Course Description: 4th grade math students begin the year focusing on learning a variety of practices that will help them be successful in 4th grade math.  Examples of these practices include recognizing patterns in math, using reasoning to make sense of mathematical situations and explaining mathematical thinking verbally and in writing.  Students then begin working on furthering their understanding of place value and comparing and rounding numbers. Towards the end of the first quarter, students continue practicing addition and subtraction in order to develop fluency with these operations.  In the second quarter, students work on multiplying and applying their understanding of multiplication to problems involving area. They also work on accurately dividing up to 4-digit numbers and solving multiplication and division word problems. Students spend the entire third quarter working on developing their understanding of fractions and mixed numbers and solving problems involving adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers.  In quarter 4, they apply their understanding of fractions to decimal concepts. 4th grade math students also learn how to measure and classify angles and shapes using information about their sides and angles. 4th grade students also convert between metric and standard measurements, use graphs to represent data collected, and begin developing an understanding of algebraic concepts by studying patterns and developing rules to describe and govern patterns.