4th grade

  • Our 4th grade teachers are:

    New York State has required school districts to implement the newly adopted Common Core Standards in ELA and Math, and the New Generation Science Standards. The intent behind this "shift" in our teaching is to provide a much more in-depth learning experience for your child. These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards:Are aligned with college and work expectations;

    • Are clear, understandable and consistent;
    • Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
    • Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
    • Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and
    • Are evidence-based.

    Our Curriculum addresses the New York State Learning Standards for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

ELA

  • 6 Shifts in ELA/Literacy

    • Read as much nonfiction as fiction
    • Learn about the world by reading
    • Read more challenging material closely
    • Discuss reading using evidence
    • Write non-fiction using evidence
    • Increase academic vocabulary
    We will be using the work from Teachers College at Columbia University for our Reading and Writing curriculum this year.
     
    Our 4th Grade Reading Units:
    Unit 1: Interpreting Characters: The Heart of the Story
    Unit 2: Reading the Weather, Reading the World
    Unit 3: Reading History: The American Revolution
    Unit 4: Historical Fiction Clubs
     
    Our 4th Grade Writing Units:
    Unit 1: The Arc of Story: Writing Realistic Fiction
    Unit 2: Boxes and Bullets: Personal and Persuasive Essays
    Unit 3: Bringing History to Life
    Unit 4: The Literary Essay: Writing About Fiction
     
    We will be using Words Their Way for our Word Work this year. 

Science

  • The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) followed a different developmental pathway than did the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts and mathematics. The process for the science standards development took into account the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities identify core ideas in science and articulate them across grade bands. That is why the NRC took the first step by constructing a Framework for K-12 Science Education—to ensure scientific validity and accuracy. A committee of 18 experts in science, engineering, cognitive science, teaching and learning, curriculum, assessment and education policy, was responsible for writing the Framework. The Framework describes a vision of what it means to be proficient in science. It also presents and explains the interrelationships among practices, cross-disciplinary concepts and disciplinary core ideas.
    Core Ideas
     
    To see how New York state is implementing the new science learning standards, please visit the state site.
     
    Topic of Study for Grade 4:
    Energy
    Waves: Waves and Information
    Structure, Function, and Information Processing
    Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

Math

  • 6 Shifts in Mathematics

    • Focus: learn more about fewer, key topics
    • Build skills within and across grades
    • Develop speed and accuracy
    • Really know it, Really do it
    • Use it in the real world
    • Think fast AND solve problems

    Common Core Modules of Study for Grade 4

    • Operations & Algebraic Thinking
    • Number & Operations in Base Ten
    • Number & Operations - Fractions
    • Measurement & Data
    • Geometry

Social Studies

  • Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

    Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

    Standard 2: World History

    Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

    Standard 3: Geography

    Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.

    Standard 4: Economics

    Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.

    Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

    Use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

    Grade 4: Local History and Local Government

    The grade 4 Social Studies program stresses geographic, economic, and social/cultural understandings related toLocal History and Local Government.  These perspectives build on and reinforce historic and political content about Communities around the World included in the grade 3 Social Studies program.