What Your Child Will Learn in Calvert's Fourth Grade Course

Reading

Reading children’s classics (Robinson Crusoe, Famous Legends, Island of the Blue Dolphins); developing critical thinking skills

Phonics

Developing skills through lessons coordinated with reading, spelling, and composition; activities in phonics workbook

Spelling & Vocabulary

Reinforcing correct spelling through daily exercises and spelling strategies; reviewing commonly misspelled words; introducing cross-curricular words; integrating spelling with phonics, vocabulary studies, reading, and writing

Composition

Using the four-stage approach to write factual, creative, and descriptive compositions; organizing key words into phrases using shape planners; writing poetry and letters

Grammar

Introducing verbs of being; verb tense; regular and irregular verbs; pronouns; subject complements; comparing adjectives and adverbs; punctuation skills

Mathematics

Featuring Calvert Math. Fluency and accuracy drills in four operations; multiply, divide two digits; understanding mixed numbers; probability; adding and subtracting decimals; geometry; comparing, adding, and subtracting fractions; circle and line graphs

Science

Classifying living things; matter and scientific measurement; electricity, circuits, magnets; vertebrates and invertebrates; water resources; human body and motion; rocks and fossils

Technology

Application lessons, activities, and online interactive learning tool integrated with curriculum: practicing keyboarding and touch typing; intermediate word processing and desktop publishing; e-mail; database and Internet research; using spreadsheets to create graphs and tables; developing presentation software skills. Internet activities integrated with Science text.

Poetry

Memorizing; reading for pleasure

History

Using Hillyer’s A Child's History of the World to conduct general survey of world history from earliest times to present; featuring a history workbook with outlines and enrichment activities

Geography

Introducing the use of an atlas; spatial measurement; time zones; latitude and longitude; comparing regions geographically; enhancing map-reading skills

Art

Improving skills using lines, light sources, and motion; integrated with history studies