Fourth Grade

Fourth grade is when students enter the upper elementary years at school and become better at making decisions, solving problems, and working in groups.  Their bodies are growing quickly, often in spurts, and emotions begin to emerge that may not have presented themselves before.  Fourth graders still enjoy learning in fun and gamified ways.  However, fourth graders also begin to emerge as deep thinkers, able to make cross curricular connections and choices.

Social and emotional strategies/skills include:

  • Expresses needs and feelings verbally
  • Identifies facial expressions and body language and uses cues in social situations
  • Respects other peoples’ perspectives, especially in conflicts
  • Depend less on adult guidance
  • Research, plan, and solve problems independently

Foundational English Language Acquisition(ELA) Skills include:

  • Summarize fiction and informational texts with key details
  • Determine main idea and theme with evidence from the text
  • Compare and contrast the way that multiple texts address a theme
  • Utilize context clues for determining unfamiliar vocabulary definitions and clarify meanings of words and phrases with multiple meanings
  • Describe text structures (e.g. chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution)
  • Produce multi-paragraph pieces of writing with simple, complex and compound sentences, using proper grammar and punctuation
  • Composes emails with that have an introduction and purpose for communication with the guidance and supervision of adults

Foundational Math Skills include:

  • Use four operations with whole numbers to solve algebraic and word problems
  • Use place value and properties of operations (associative, distributive, etc) to solve problems
  • Multiply and divide fluently with 2 and 3 digit numbers
  • Understand fraction equivalence and decimal notation for fractions
  • Solve measurement conversions from larger to smaller units
  • Draw and identify lines and angles and classify shapes by line and angle measurement
  • Find area with accurate units

Tips for Parents of 4th Grade Students:

  • Be patient with your child, especially when emotions change moment to moment
  • Practice ways to deescalate unpleasant emotions to help make responsible decisions
  • Encourage empathy with your child as s/he begins to see the world through other peoples’ lenses
  • Encourage assertive behavior when asking for needs and wants in a calm respectful manner
  • Help your child practice using the phrase, “May I explain” in situations where they feel they may be misunderstood
  • Help your child to begin to advocate for themselves
  • Continue the sleep schedule of 9-10 hours each night