4th Grade G&T Curriculum Overview
2025-2026
Math: The World is a Global Village
If the World Were a Village of 100 People
The Essential Question of this interdisciplinary unit is: How do other people live around the world? Using the book If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith, students will explore what life looks like for the world’s population through numbers. They will work with advanced math concepts such as ratios, percentages, and proportional reasoning to make sense of global statistics on language, religion, education, resources, and daily living. Students will practice organizing and interpreting data, creating graphs and charts, and drawing meaningful conclusions from numbers. While strengthening these higher-level math skills, they will also gain a broader understanding of history and culture, developing both their problem-solving abilities and their global awareness.
Future Cities Project
Students will take part in an exciting project-based learning experience that brings math to life through the engineering design process, city planning, and project management. We are using the Future City Competition curriculum as our guide; while the official competition is not open to students this young, the experience offers a rich opportunity for higher-level thinking.
Future City begins with a big question: How can we make the world a better place? To answer it, students will imagine, research, design, and build their own cities of the future. Along the way, they will apply advanced math skills such as calculating scale, using ratios and proportions, analyzing data, and managing resources. This year’s theme is Farm to Table. Students will design a city that eliminates food waste from farm to table while keeping its citizens healthy and safe. By combining math, creativity, and critical thinking, students will not only strengthen their problem-solving abilities but also learn how mathematics plays a key role in solving real-world sustainability challenges.
Language Arts: Justice and Stewardship in the World Today
Language Arts work for the year will be built around the novel Flush by Carl Hiaasen. Students will explore how storytelling can raise awareness, inspire change, and encourage responsibility for both people and the planet.
Reading:
Vocabulary activities
Analysis of character development, motivation, and relationships
Examination of the author’s techniques, including humor, suspense, and environmental themes
Writing:
Students will choose a genre—fiction, journalism, persuasive essay, or scientific report—to share their ideas about conservation, justice, or community action.
In addition to the specific reading and writing activities listed above, students will participate in discussions, projects, and research about broad, critical-thinking issues including:
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist (ABAR): examining the effects of bullying, learning about the indigenous Miccosukee tribe, exploring the leadership of Nelson Mandela, and understanding homelessness
Environmental Issues: investigating threats to the oceans, exploring global and local conservation efforts, and studying children who have led environmental change (such as the African boy who built a windmill)
Community Connections: making connections between the themes of the novel and environmental or social issues in our own community
Nonverbal: Patterns and Mathematical Curiosities
This year, our 4th grade Nonverbal Gifted and Talented students will explore Mathematical Curiosities through the Birdseed TV curriculum, with an emphasis on developing advanced nonverbal reasoning skills. These lessons challenge students to notice patterns, make connections, and think flexibly in abstract and visual ways. Rather than simply practicing procedures, students engage with puzzles, patterns, and problems that require spatial visualization, logic, and creative problem-solving.
Students will tackle activities that stretch their nonverbal thinking, such as:
Pattern Grids and Symmetry: Students explore grids and shapes where patterns must be completed or extended, building visual-spatial reasoning.
Sequences in Nature and Design: Students investigate recurring patterns—like spirals or arrangements in plants—learning to see structure and relationships without relying on words or numbers.
Puzzles and Visual Paradoxes: Students solve brain-teasers, optical illusions, and abstract riddles that challenge assumptions and encourage multiple approaches to problem-solving.
Through these experiences, students strengthen their ability to think flexibly, recognize complex relationships, and approach problems creatively. Gifted students, particularly those with strong nonverbal abilities, will find rich opportunities to develop their spatial reasoning, analytical skills, and capacity for insight in a hands-on, engaging environment.
Personal Passion Learning Project
This year, all of our Gifted and Talented students in grades 3–5 will take part in a personal passion learning project inspired by the book Genius Hour by Andi McNair. Following McNair’s framework, students will move through the six P’s of Genius Hour: passion, plan, pitch, project, product, and presentation, as they develop their ideas from curiosity to completion. They will begin by identifying a topic or problem they care deeply about, then create a plan of action and “pitch” their idea to their peers and teacher for feedback. From there, they will research, create, and problem-solve as they work on their projects, ultimately producing a product that demonstrates their learning in a way that is creative and meaningful. Finally, they will present their work, reflecting on both their process and their growth as learners. Throughout the experience, students will practice collaboration, perseverance, and critical thinking while discovering how their passions can make a difference in the world.
Gifted Gallery
An end-of-year event for G&T families that showcases student work