Grade 4

Religion Curriculum 

In Fourth Grade, the children will continue on their faith journey begun at home with their parents.  The Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus will be explored as a way to live a life of love and happiness.  Children will strengthen their understanding of how to form a good conscience and learn to make good choices which show love for God, ourselves, and others. They will be led to recognize that the Eucharist is the center of the Church’s life and learn to appreciate the wonder of God’s forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance. Jesus will be our model of holiness and prayer and Mary will be our model of discipleship. Practicing the virtues of love, faith, and hope will help lead students to become faithful witnesses to Jesus. Our curriculum follows the Diocese of Metuchen’s guidelines which are aligned with National Benchmarks and Standards.  Our Religion program is incorporated in every aspect of our school life.

Language Arts Curriculum 

The Fourth Grade Language Arts program will focus more closely on the independent reader for the purpose of research, reflection, analysis, and logical inferences made in relevant connection to the world around them. As established by the New Jersey State Education Standards, students will learn to evaluate content in all subject areas, and evaluate information in various written media.  As part of the writing program, organization of material, selection of appropriate information, analysis of content, grammar mechanics, and effective use of acquired vocabulary will be stressed to create quality cross-curriculum research projects.  Visual and oral presentations of topics will continue to help students convey information and use supporting evidence appropriate for task, purpose, and audience.

Math Curriculum 

In Fourth Grade, Math instruction will focus on three critical areas: developing understanding and fluency with multi-digit multiplication and division to find quotients involving multi-digit dividends; fraction equivalence, addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators, and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers; understanding that geometric figures can be analyzed and classified based on their properties.  Students will learn to apply a variety of activities associated with the four operations.  They will gain familiarity with factors and multiples.  Students will use their knowledge of place value to perform multi-digit operations.  Fourth grade students will extend their knowledge of fraction equivalence and ordering.  They will understand the decimal notation for fractions and compare decimal fractions.  Students will solve problems using measurement and convert measurements from a larger unit to a smaller one.  Fourth grade students will deepen their understanding of two-dimensional shapes by drawing and identifying lines and angles.

 Science Curriculum

 
 The Fourth Grade Science Program is based on the guidelines set forth by the Next Generation Science Standards.  The students develop an understanding that plants and animals have internal and external structures that work to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. Ecosystems are explored to learn how living things react to their environments. Students study the effects of weathering and solutions developed to reduce the impact on humans. They look for and study patterns in space. Students use evidence to explain the relationship between speed of an object and energy of that object.  Students learn that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, heat, light, and electric currents.  They apply their understanding of energy to develop a device to convert one form of energy to another.  The students will use maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.   

Social Studies Curriculum 

In Fourth grade, students continue to learn the basic concepts of government, citizenship, geography, economics, and history through the lens of New Jersey.  Students broaden their understanding of history and economics through the study of how New Jersey came to be a state to the present time. They will learn about the counties of New Jersey through research, hands-on activities, and presentations.  They will learn about citizenship and geography as it relates to New Jersey and our place in the United States.