Villa Maria Elementary

Fourth Grade

GRADE FOUR CURRICULUM:


Language Arts
Reading
The goal is to help children appreciate different types of literature in an integrated and personally interesting way. Students study informational reading, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy all by the award-winning and/or notable children’s authors. This is meant to motivate students to read more selections on their own time. They will be reading from text books and chapter books. The Accelerated Reading Program (AR) will be used as an incentive to encourage reading.


English
The focus of this program is on the rules in grammar that can be easily understood and used in oral and written work. These skills coincide and reinforce reading/writing activities. Students study kinds of sentences, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, and contractions.


Writing
The reading program focuses on teaching writing both grammatically and stylistically. The styles of writing taught are correlated with the types of selections students read in their text, making this program a meaningfully integrated language arts experience.


Spelling
Fourth grade spelling lists are phonetically grouped. Proofreading skills taught and are emphasized in creative writing.



Mathematics
This program helps students develop math skills to use in everyday situations. Math skills are integrated into other subject areas daily. Students study addition and subtraction facts, place value, time, money, fractions, multiplication by 1 and 2 digit factors, division by 1 and 2 digit divisors, measurement, geometry, and interpretating data by creating and reading charts and graphs. Skills are developed through cooperative learning groups, mental math , games, and hands-on learning experiences.



Science
The goal is to enable students to construct science concepts through inquiry and investigation. Scientific thinking processes are emphasized throughout the program: observing, classifying, sequencing, inferring, predicting, measuring, hypothesizing, experimenting, and interpreting data. These skills are developed by means of hands-on experiments for every lesson and critical thinking activities to help students creatively explore topics.



Social Studies
This program focuses on the regions of the United States, examining history, geography, economics, humanities, and citizenship. One trimester of study is devoted to Pennsylvania history, science, geography, culture, and economics. Skills are developed through map study, discussion, field trips, research and oral reports.



Religion
This program is based on scripture and is rooted in the teachings of the catechism of the Catholic Church. The theme for this year is Faith in God. Students will learn about the Great Commandment, the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, and about the personal and moral skills oif leading a good Christian life.



Other
Art, Music, Gym/Swimming/Health, Computer, and Library are weekly specials provided by trained personnel.