Fourth Grade

"Fourth grade students are developing better independent skills and strategies, in addition to participating more in cooperative group activities. As their self-confidence increases, they are learning to take more risks and tackle new challenges. Reading for pure enjoyment continues to grow throughout the year. Improving responsibilities and consideration of others remain important goals for fourth graders."   ~~Lynne Klempner, Loomis Elementary School

Language Arts

Themes: You Can Do It!, Man & Nature, Creative Minds, PA & Beyond, New Lands

• Learning to read independently
• Preview text (title, headings, chapters, cover, table of contents) to set a purpose for reading, recognize author’s purpose and make predictions
• Use sight word vocabulary
• Use initial, medial, and final sounds, short and long vowel sounds, and syllabication rules to decode new words
• Use context cues to understand new words
• Recognize, use and understand the meaning of key vocabulary
• Reread to self-correct miscues
• Summarize ideas, themes, or procedures in nonfiction and fiction
• Reading Critically
• Read and understand informational text and documents in all content areas
• Differentiate fact from opinion
• Identify stereotypes and exaggeration
• Distinguish between essential and nonessential information
• Identify text structures, including cause/effect, problem/solution, comparison/contrast
• Distinguish between facts and misleading information
• Analyzing & Interpreting Literature
• Recognize types of text (narrative, informational, etc.)
• Identify literary elements (events, characters, setting, problem, solution)
• Identify literary devices (rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, simile, metaphor, personification)
• Identify and interpret the effects of sound and structure in poetry
• Identify and explain the structures of drama
• Types and Quality of Writing
• Write with a clear focus, identifying topic, purpose and audience
• Write using content appropriate to topic
• Write showing main idea and supporting details
• Write multi-paragraph piece using appropriate transitions
• Write with sense of style (varied sentence length, type; good word choice)
• Spell frequently used words correctly
• Use capital letters and punctuation marks correctly
• Use nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions correctly
• Write in complete sentences including simple and compound combinations
• Learning to Learn
• Discuss and locate topics of interest for research
• Locate appropriate resources for a task
• Use traditional and electronic resources
• Describe appropriate listening, speaking and turn-taking behaviors
• Exhibit persistence in completing tasks
• Follow classroom rules
• Strive for accuracy
• Exhibit cultural sensitivity
• Exhibit flexibility in thinking and planning

Social Studies

“ Pennsylvania History and US Regions” The in-depth study of Pennsylvania in grade four includes a study of the geography, economics, history and government of Pennsylvania. In addition, students will learn about the regions of the United States including the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and West. Geography, economics, history and government will be included in the study of each region.

Fourth grade Social Studies units include:

• Pennsylvania
• Northeast
• Southeast
• Midwest
• West
• Southwest

Science

“Land and Water” In this unit, students investigate interactions between land and water. Through their experiences, students are introduced to the following concepts:

• Water has an important role in shaping the land on earth.
• Soil is a composite of weathered materials and organic matter at the earth’s surface. Soil components include sand, silt, clay, gravel, and humus. Each soil component has unique properties.
• The wearing away and moving of soil and rock is erosion; the settling of eroded materials is deposition.
• The water cycle includes the processes of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation and the passage of water over and through land. These processes affect the shape of the land.
• Both the flow of water and the slope of the land affect erosion and deposition.
• Tributaries are branches of streams that converge to form the trunk of a larger stream, or river. Together, they act as a system that drains the land.
• Landforms, such as canyons and deltas, result from the action of flowing water.
• Humans can affect erosion and deposition in various ways, including clearing the land, planting vegetation, and building dams.
• Hills, rocks, plants, and dams may change the direction and flow of water.
• Aerial photographs are views of land or other surfaces as seen from above.

“Nutrition” In this unit, students investigate the basic nutrients found in a variety of common foods. From their experiences, they learn the following science concepts:

• Foods contain starches, sugars, fats, and/or proteins
• Specific chemical and physical tests can be used to determine whether a food contains starches, sugars (in this unit, glucose), fats, or proteins.
• Iodine can be used to test for starches. Tes-Tape for glucose, brown paper for –fats, and Coomassie blue for proteins.
• Varying amount of starches, sugars (in this unit, glucose), fats, and proteins are found in foods.
• Starches and sugars are carbohydrates.
• Glucose is one type of sugar.
• Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals are nutrients.
• Nutrients are essential to human health.

“Electricity” In this unit, students expand their understanding of electricity through investigations with wires, batteries, bulbs, and switches. Their experiences introduce them to the following concepts:

• A complete electric circuit is required for electricity to light a bulb.
• A complete circuit can be constructed in more than one way using the same materials.
• Different types of electric circuits show different characteristics.
• A switch can be used to complete or interrupt a circuit.
• Some materials conduct electricity; these are called conductors.
• Some materials do not conduct electricity; these are called insulators.
• Electricity can produce light and heat.
• A diode conducts electricity in one direction only

Mathematics

The focus of Level 4 Mathematics is the mastery of computation with whole numbers. Other important topics studied are

• Place value
• Time

• Money
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Statistics
• Probability
• Problem solving strategies
• The introduction of decimals and fractions concepts and facts