persuasion, and classification skills.

·        Incorporation of spelling skills by editing, drafting, revising, and proofreading.

·        Review cursive writing techniques.

SOCIAL STUDIES

In the fourth grade, students explore Long Beach, Long Island, and New York. The focus is on studying local history and the local government. In connection with this, the students get an overview of United States history. We emphasize self-identity, social interaction, and citizenship. Students engage in activities designed to help them understand the following:

SOCIAL

·        Families in the local community change over time.

·        Places in your community change.

·        A community has a unique social/cultural makeup and heritage.

·        A community=s past and present history is filled with contributors, male and female of varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, who have influenced the community.

·        People of a local community tend to be influenced by and benefit from other cultures by their gifts and examples.

ECONOMIC

·        A local community has an economic history.

·        Economic events in the future of the United States and the world will affect your local community.

·        Economic events in the history of a local community are interrelated.

GEOGRAPHIC

· A local community has a geographic history.

· Communities and nations have boundaries and can be located on maps and globes.

POLITICAL

·        Young people learn to support political systems through the celebration of patriotic holidays, their factual base and significance.

·        Citizens contribute to and participate in political action on the local, state, and national level.

·        Citizens are responsible for meeting the problems of the present and future in a global world.

·        All levels of United States government have officials.

·        United States governments, at all levels, have structures that allow them to fulfill the functions of making, enforcing, and interpreting laws.

·        People living in modern United States societies need laws.

·        In the past and present, people in a local community share (d) common problems.

·        The United States and a local community have a political history.

·        Today's citizens need to plan for the future.

HISTORY

·        History is subject to individual interpretation.

·        Long Island and New York played a part in American history.

·        People from many nations have settled on Long Island.

·        Awareness that significant events and people have contributed to Long Island=s history.

MATHEMATICS

In fourth grade the children will engage in activities that will reinforce and further develop usage of mathematical concepts, operations, and critical thinking skills. We emphasize the following skills and ideas in this grade:

·        Reading and writing whole numbers to hundred millions, such as 600,000,000.

·        Rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand.

·        Reviewing Arabic and Roman systems of numeration.

·        Adding and subtracting numbers up to a hundred thousand.

·         Using estimation of sums and differences before doing actual computation.

·        Checking addition and subtraction by using the opposite operation for example:

·        653-445=208 because 208+445=653.

·        Solving number sentences like the following: 653-n=208.

·        Solving subtraction problems renaming with zero.

·        Multiplying three digits by two digit numbers.

·        Reciting the multiplication tables zero through ten.

·        Practicing written and mental multiplication first by 10, then by 100, then by 1,000, and then by 10,000.

·        Reviewing division facts with dividends up to three places.

·        Finding the quotient and remainder in division problems such as 421 divided by 8, quotient is 52 remainder is 5.

o       52 r5

·        8 421

·        Checking multiplication and division problems by using the opposite process, for example:

·        420 divided by 7 equals 60 because        60 x 7 = 420.

·        Solving word problems by using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

·        Stating the numerical order of fractions        E.g., 1/10 < 1/5 < 1/3 < 1/2 <1.

·        Adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators.

·        Using decimal notation for tenths and hundredths.

·        Identifying equivalent fractions of decimal notation for example 0.1=1/10.

·        Adding and subtracting decimals to hundredths place.

·        Multiplying decimal fractions to tenths place.

·        Making graphs of statistical data.

·        Computing averages.

·        Expressing probabilities in terms of fractions.

·        Understanding equivalent measures within the metric system.

·        Finding the area, volume, and perimeter of specific figures by counting units.

·        Telling time to the second.

·        Developing and solving measurement word problems.

·        Using rulers to construct geometric figures.

·        Developing and using mathematical vocabulary.

SCIENCE

With problem solving as a goal, the fourth grade science program will continue to develop the necessary attitudes, content and skills.

POSITIVE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDES

Science attitudes are reflections of a person=s values as those values relate to science. Values are a crucial component of the problem-solving process because they guide the person=s behavior. In fourth grade, students will develop the following skills:

·        Identifying alternative.

·        Making choices.

·        Acting in a way that most enhances the quality of life both for the person and for others.

SCIENCE CONTENT

Since an effective problem solver must be knowledgeable, students will increase their understanding of science principles. These goals are primarily realized through the use of hands-on Science Kits that enrich the understanding of Life Science and Physical Science. The skills presented include:

LIFE SCIENCE

·        Living things are affected by and affect the environment.

·        Plants and animals reproduce to continue the species.

·        The different kinds of plants and animals in an area may be dependent upon each other for food and other needs.

·        The group of plants and animals that are dependent on each other in an area is called a community.

·        Life science includes the study of food chains and food webs.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

· Energy and material have forms and properties

· Within systems the interactions of materials and energy change their forms and properties

SKILLS

·        Students will acquire and apply skills systematically and with ease to solve problems. These skills include:

·        Classifying

·        Creating models

·        inferring

·        formulating hypotheses

·        generalizing

·        identifying variables

·        interpreting data

·        making decisions

·        manipulating materials

·        measuring

·        observing

·        predicting

·        recording data

·        replicating

·        using numbers