Fourth Grade Curriculum

Overview:

You will likely see a significant shift between 2nd-3rd grades or 3rd-4th. The workload picks up in 3-5th because it’s more about application of skills than it is about acquiring skills. In math, the four processesare still being practiced, but will be considered acquired. You may see fractions and measurement conversions based on the curriculum you’re using., and introductory decimals and percents for mathematics.

Language Arts:

• Spelling - I like lists from superteacherworksheets.com - it’s a subscription service that is $25 a year

• Reading Comprehension work once in a while (like, 1-2x a week on a topic related to other studies, holidays, etc.) - also superteachworksheets.com

• Writing with Ease level 4 - this works for grammar study as well

• Mad Libs for grammar and language, and things like manipulative grammar sorts

• This is the age where I would introduce more classic essay writing - I do not personally like having my children write essays that require abstract thinking until 3rd ot 4th grade. This is a preference, I fully understand that!

• Writing, for whatever reason, is so much easier for me when it’s integrated into other subjects and is not based in language arts. And I’m a certified high school Language arts teacher. Go figure.

Reading:

• Chapter books of child’s choosing. For fourth grade we rely pretty heavily on classic book studies that we do altogether like my Wind of the Willows or Around the World in 80 days study.

• Illustrated Treasury of Classics and Classic Starts books

• Chapter book read alouds, here are some examples of what we read in the 2022-2023 year:

  • Fairy Tales (Brothers Grimm)

  • Call of the Wild by Jack London

  • Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

  • The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Math:

We’ve done a few different maths for grade 4:

• Masterbooks 4 - this has ended up being what I like best and continue to use. I really like how they introduce multiplication vs. other programs.

• We are trying CTC Math this year for grade 4, as we have it for the whole family.

Penmanship/Writing/Grammar:

• I really like integrating writing from other subjects in the form of assignments in other areas. (Nature Study Club always involves some writing, for instance)

• Writing with Ease 4

• Fun writing units from curriculum bundles

• Mad Libs Reading & Writing 4 for some fun and grammar work - the less enthusiastic writers in my house enjoyed this work

History/Social Studies:

• Story of the World Volume 3/ Moving into Story of the World Volume 4 would be what we’re doing but we’v joined a co-op who is using Biblioplan: Remember the Days for 2023-2024

• Biblioplan: Remember the Days Modern Era is faith-based and uses broad strokes, has good supplemental materials. Thankfully, we actually ended Story of the World Vol.3 which goes straight into the modern era (1850 - on more or less)

• Pinterest for resources that go with Story of the World, including book lists are always super handy!

Science:

• Nature Study Club Junior or Senior Explorers - explorer level depends on the child. I just flip through the workbooks and decide what I’d like to do.

• I started reading my favorite science books by John Hudson Tiner at this level, and they work for this grade all the way through middle school.

• The Tiner science series is a really accessible, narrative format. We used The World of Astronomy and it is a fantastic book! If you want workbooks and tests, they can be purchased through Masterbooks. We did not use them.

Enrichment/Electives/Extracurriculars:

• Tie field trips and activities to learning: I remember this grade being the one with my oldest where I first went out of order in a textbook, and now I do that all the time when a book is just a broad overview. We had an astronomy field trip upcoming so we skipped to the end chapter of his science book and studied it as a family in preparation for our field trip. I was sad I hadn’t attempted this before, because the knowledge being tied to a real life experience is amazing!

• Seek homeschool sports, league sports, or sports through your local schools if that’s your thing

• Fine Arts classes are always lovely!

Fourth Grade: What I wished I would have done & what went well

1. Family Style learning was a great discovery! It is not without hiccups and speed bumps, but it is a good way to work together. My favorite subjects to group are Science and History.

2. I would have used Writing with Ease 4. I find that when it comes to writing, I often was ‘winging it’ which is not horrible since I’m an English Teacher and can do that easily enough BUT it is nice to feel like things have a clear start point and end point.

3. I am thrilled we did read alouds as a family. I would have liked to assign each child a separate novel as well, but again struggled to find resources I thought would be helpful past common “what happened in this chapter” questions. Instead I frequently do plot charts, and discuss characterization and involve some writing.