Fourth Grade - Gilmour Academy Lower School

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GILMOUR ACADEMY LOWER SCHOOL C U R R I C U L U M S P E C T RU M FOURTH GRADE

Educating the Mind and Heart Gilmour Academy 34001 Cedar Road Gates Mills, Ohio 44040 (440) 473-8160 PHONE (440) 473-8157 FAX

Brother Robert Lavelle, C.S.C. Headmaster Dr. Monica M. Veto Director of Lower School and Montessori Preschool Program

MATH Fourth-grade students in math work towards building a solid foundation for future math studies. Their skills in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are advanced by working with multi-digit numbers and applying these processes to complex word problems.

Students also explore fractions and decimals as they construct their understanding of them as parts of a whole. They develop an understanding of determining equivalent fractions, as well as adding and subtracting fractions. The students also add, subtract, and multiply decimals. In geometry, they learn to identify and describe basic geometric shapes, and calculate area, perimeter, and volume while exploring symmetry, congruency, and other properties of geometric shapes.

They analyze data and determine the most effective ways to represent various types of data. Throughout the math curriculum, students strive to develop skills to interpret, analyze, and solve problems using logic, models, and their computational skills to discover the solutions to all manner of mathematical problems.

SCIENCE The focus of fourth-grade science is on living things and their interaction with the environment. Students consider the components of an ecosystem, the organization and classification of organisms living in a biome. They also examine the interactions between organisms including energy through an ecosystem, and examine energy roles in the environment. Students study various environmental problems, their causes, effects, and possible solutions. They examine soils, rocks, minerals, and landforms. Oceans are studied as an ecosystem that exemplifies all ecosystems and the interactions between living and nonliving components.

In the physical sciences, fourth graders look at matter

Megan Marrie Director of Lower School Admissions (440) 473-8165

and changes in matter including physical and chemical changes. Sound, light, and heat are explored plus space travel and the technology that allows humans to travel in space. One aspect of the human body is studied – the immune system and how it works to defend the body. In the course of studying these science topics, students develop skills in performing experiments, communicating their science knowledge, and developing skills to work collaboratively.

LANGUAGE ARTS As students explore the geographic regions of the United States in social studies, they also travel the country through literature. Each novel selected allows us to transport ourselves through literature to the section of the country we are studying. Characters and settings help to better understand the region and provide a unique insight into what it is like to live in that area. As books from each region are shared in class, students are able to move beyond finding the main idea and supporting details to higher level thinking skills, such as applying inference and synthesis to texts.

Class discussions open new ways of thinking and offer students varying perspectives on characters, situations, relationships, and struggles. As writing is integral to the fourth-grade curriculum, students are introduced to a variety of ways to present and share their work.

They employ the Six Trait + 1 writing program, which consists of ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, conventions plus presentation throughout the year to develop writing skills. Technology plays an important role in enriching the way students uncover content and supplies them with the tools to create a variety of published quality documentaries, digital stories, and collections of creative writings that demonstrate the knowledge and skills learned.

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LOWER SCHOOL CURRICULUM SPECTRUM • FOURTH GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES Exploring the geographic regions of the United States is the focus of the fourth-grade humanities curriculum.

We look closely at the different regions and the individual states to discover what makes each unique and what characteristics they share. By researching the physical and economic attributes of each distinct region, students are able to see how the different regions work together to form our country. Individual state projects enhance our research skills by allowing each student to delve more deeply into the particulars of a state. Creative ways to share our findings, such as travel brochures and ABC charts, offer students the opportunity to think beyond traditional research and incorporate their writing and skills in a new and different way. As regions are compared and contrasted, the interdependence and the need for cooperation to thrive is discussed and stressed. Each region’s strengths and contributions to the United States is determined and shared to allow for differing perspectives.

MUSIC During fourth grade, students are introduced to the alto recorder, which is larger than the soprano. It has the same fingering patterns, but represents different notes. The instrument improves their proficiency to read notes on the treble clef and to identify and respond to music form while reading, writing, and performing using a range of note values. Students compose short songs to perform on the alto recorder using quarter, eighth, half, and whole notes and rests. They also create a sequenced piece of music with up to five tracks at the keyboard. At this grade level, they identify instruments by sound and appearance and attend a Cleveland Orchestra concert. Their Christmas concert is in collaboration with the Spanish class, celebrating Las Posadas with Spanish and English songs. The spring concert integrates information about the United States with regional songs and original compositions.

ART The fourth grade marks a transition in instruction from the technical to the conceptual. The year deals specifically with human culture as a concept. Students study its basic identity as a manifestation of human adaptability and the means by which we have survived and prospered on this planet. They discuss cultures they are familiar with and how they overlap. Then they set about designing a culture of their own from randomly generated geographic factors, ultimately examining in detail the art that these people would create and its role in their society.

RELIGION Building on the concept of who Jesus is, fourth graders analyze what He has taught us. In doing so, they examine the development of virtue and character as they relate to

being a disciple of Jesus in the Catholic tradition.

Furthermore, they contemplate the idea of living one’s faith and putting it into action through the lens of the Ten Commandments. Throughout the year, they experience the meaning and importance of the different Liturgical seasons through daily prayer, reflective thinking, and celebrations of the Liturgy and the religious celebrations of their classmates’ faiths.

SPANISH Daily oral dialoguing is the focus of each class. By learning vocabulary and grammar, students see differences and make connections between their native language and the Spanish language. Traditions and customs of the twenty-one Spanish-speaking countries are compared and contrasted to our own. Numbers, colors, and basic vocabulary are integrated in new ways to further reinforce material already presented. Reading begins at this level utilizing bilingual publications. Videos and educational CDs offer authentic speaker voices with varying accents from the variety of Spanish-speaking countries. In the fall, all students in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 participate in the Journey North Program, which tracks the migration of the Monarch butterfly to México. In the spring, all levels of Spanish compete in a foreign language poster contest whose theme is determined by the Upper School.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION In grades 3 and 4, students participate in four 30-minute periods plus two 25-minute recess exercise periods per week where they engage in team games and physical activities, and in one 90-minute physical education class.

Phys Ed rotates among sports, strength and conditioning exercises, swimming, and ice skating each for one quarter during the school year. Students develop skills in volleyball, basketball, floor hockey, lacrosse, T-ball, and baseball. In their strength and conditioning program, students work at stations using equipment such as run out bands, rock and flex, and others. These activities improve agility, speed, endurance, balance, hand-eye coordination, and upper and lower body strength. Their progress is documented and analyzed. In ice staking, students focus on the development of basic skating technique and are expected to complete skills such as the heel-to-toe push, forward to backward turns and the reverse, gliding, a two-foot spin, backward stroking, and backward snowplow stop. They are taught through a progression of skills to develop proper technique that will, hopefully, lead to a lifetime interest in skating. At the end of the skating unit, students complete a short program that encourages creativity, self-expression, and skill performance. In swimming, they transform flutter kicking and floating into both the freestyle and backstroke and work on stroke development and treading water.