Elementary School

Fourth Grade

Fourth grade is a fast paced, very exciting year. Fourth-grade students experience several outdoor education trips and many field trips throughout the year. They travel to Yosemite, the California Gold Rush Country and ride a train to Sacramento.

Language Arts

Fourth-grade students learn additional strategies to effectively express themselves in both written and spoken language. Listening is also an important skill that students work on. Students participate in individual and group oral reports and presentations in different curricular areas. They continue to learn and practice strategies to differentiate fact and opinion, the author's viewpoint, making inferences, predicting outcomes, and summarizing.

Vocabulary development includes using context clues, word analysis, multiple-meaning words, and word analogies. Students expand their personal vocabularies through a variety of reading, writing, and listening activities. Children become more competent in understanding structure in both fiction and nonfiction text. Through the use of a variety of writing activities, students are given ample opportunities to draft, revise, proofread, and create final copies.

Mathematics

In math we will be working on fractions, decimals, and geometry. Also we will be taking a new approach to understanding word problems. The use of white boards for each student is a successful way to teach a new concept. Fourth graders Students explore geometry concepts and apply shape properties to create geometric figures. They use several different techniques to find the perimeter and area of assorted shapes. Children in fourth grade apply their knowledge of math facts to fact extensions, such as 4 X 8 = 32 so 40 X 80 = 3200, and develop strategies for multi-digit multiplication problems. They use their knowledge of estimation, place value, and the relationship between multiplication and division to develop a division strategy.

Math skills include reading tables for information, collecting numerical data, using map scales to estimate distance, locating points on a grid, and using latitude and longitude for locations on Earth. Children are able to apply a variety of strategies for adding or subtracting multi-digit numbers and can apply them to situations involving decimal values.

Science

The science curriculum in the fourth grade explores the physical and earth sciences. The Magnetism and Electricity Kit provides students with the opportunity to study electricity, including the use of conductors, insulators, circuits, and electromagnets. The Lego-Dacta Kit engages students with everyday materials and toys to investigate the properties of levers, pulleys, and simple machines to do work.

The Earth Materials Kit focuses on taking materials apart to find what they are made of and putting them back together to better understand their properties. Students collect and organize data about rocks, observe and describe and record properties of minerals, seriate minerals on the basis of one property, investigate the effect of vinegar on calcite, use evaporation to investigate rock composition, learn that rocks are mixtures of minerals and that minerals cannot be physically separated into other materials, and compare their classroom activities to the work of a field geologist.

The study of the relationships between one organism and its environment builds knowledge of all organisms. With this knowledge comes an awareness of limits. Such knowledge is important because humans can change environments. To do so without awareness of possible consequences can lead to disasters because all living things depend on the conditions in their environment. The Environments Module consists of five investigations that focus on the concepts that all organisms need energy and matter to live and grow and living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for their survival.

Social Studies

Fourth grade students take part in an in-depth study of California’s geography, history, economics, and government. Students are given the opportunity to discover differences and similarities between California and other states. Students use knowledge of core democratic values to take a stand on current public policy issues.

Geography will take us around the world with map studies and research, and in science we will explore rocks and minerals and electricity. This unit is completed when each student makes their own electrical boxes.

Social studies and science classes are introduced or completed with hands on projects and/or field trips. The InterAct program for the gold rush period is also introduced.
Our trips for the year may include:

  • Luther Burbank Home and Garden Center
  • Cline Winery (Mission Models)
  • Passerines Nursery
  • Lawrence Hall of Science
  • Oakland Art Museum
  • Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium
  • Gold Rush Trip
  • Sacramento (by train )
  • Marin Woods
  • Charles Schultz Museum (drawing class)

Our social studies unit on the California Gold Rush is enhanced by a three day trip to the gold country...this is an awesome trip! We also visit the Mercer Caverns. Prior to our trip we do a research report and a project related to the gold rush times.