Fourth Grade program helps students learn how to be responsible, independent, active learners.  Students are expected to demonstrate their Catholic values and be respectful to themselves and others.

Fourth Grade Curriculum

Religion
Students learn about God’s love through classroom experiences, weekly attendance at Mass, weekly participation in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, daily prayer and using our daily religion program and Blest Are We student materials. With focus on the Ten Commandments and The Beatitudes, units examine the saints and the sacraments.  We also do The Think First & Stay Safe! School Program which teaches us all about personal safety & keeping ourselves safe from danger.

Language Arts
We use the SRA Imagine It! Series.  Our focus is on informational text.  We have two social studies and two science related units.  Within each unit there is a primary focus on using reading strategies and skills to understand and analyze text.  An interactive language arts journal is used to reinforce our diocese ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum concepts.  We also incorporate literature circles and focus on an author to sharpen students literature skills.  Accelerated Reader is utilized to master independent reading.  Students are asked to read an independent book and do a book project each month to work on literary skills taught in class.  Spelling is part of our Imagine It! Series and they reinforce the structure of words that we practice each week.  Grammar is taught daily and is supplemented with Daily Oral Language.  In writing, the students write narrative, opinion and informational pieces.  A class book is published using the understanding of the writing process.

Math
Pearson’s enVisions Math Program uses a wide variety of hands on materials and resources such as manipulatives, scales and center games.  Online visuals and interactive stories help students understand the different math concepts being taught. The topics taught throughout the year are:  two-digit abd three-digit multiplication, long division, adding/subtracting fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions, decimals (10th, 100th), measurement and conversion, lines, angles and shapes.

Science
Fourth grade students cover the topics earth systems, processes that shape the earth, structure, function and informational processing, waves and information and energy.  Raising salmon in the classroom is a cross curriculum interactive project.  It allows students to use concepts learned during the year and apply them to a real life situation.  Students learn the life cycle and how internal and external factors can support or inhibit the survival, growth and behavior of the salmon.  They learn how to read maps, make and interpret timelines, and study the economic impacts of having salmon in our Great Lakes.  They also learn how to tabulate and interpret data gathered throughout the school year.  Students will use the data collected to figure percentages, averages and will compile the information into readable graphs.  Eventually the Salmon are released into their natural habitat.

Social Studies
Our fourth grade series we use is the McGraw Hill Michigan, along with the text Regions.  The concepts the students learn are geography and landforms, economics of Michigan and the U.S., Michigan and the U.S. government, citizens’ rights and responsibilities, migration and immigration, goods and resources.  Two special projects the students get to take part in is the creation of a Governor’s Quilt and a state suitcase project.  This allows the students to share their knowledge and learning on a particular state, as we learn the regions and different states in class as well.

Handwriting
The students review cursive writing with the use of Handwriting Without Tears series.

Workshop
In reading, we use our workshop time to practice reading skills and strategies in smaller groups.