4th Grade

Essential Question:

How does the study of ancient civilizations and cultures help us understand how civilizations change and develop over time? How do artifacts reveal the values of a civilization?

EC fourth graders
at an Egyptian paper workshop

 In fourth grade students seek to define the concept of civilization through in-depth studies of the Egyptians (fall) and Maya (spring). Students become anthropologists and archeologists as they study artifacts, learn to research topics of interest, summarize and synthesize information, use maps and apply geographical concepts, and plan and give oral presentations. Field trips to local museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum, are important resources for both studies. The special subject teachers integrate their curriculums as much as possible to further enhance the development of social studies concepts.

Reading

Reading supports all aspects of the fourth grade curriculum. Students read a number of different genres, including, fiction, mysteries, survival stories, fantasy, biography, and poetry. Whether sharing a whole class novel or reading in book clubs, students come to understand that fiction is built with specific literary elements, such as setting, character, plot, theme, and point of view. Students learn to use inference and deduction to go well beyond the literal level and develop their skills to evaluate fiction.

Writing

Students are expected to acquire knowledge and information from non-fiction, film, and artifacts. They learn to take notes and write summaries and reports related to the social studies curriculum. All students write from a writer’s notebook, a place to practice different elements and forms of writing such as leads, descriptions, dialogues, point of view, and persuasive writing. Teachers support children as they progress through the creative stages: the gathering of ideas, creating a draft, revising and editing, to publishing a final piece.

Math

Students continue with an extensive study of strategies and become fluent in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with numbers through 10,000. They apply these skills in problem-solving and mathematical reasoning. They begin to study coordinate geometry and continue to build their understanding of fractions, which then is applied to interpreting and representing data. At the heart of our program is the curriculum Investigations in Number, Data and Space, which supports students as they progress in their mathematical thinking; manipulatives like fraction strips, snap cubes, and array cards are used throughout the year.