4th Grade Curriculum

Listed below are the skill sets and knowledge expected of all fourth grade students by the end of the year. Please be aware of these expectations and work in cooperation with your child's teacher to assist your child in acquiring these skills. If you have any questions about the expectations, please contact your building principal. The expectations are separated into the four core curriculum areas.

Language Arts/Reading

Reading Strategies:

• Use vocabulary strategies
• Infer before, during, and after reading
• Apply self-monitoring strategies during reading
• Draw inferences, make conclusions, and generalizations about text

Comprehension Skills:

• Distinguish main ideas and supporting details
• Respond to higher-level thinking skills
• Identify author's purpose
• Identify literary elements in a variety of texts
• Determine a character's emotions and actions
• Interpret and identify figurative language
• Determine literary forms and genres
• Write and understand expository, narrative, and persuasive paragraphs
• Students will participate in novel studies

Writing:

• Create pieces of writing that shows clear ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions

Approved Textbook: Harcourt, Collections, 2001

Mathematics

Number Sense:

• Compare, order, and write whole numbers up to 6 digits
• Estimate sums/differences using rounding to 5 digits
• Determine if a number is prime or composite
• Identify factors and multiples of composite numbers
• Solve multiple-step problems
• Multiply 3-digit numbers by 1-and 2-digit numbers
• Divide 3-digit numbers by 1-digit and multiples of 10 with/without remainders
• Find the missing value in a number sentence

Fractions and Decimals:

• Recognize fractions as parts of a whole and parts of a set
• Compare/order and add/subtract like fractions
• Work with mixed numbers and improper fractions

Geometry:

• Identify, draw, and label lines, angles, and triangles
• Identify, describe, and classify 3-dimensional geometric solids
• Find perimeter, area, and volume

Other:

• Measure to the nearest 1/2 inch
• List possible outcomes of a single event and tell whether an outcome is certain, impossible, or unlikely
• Arrange given data and determine range and mode
• Find elapsed time
• Converting standard measurement and metric measurement

Approved Textbook: Harcourt, Illinois Edition, 2007

Science

Scientific Inquiry (Problem, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedures, Results, Conclusion)

Physical:

• Describe cause/effect related to land, water, and atmosphere
• Predict / observe weather patterns
• Understand cause/effect of: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, erosion of rocks, soil

Earth:

• Understand the natural changes to Earth
• Identify Earth's natural cycles: seasonal changes, rock cycle, water cycle
• Sort rocks, soil, and minerals by simple attributes
• Identify renewable and nonrenewable resources
• Evaluate natural resources

Life:

• Understand environmental changes and effects
• Compare the life cycles of plants and animals
• Describe various relationships: predator/prey, parasite/host, food chains/food webs, and symbiotic
• Understand the interdependence of all living things
• Study past and present life forms and adaptations due to environmental changes

Health:

• Safety
• Decision Making
• Exercise/diet
• Communicable/non-communicable diseases
• Positive/negative effects on the body system

Approved Textbooks: Harcourt, Science, 2002

Social Sciences

Map Skills:

• Use maps and other geographic representation and instruments to gather information
• Understand producer/consumer relationships between states

American Revolution:

• Understand the responsibilities of citizens (IL)
• Describe and identify the development of and settlement patterns of the U.S. Colonies
• Identify the causes of the Revolutionary War
• Understand the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution

Civil War:

• Use a variety of language activities and historical analysis to understand different cultures
• Describe how slavery and the Civil War influences early U.S. economy

Illinois:

• Understand state elections and the three branches of Illinois government
• Understand currency and consumer/entrepreneur choices (U.S. and IL)
• Understand IL Constitution and the responsibilities of citizens

Approved Textbook: Harcourt, Social Studies, 2000

Physical Education

• Demonstrate movement and non-movement skills
• Demonstrate lifetime skills for various activities (throwing, dribbling, etc)
• Identify and apply rules and safety procedures in physical activities
• Understand and perform health-enhancing levels of fitness
• Develop team building skills

Art

• Understand organic vs. geometric
• Identify neutral colors
• Identify tints vs. shades
• Growth in knowledge of art history

Music

• Identify/demonstrate knowledge of reading traditional written music
• Identify/demonstrate knowledge of musical steps, leaps, and repeats
• Demonstrate proficiency in performing a piece of music
• Demonstrate proficiency in performing rhythms

Approved Textbook: MacMillan Spotlight on Music, 2005