Reading

We will focus on building authentic, independent reading habits in 4th grade this year. Students will be expected to read daily both in class and out, and can choose from books in our classroom library or that they bring to school.

Our 4th graders will engage in reading conferences, book clubs, quarterly genre challenges, and book talks with the goal of falling in love with reading. We believe that if students don't love to read...they just haven't found the right book yet! 🤩

Writing

Students will begin building their identities as writers immediately in 4th grade. We will personalize writer's notebooks, sketch and think and draft in them, and engage in daily quickwrites. Each quarter, students will focus on revising, editing, and publishing in a variety of genres on topics of their choice.

Our 4th graders will compose in print, cursive, digital, and multimedia forms. Each quarter we will focus on one of those forms until students have attained mastery. By the end of 4th grade, our writers will be poets, storytellers, graphic artists, essayists, and op-ed authors!

English / Language Arts

We will utilize the Amplify CKLA program for monthly units of study. Students will explore a variety of text genres and topics, literary and poetry conventions, grammar and mechanics, and reading comprehension and written expression. 

Additionally, students will review 4th grade standards through weekly spiral studies, iXL practice topics, and Scholastic StoryWorks magazines.

Social Studies

Our 4th graders will use Studies Weekly to explore civics, history, government, economics, and current events this year. We will use an inquiry-based approach to study a new topic each week using a newspaper/broadsheet format.

To extend our learning with 4th grade standards, we will also complete quarterly projects in which students will conduct an inquiry in order to research and present about topics of their choice within a variety of themes and topics.

Spelling

Our 4th graders will study 10 spelling words per week. The words will come from our Amplify and Social Studies units, or can be submitted by students who discover them in their reading lives. We will practice defining each word, using the words correctly in sentences, identifying synonyms and antonyms, and coming up with examples and non-examples. Expanding our vocabularies is one of our favorite parts of 4th grade!