Home

Grade Four

Fourth grade is all about integration and cooperation. One of the greatest strengths of the Core Knowledge curriculum is the integration it achieves between the academic disciplines and in 4th grade that integration is at its apogee. For example the same week that the treasure map is found in Treasure Island, the students are honing their mapping skills, plotting latitude and longitude on their maps in their geography class, and when they are learning about the Age of Chivalry in the course of European history, they are reading about the actions of King Arthur and Queen Elinor of Aquitaine and the Knights of the Round table and their exciting adventures. The juxtaposition of literature, social studies and even math, as well as the arts that support this content, make it all the more exciting and relevant for these students.

All the while they work in teams to develop social skills and leadership through cooperative learning activities, learning to respect one another while they acquire research and organizational skills. Specifically they learn about creating bibliographical references, including internet citations and they continue their work on organizing their ideas for different genres of writing. Fourth grade is also a year in which they continue to develop critical and analytical independent thought. A highlight is the Robin Hood debate: was the prince of Sherwood Forest a force for good or evil?

The full Fourth Grade Core Knowledge Topics and Skills outline can be found below:

Language Arts/English
I. Writing, Grammar and Usage

A. Writing genres and their purpose
B. Research process
C. Grammar and Usage

II. Poetry

A. American and British

III. Fiction

A. Stories (including  Treasure Island and  excerpts from  Gulliver’s Travels)
B. Myths and Mythical  Characters (Legends of  King Arthur and Knights  of the Round Table)
C. Literary Terms: novel, plot, setting, etc.

IV. Speeches: Patrick Henry; Sojourner Truth

V. Sayings and Phrases

World History/Geography
I. World Geography

A. Spatial Sense
B. Mountains and mountain ranges

II. Europe in the Middle Ages
A. 200CE-450CE: The Invasion of warring tribes
B. Geography of Medieval Western Europe
C. Early Development of the Christian Church
D. Feudalism
E. The Norman Conquest
F. Growth of Towns
G. England in the Middle Ages

III. The Spread of Islam & the “Holy Wars”

A. Development of Islamic Civilization
B. Wars between Muslims and Christians

IV. Early & Medieval African Kingdoms

V. China: Dynasties & Conquerors

American History/Geography
I. The American Revolution

A. The French and Indian War
B. Causes and Provocations
C. The Revolution

II. Making a Constitutional Government

A. The Declaration of Independence
B. The Constitution of the United States
C. National, State, Local Government

III. Early Presidents and Politics
IV. Reformers: Abolitionists, Public Schools, Social Welfare; Women’s Rights.

Visual Arts (for a complete listing, click HERE)

Music (for a complete listing, click HERE)

Mathematics
I. Numbers & Number sense
II. Fractions & Decimals