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. 

Fifth grade students begin the year debating theories about who discovered America. They form debate teams, divide the labor, and organize their information in outlines. They take on the duties of an actual debate and compete against other groups in the class. As explorers, students research the Meso-American cultures in their preparation of their plans of discovery and conquest that they present to the King and Queen. As Loyalists and Patriots, students will take on the identities of those who decided our country’s fate at the Old South Church in Boston as they take on the question of independence. Students will take part in other performance based activities that surround the westward movement and the Civil War. 

In Reading, students study the elements of some multicultural writings and apply them in their own stories that they will translate into script and perform in front of the class. Students will identify other story elements and learn ways to introduce characters into their stories.

In writers workshop our young authors will work through the writing process as they write to persuade, inform and express their ideas in different arenas. Fourth and fifth grade are full of challenging concepts and experiences that will motivate our students to strive to achieve in an accepting and encouraging atmosphere.

4^th Grade Schedule

2008 - 2009