|
Welcome to our world of 4th and 5th grade literature and history where our curriculum is woven together in content and activity. We are creating a challenging and motivating environment where students strive to achieve through performance based interaction. Students work cooperatively in a competitive atmosphere that often times places them in the shoes of the characters in one of our stories, or figures in our history.
Fourth grade Social Studies students navigate the world as pirates on the high seas as they create pirate plans that requires research of world geography. They create pirate “How To” manuals as they research pirate methodology. Students will become colonists who risk everything to sail to the new world. They will strive to make their colony survive and prosper through the completion of integrated activities that provide their colony wealth points. They will take part in “Thinkport” web quests that teach them the ways of Native Americans and take part in a cultural plunge by going on a vision quest. As curators of the Maryland Visitor’s Center students work together to present Maryland in a positive light to prospective citizens through a portrayal that highlights our economy, history, government, geography and entertainment.
Student read swashbuckling pirate tales in Language Arts in fourth grade while studying actual pirate codes. As pirate captains, students make judgments of how to deal with “sticky” pirate situations by applying the code. Finally students band together and form their own pirate code.
In writing, students will study different tools of the authors' craft in the novels they read and use those tools to comprehend the text and as tools in their own writing.
In the study of God's creation, students create models of camps that address the needs of refugees of the world. Students write prayers that they convert to prayer cards. Students study the parts of the Mass and the Sacraments. Students attend Liturgy once a month and begin and end every day with prayer.
Math: Math is an important skill for everyday life. Besides engaging in a variety of activities to learn the basic concepts, the students are grasping the connections that math has to their everyday lives. Students are given ample opportunities for problem solving. They do more than just find an answer; they learn how to think mathematically. Fourth-Grade Units of Study:
-
place value, comparing, ordering, and rounding numbers
-
addition/subtraction, money
-
multiplication facts, multiply with one and two-digit multipliers
-
division facts, dividing with one-digit divisor
-
measurement
-
graphs
-
geometry, perimeter, area, volume
-
fractions-equivalent, simplest form, adding/subtracting
-
decimals-place value, adding/subtracting
Science: What child does not like to discover the world around them? Science is the observation, study, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. The science curriculum allows the students to be active learners. It is not enough for students to just read about science; they must do science. The curriculum's hands-on approach allows the students to make observations, formulate hypotheses, test hypotheses, analyze, report, and evaluate findings. Fourth-Grade Units of Study:
-
Life - Plant Structure and Function, Animal Structure and Function, Ecosystems
-
Physical - Electricity, Magnetism, Light and Sound
-
Earth - Weather, Oceans, Solar System
-
Grading: lesson review sheets, labs, test, mini-report
|
