Curriculum Guide
Fourth Grade

RELIGION

We Believe, God’s Law Guides Us 4, Sadlier Publishing Company.
Fourth grade religion introduces the students to growing in Jesus Christ by realizing Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The Ten Commandments are also examined in depth focusing on ways to love God as well as one another.  The students also learn that through Jesus we grow in holiness, we are all members of His holy church, and we are all called to discipleship.

MATHEMATICS

Connections, Heath Mathematics.
The students become proficient in place value as well as rounding numbers to millions.  They are given practice in problem solving strategies as well as deciphering word problems and patterns.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division computation skills are emphasized.  Work with probability, fractions, mixed numbers, measurement, decimals, and geometry is developed significantly.

SCIENCE

Science Horizons, Silver Burdett Ginn.
Fourth grade science focuses on providing students with learning experiences that relate science to their world through various hands-on experiments, in addition to activities and knowledge provided by the text.  The students study four units throughout the year:  Life Science, Physical Science, Earth Science, and the Human Body.

 

LANGUAGE
ARTS

Seeing is Believing, Scott Foresman Reading
The reading series used by the fourth graders begins with a Focus on the Family.  The theme then develops into A Wider View of the World, Keys to Success, Timeless Stories, Other Times and Places, and finally Express Yourself.  The many skills learned by the fourth grade students include setting, sequence, author’s purpose, character development, and visualizing.  The students learn the difference between fiction and nonfiction, as well as text structure, making judgments, and drawing conclusions.  They begin to paraphrase passages, compare and contrast ideas, and summarize thoughts.
Grammar and Spelling are each a part of the reading series.  The Spelling each week is based on phonetic words used within each story.  Practice is given to prefixes, suffixes, contractions, compounds, various vowel sounds, correct letter order, and capitalization and punctuation.
Grammar is another part of the Scott Foresman series.  The students are given much practice in nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.  Sentence structure, kinds of sentences, conjunctions, capitalization, and quotations are also emphasized.  The students master each concept through practice in the workbook provided by the publisher.
Handwriting- We Write to Read Grade 4, Peterson Handwriting.  The students improve the overall appearance of their cursive writing by practicing spacing, neatness, slant and rhythmic letter formation and connections.


HISTORY

SOCIAL STUDIES

Social Studies Regions, Scott Foresman.
Fourth grade social studies take a tour of the various regions of the United States: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West.  As students visit each region, they learn the history of that section, the resources, climate, and also about the people who live there.  Emphasis is placed on the structure of government, including local, state, and national levels.  Map reading is also an important skill learned this year and students study Native Americans, explorers, the American Revolution, the formations of the nation, the Civil War, the building of the West, the presidents, and the industrial revolution.