Fourth grade is a great adventure! The children begin to think more deeply, express ideas more clearly, and become ever more confident in their abilities. The academic work is increasingly demanding, requiring students to set goals, manage their time, meet challenges, and identify solutions. This is a year of tremendous growth in thinking, relating, and expressing.

Fourth Grade: Greater Complexity, Greater Depth
In language arts, most students are now practicing analytical reading and advanced comprehension strategies to extract meaning from a wide variety of literature. The students read many genres including folklore, biography, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Students learn to identify text structures such as compare and contrast, and master more complex vocabulary, grammar, and spelling concepts.

As writers, fourth grade students use a writing self-assessment program to proofread and edit their own work, as well as using the Six Traits Program of Effective Writing to continue exploring the writing process and different modes of writing including poetry, journaling, creative stories, and reports.

Challenge, Stretch, and Grow!
In math, students build on what they already know about multiplication and division, algebra, geometry, and measurement. They go on to explore fractions and decimals, learn to use diagrams and graphs to analyze data, and experiment with a variety of problem solving strategies. Science classes investigate electricity, magnetism, heat, plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, and the nature of scientific inquiry. In social studies, fourth graders study geography, early explorers, ancient Egypt and Moses, world cities, and Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Students also deepen and extend their growing abilities in art, music, Spanish, and P.E. during regular weekly classes in these areas.

In every subject, fourth grade students begin to comprehend more complex concepts and principles. Activities inside and outside of the classroom teach cooperation, communication, and respect. Socially, the students are maturing; learning how to express one’s own ideas while valuing the contributions of others is one of the year’s most important lessons.