Teacher: Hadley English
Program Description
The fourth grade program focuses on developing academic skills through a variety of learning activities and teaching methods, including whole class and small group lessons, individual and group projects, and cross-curricular assignments. As in all grades, the curriculum is differentiated to meet the needs of each student at his or her level of readiness, and students are involved in their own academic goal setting. Through collaborative projects, students develop skills of communication, cooperation, teamwork, and leadership.
Our classroom community also emphasizes independence and responsibility for oneself, kindness and respect for others, and an understanding and appreciation for cultural diversity. Throughout the year, the curriculum explores themes of change, identity, and conflict. Co-curricular classes enhance the fourth-grade experience, including Outdoor Education trips in the fall and spring.
Curriculum
English Language Arts
As at all levels, fourth-grade students continue to build important reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. They read more challenging literature, articles, and other sources of information and continue to grow their vocabulary. They are also expected to clearly explain in detail what they have read by referring to details or information from the text. In writing, students organize their ideas and develop topics with reasons, facts, details, and other information. Activities in these areas include:
- Identifying the theme or main idea of a story, play, or poem
- Comparing stories from different cultures
- Explaining how an author uses facts, details, and evidence to support their points
- Reading and understanding information presented in charts, graphs, timelines, and other illustrations in all subject areas
- Learning the rules of spoken and written English
- Learning and using new words, including words related to specific subjects (such as science words)
- Participating in class discussions by listening, asking questions, sharing ideas, and building on the ideas of others
- Giving a class presentation on a topic or telling a story using relevant, organized facts and details and speaking clearly
- Writing stories with dialogue and descriptions of character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings
- Taking notes and organizing information from books, articles, and online sources to learn more about a topic
- Writing research or opinion papers over extended periods of time
Mathematics
The Mathematics curriculum includes:
- Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems. Gain familiarity with factors and multiples. Generate and analyze patterns.
- Number and Operations in Base Ten: Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers. Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
- Number and Operations—Fractions: Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering. Build fractions from unit fractions by applying and extending previous understandings of operations on whole numbers. Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.
- Measurement and Data: Solve problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit. Represent and interpret data. Geometric measurement: understand concepts of angle and measure angles.
- Geometry: Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles.
- Mathematical Practices: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Model with mathematics. Use appropriate tools strategically. Attend to precision. Look for and make use of structure. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Science
The Science curriculum includes:
- Physical: States of matter, electricity and magnetism. Compasses and orienteering.
- Life: Plant adaptation, food chains and webs.
- Earth: Ecosystems and their protection. Changes to the Earth’s surface. Properties of rocks and minerals.
- Engineering: Ask questions and define problems. Develop and use models. Plan and carry out investigations. Analyze and interpret data. Use mathematics and computational thinking. Construct explanations and design solutions. Engage in argument from evidence. Obtain, evaluate and communicate information.
Social Studies
The Social Studies curriculum includes:
- U.S.: Pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and rancho periods. Pioneers and westward expansion to modern-day California. Economic, social, and political life in California from the establishment of the Bear Flag Republic through the Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush, Transcontinental Railroad, and the granting of statehood. Structures, functions, and powers of the local, state, and federal governments as described in the U.S. Constitution.
- World: Immigration and settlement in California
- Economics: Economic impact of California’s growth. California as an agricultural and industrial power.Transformation of California’s economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.
- Geography: Landforms, regions, and important geographical features of California; the Earth’s hemispheres, equator, prime meridian, latitude and longitude; location of California in the world
Co-Curricular Classes
Music
Spanish
Art
Woodshop
Library
Technology
Physical Education
Equestrian
Spanish
Art
Woodshop
Library
Technology
Physical Education
Equestrian
