Fourth Grade Curriculum Guide
The Catholic School is a unique faith-centered community, which integrates thinking and believing in ways that encourage intellectual growth, nurture faith, and inspire action.
The commitment to academic excellence, which fosters the intellectual development of all students, is an integral part of the mission of our school.
RELIGION
Your child will learn about:
- God, as our Father, and his message to us in the Bible
- The life of Jesus
- The liturgical seasons throughout the year
- Saints
- Church, as community
- Parts of the liturgy
- The Ten Commandments
LANGUAGE ARTS
Your child will learn to:
- Identify parts of a sentence (such as: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions)
- Identify the subject and predicate of a sentence
- Recognize homographs, homophones, synonyms, antonyms, and analogies
- Research/locate information in library of media center
- Follow written directions
- Apply spelling patterns to everyday sentences
- Identify independent and dependent clauses
- Write simple, complex, and compound sentences
MATH
Your child will learn to:
- Compute addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems with multi-digit numbers (including money and regrouping)
- Write number sentences that represent addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division situations
- Identify, compare, and order numbers to 1,000,000, as well as simple common fractions
- Apply strategies (guess and check, draw a diagram, make a list, and work backwards) to solve story problems
- Tell time to the minute as well as add and subtract time
- Identify basic geometric shapes (triangle, cube, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, cylinder, cone, rectangular/triangular prism and sphere), find area and perimeter of figures and recognize symmetry and congruency
- Read and interpret charts, tables, and graphs in order to make predictions, comparisons, and compute the range, median, and mode
WRITING
Your child will learn to:
- Write expository text (writing to explain)
- Write narrative text (writing to tell a story)
- Understand and apply the six + traits of writing (ideas/content, organization, word choice, voice, conventions, sentence fluency)
- Understand and apply the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, publishing)
READING
Your child will learn to:
- Read for purpose and meaning
- Draw conclusions from text
- Predict outcomes
- Make inferences and judgments
- Summarize and paraphrase text
- Decode using context clues, prefixes, and suffixes
- Recognize the narrative elements
- Comprehend both fiction and non-fiction text
SOCIAL STUDIES
Your child will learn about:
- Geography, history, and natural resources of Washington State
- Map skills (locating, identifying, and using directions) using maps of Washington and the United States
SCIENCE
Your child will learn about:
- Land and Water Earth Science
- Electrical Circuits
- Microworlds
- Maintain science notebooks
- Predict, hypothesize and experiment
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
Your child will learn about:
- Word processing programs
- Beginning keyboarding techniques
- Internet searches
ART
The elements and principles of art are integrated into the classroom curriculum through one hour of art instruction each week with our school’s art teacher.
Your child will create numerous art projects related to:
- The seasons
- Plants
- Animals
- The human figure
Your child will learn skills involved in:
- Crayon resist
- Watercolor and tempera painting
- Craft clay sculpture
- Chalk
- Oil pastels
- Color theory
P.E.
Students receive 30 minutes of P.E. two times a week in which the focus is on gross and fine motor skills, learning new games, participation and respect for others.
MUSIC
Music classes occur twice a week. Students continue with singing, adding instruments as songs allow, basic folk dances, and background of different cultures related to the songs. Reading music is emphasized, with written work / evaluations as skills improve. Students may audition for parts in major school productions, and will be expected to perform at least once.
ACTIVITIES:
- Beginning strings
- Second Step
- Beginning band
HEALTH
Students participate in the Passport to Health program through Memorial Hospital.
MESSAGE TO PARENTS
The Fourth Grade curriculum at St. Joseph/Marquette Catholic School is taught in accordance with our school mission statement and the benchmarks set by the State of Washington. Our Values of Respect, Responsibility, Love, Faithfulness, and excellence allow the students to work in a positive learning environment while receiving an education that is based on high expectations and standards.
September 2007