Fourth Grade
Fourth grade is a challenging year. During this year, students experience significant spiritual and intellectual growth. Students are encouraged to appreciate the complexities of their subjects, striving for deeper understanding of concepts they’ll continue to expand upon the rest of their time in school.
Religion: Fourth grade religious teachings include taking a closer look at the 10 Commandments and discovering the real-life applications of these teachings. Open discussion is encouraged as we learn about the world around us and our call to witness our faith. Students also learn about social justice and the role that it plays in our daily lives. As part of our curriculum, we attend weekly Adoration in the church. We also have a year-long class service project. Projects include “My Favorite Saint” and creation of various religious bulletin boards throughout the school year.
English Language Arts: Fourth grade Grammar includes identifying correct sentence structure and usage, proofreading for grammatical mistakes and becoming more familiar with identifying and diagramming verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Writing standards covered include creation of opinion pieces, informative and explanatory text and personal narratives. During Reading class, emphasis is placed on using text and various other resources to enable students to seek out and find answers during the reading process. Our reading curriculum is varied, including fictional, non-fictional, plays, and poetry selections. Reading focuses on building a strong vocabulary, inferencing, summarizing, and various other skills. State and Diocesan standards are the foundation of reading lessons. Spelling in fourth grade encourages students to widen their knowledge of spelling mechanics and rules. Emphasis is on consonants, contractions, suffixes, prefixes, homophones and compound words.
Math: Fourth grade Math is directly related to Diocesan and State Standards. Topics covered include multiplication, long division, operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations dealing with fractions and decimals, measurement and geometry.
Science: In fourth grade, students begin the year learning about the world of living things including cells, ecosystems, plants, animals and basic life processes. We continue on with the Earth and our own solar system. Students also learn about water and weather, physical science including properties and changes with matter, forms of energy and electricity which align with State and Diocesan Standards. Scientific method and the inquiry process are addressed and each student is required to present a project board for the regional Science Fair.
Social Studies: Fourth Grade Social Studies focuses on our home state of Arizona. The featured text is “The Arizona Story” written by The Arizona Historical Society. Following State Standards, students learn about American history including early civilizations, exploration and colonization, territory days, pioneers, statehood, and the emergence of the modern United States. Map understanding and usage along with physical and cultural characteristics of Arizona are also addressed.
Religion: Fourth grade religious teachings include taking a closer look at the 10 Commandments and discovering the real-life applications of these teachings. Open discussion is encouraged as we learn about the world around us and our call to witness our faith. Students also learn about social justice and the role that it plays in our daily lives. As part of our curriculum, we attend weekly Adoration in the church. We also have a year-long class service project. Projects include “My Favorite Saint” and creation of various religious bulletin boards throughout the school year.
English Language Arts: Fourth grade Grammar includes identifying correct sentence structure and usage, proofreading for grammatical mistakes and becoming more familiar with identifying and diagramming verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Writing standards covered include creation of opinion pieces, informative and explanatory text and personal narratives. During Reading class, emphasis is placed on using text and various other resources to enable students to seek out and find answers during the reading process. Our reading curriculum is varied, including fictional, non-fictional, plays, and poetry selections. Reading focuses on building a strong vocabulary, inferencing, summarizing, and various other skills. State and Diocesan standards are the foundation of reading lessons. Spelling in fourth grade encourages students to widen their knowledge of spelling mechanics and rules. Emphasis is on consonants, contractions, suffixes, prefixes, homophones and compound words.
Math: Fourth grade Math is directly related to Diocesan and State Standards. Topics covered include multiplication, long division, operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations dealing with fractions and decimals, measurement and geometry.
Science: In fourth grade, students begin the year learning about the world of living things including cells, ecosystems, plants, animals and basic life processes. We continue on with the Earth and our own solar system. Students also learn about water and weather, physical science including properties and changes with matter, forms of energy and electricity which align with State and Diocesan Standards. Scientific method and the inquiry process are addressed and each student is required to present a project board for the regional Science Fair.
Social Studies: Fourth Grade Social Studies focuses on our home state of Arizona. The featured text is “The Arizona Story” written by The Arizona Historical Society. Following State Standards, students learn about American history including early civilizations, exploration and colonization, territory days, pioneers, statehood, and the emergence of the modern United States. Map understanding and usage along with physical and cultural characteristics of Arizona are also addressed.