Fourth Grade Curriculum Overview
During the final year of Lower School, 4th graders have greater responsibility and opportunities to make decisions as they look forward to Middle School. Students deepen their organizational and time-management skills, practice deeper analysis, and think critically about complex topics, allowing them to make text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. Fourth graders take on bigger roles in the 3rd and 4th Grade Musical and at the end of the year, they select a musical instrument and world language to pursue in 5th grade and throughout middle school.
- Literacy
- Math
- Science
- Social Studies
- Social-Emotional Learning
- Specials Classes
- Homework and Assessments
- Trips
Literacy
Fourth graders continue to experience independent reading, small group literature study and Read Alouds, refining and honing their literacy skills in myriad ways.
Students develop an understanding of the relationship between reading, thinking and reflection. They develop their skills in reading both fiction and nonfiction texts. Literature circles provide an opportunity for a small group of students to read the same text and engage in conversations about various literary elements. Fourth grade students continue to enjoy the experience of Writers’ Workshop, when they are given time to write creatively in fiction genres and analytically in their nonfiction writing. Students focus on genres including personal narratives, fiction writing, informational writing, and opinion writing.
Skills
- Develop and organize ideas that are appropriate to task and purpose
- Make use of the writing process by planning, revising and editing
- Support ideas and arguments with detail, reasons and evidence
- Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, grammar and spelling when writing
- Summarize, ask, and answer questions about key details in literary and informational texts
- Support statements and opinions with specific examples from the text
- Describe characters in a story (feelings, traits, motivations) to explain how their actions contribute to the plot
- Use comprehension strategies to make meaning of text
Units of Study
- Informational writing
- Opinion and persuasive writing
- Author’s purpose
- Character development/analysis
- Literary themes
Math
In 4th grade, students continue to develop mathematical concepts through the Singapore Math curriculum and other supplemental resources. Students continue to develop and practice place value, multi-step problem-solving strategies, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and geometry.
Units of Study:
- Whole numbers up to 100,000
- Adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers
- Estimating
- Factors up to numbers in the thousands
- Multiplication of one- and two-digit numbers
- Division by a one digit number
- Word Problems review in multiplication and division
- Using and interpreting tables and line graphs
- Finding the average, median, and mode in a data set
- Fractions and mixed numbers: adding and subtracting fractions, word problems
- Decimals up to hundredths, adding and subtracting
- Drawing and measuring angles
- Perpendicular and parallel line segments, construct and analyze various types of line
- Conversion of measurements: length, mass, weight and volume
- Area and perimeter: rectangles, squares, various figures
Math-in-the-real-world projects:
- Marketing
- Angles and geometry
- Architecture (area and perimeter)
Science
With the spiral curriculum approach, students continue to extend, refine and revise their skills as scientists by observing, predicting, categorizing and organizing the data they collect. They continue to explore the topics of biology and Earth science at a deeper level. Scientific writing begins to be a hallmark of the program as students synthesize their data and support their ideas with scientific evidence, devising testable claims and experiments.
Skills
- Demonstrate understanding of scientific concepts
- Record observations, thought processes, and measurements accurately and completely
- Engage in classroom discussions with relevance, meaning and insight
- Make meaningful connections between established scientific theories and data generated from investigation
Units of Study
- Animal and Plant Life Cycles (PillBug Project - Plant Growth Project)
- Animal Communication
- Earth Materials (Rock cycles)
Social Studies
Students examine the lives and communities of immigrants who have settled in the United States throughout its history. The focus is on deeply investigating and researching a particular group of people and understanding why they immigrated, how they survived, the injustices perpetrated against or by them and how groups resisted or reconciled these injustices. We also use current events to tie the past to the present, helping students understand the relevance and influence of history and its impact on the modern day. Students explore sources including artifacts, oral storytelling, nonfiction texts, primary documents (including photography, music, art, journal entries) and maps.
Concepts
- People move to new lands for many reasons
- Many factors influence where immigrants will live in the new lands
- Immigrants face challenges in their new surroundings
- Conflicts can arise over immigration
- Immigrants maintain old traditions and develop new traditions
- Immigrants make contributions to their new cultures
- Segregation, discrimination, prejudice, and racism existed in the past amongst immigrant communities and still exist today
Skills
- Observe artifacts and primary sources to extract information
- Identify main ideas and supporting details in secondary sources
- Explain orally or in writing how past events impact the present
- Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a specific topic
Units of Study
- Historical Immigration
- Push/Pull Factors
- Ellis Island
- Tenements
- Asian Immigration
- Angel Island
- The Great Migration
- Jim Crow Laws
- Segregation
- Harlem Renaissance
- Refugees
- Current immigration
Social-Emotional Learning
The character and social-emotional education curriculum in 4th grade is designed to facilitate student awareness and preparedness to effectively and appropriately interact in groups, as well as confidence and conviction in their own moral and ethical choices. Students explore their identities and learn more about other people’s lives and experiences by respectfully asking questions and listening with an open mind.
Fourth grade topics include:
- Respect and friendship
- Building community
- Individuality
- Similarities and differences
- Anti-bullying behavior
- Standing up for yourself and others/social action
- Communication skills
- Assertiveness
- Conflict resolution
- Exclusion and inclusion
- Identity
- Diversity
- Growth mindset
- Active Listening
- In collaboration with Science, students also learn about puberty, reproduction, anatomy and safe touches
Specials Classes
Music
In 4th grade, students design, produce, and perform a 40-minute musical that takes place at each campus. Third graders can audition to be part of the ensemble and supporting roles, and 4th graders can audition for larger roles and take on leadership positions. In addition to being cast members, students also help with costume-making as part of the Visual Arts curriculum. Students interested in creating and building the set can participate in our set design afterschool program.
Units of Study:
- Rhythm
- Melody
- Musicianship
- Vocal Technique
- Musical Literacy
- Music Appreciation
- Recorder instruction
Physical Education
Technology
- Achieving proficiency with Google workspace for education
- Keyboarding
- Computational thinking through block-based coding and robotics
- Expressing ideas through video editing
- Digital citizenship
- Media balance and well-being
- Privacy and security
- Digital footprint and identity
- Relationships and communication
- Cyberbullying, digital drama and hate speech
- Media literacy
Visual Arts
The 4th grade art curriculum centers on the intersection of artistic expression and human expression. As immigrants arrived in America from China through Angel Island or from Europe through Ellis Island, they often came with little more than their clothes and the cultural values embedded within them. Students are introduced to Chinese brush painting and the different values that colors signify in Beijing Opera face-painting, and how such expression compares to Western society. Studying the historical photographs of immigrants from Ellis Island, students closely observe the cultural dress that express the diversity of the countries from where the new arrivals came. By painting themselves as immigrants, students begin to see the immigrant perspective. Students examine African American art including Jacob Lawrence's Migration series and Romare Bearden's scenes of the Harlem Renaissance.
Units of Study:
- Observational drawing
- Self-Portrait
- Asian Art
- Ceramic project
- Figurative drawing
- Narrative Art
- Plaster Sculpture
World Languages: Spanish and Mandarin
Beginning in 2nd grade, students experience Spanish for half the year and Mandarin for the other half, gaining exposure to two world languages. At the end of 4th grade, students select Spanish or Mandarin and continue as their world language through 8th grade. Students continue their study of Spanish vocabulary, grammar, speaking and listening through cultural studies of Spanish speaking countries around the world.
Example Unit:
- Vocabulary
- Holidays and celebrations
- Customs and traditions
- Spanish historical
- Lifestyle of pre-colonial people from Spain
- Grammar
- Subjects and predicates in sentences.
- Use articles appropriately
- Apply correct noun-adjective agreement
- Present tense verbs
- Common Idioms
- Cultural backdrop: Spain
- Map of Spain
- Capital
- Flag
- Flamenco music and traditional dress
- “Tomatina” tradition
- Don Quijote
Homework and Assessments
Fourth graders can expect daily homework that is purposeful and helps students manage their time and workload responsibly. This will vary by student and according to subject. Students are assessed frequently through quizzes, tests, journals, daily observation, writing assignments, projects, homework and portfolios. In the fall of 4th grade, students take the CTP-5 standardized test, administered by the Educational Records Bureau (ERB).
Trips
In addition to the trips connected to their social studies and science curricula, students enjoy an overnight trip to Fairview Lake YMCA camp in western New Jersey. During their two-day stay, students experience team-building and increased confidence through activities on low ropes courses, exploration of the lake, stream and swamp habitats, a night hike and campfire, and a challenging hike to the top of the Kittatinny Ridge.