Grade 4

READING

The skills that are covered and reinforced throughout the reading program are:

• Comprehension - Understanding and recalling the details
• Main Idea - Combining the key points from the beginning, middle and end of a passage, article, or book
• Summary - Connecting important ideas of an article or passage
• Word Analysis - Read and decode unfamiliar words
• Oral Fluency - Understanding punctuation when reading aloud
• Expression - Dramatizing the story while reading aloud
• Vocabulary - Understand word meaning
• Selective Underlining - Being able to identify the key points of an article or passage

WRITING

• Writing done throughout the school day includes journal writing, writing extensions, descriptive sentences, and paragraph writing.
• Five paragraphs are standard for essays.  Each paragraph shuld be approximately five sentences long.  Sentences should be at a fourth grade level.
• Grammar and editing are done daily through Daily Oral Language.
  • The focus is on using the correct punctuation, grammar, and spelling in everyday writing.
  • The students are taught to identify nouns, pronous, verbs, and adjectives.

MATH

The following concepts will be taught throughout the year:

• Place value through 1,000,000
• Addition and subtraction of five digit numbers with regrouping (carrying and regrouping)
• Multiplication and division basic facts through 10
• Time:  Elapsed intervals of time, using a calendar
• Money: adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing
• Multiplication of six digit numbers with regrouping.
• Division - long division, zeros in the quotient, dividing money, and averaging.
• Measurement includes inches, feet, yard, pound, cup, pint, quart, gallon, temperature, and the metric equivalents.
• Geometry- flips, turns, angles, symmetry, slides
• Fractions: addition, subtraction, and creating equivalent fractions.
• Estimation
• Collecting, organizing, and using data, graphing.
• Problem solving in all areas throughout the year

SCIENCE

A hands on approach to learning science is used whenever possible. Experiments are used to teach the students the skills of observing, classifying, inferring, predicting, making models, recording data, evaluating and drawing conclusions.  We study the four areas of science.  The following units are covered throughout the year.

Life Science

• Animal Structure and Function
• Energy in Ecosystems

Physical Science

• Measuring Matter
• Electricity and Magnetism

Earth Science

• Make-up of the Earth
• Movements in the Solar System

SOCIAL STUDIES

The fourth grade social studies curriculum focuses on the geography, people and places of the United States.  The following units are covered throughout the year:

• Maps and Globes skills
• Immigration
• Illinois
• Regions and States
• Land forms and Resources of Regions
• Civic Responsibilities
• Government

HEALTH

The following topics will be covered this year:

• Consumer Health
• Nutrition
• Environmental Health
• Drug Awareness
• Safety
• Human Growth and Development