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The fourth grade learning community starts off each year by discussing the meaning of the word “family” and how it relates to our learning community. Unity, teamwork, and respect are themes that carry with the fourth grade throughout the entire school year. In order to highlight the importance of teamwork and unity, the students will embark on a 2-day Outward Bound excursion. This allows the students to strengthen their bonds with one another, work out problem solving techniques, and become better acquainted with their surrounding forests.
Fourth grade is jam packed with learning opportunities and experiences. The students work hard to expand their writing skills, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and overall comprehension. They are active participants in centers and guided reading in order to ensure success. With the assistance of Step-Up-To-Writing, fourth grade takes simple sentences and develops them into a cohesive paragraph with a clear topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion.
Throughout math, the students review geometry, along with, multi-digit addition and subtraction. New skills secured this year are multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and measurement. We tie all of these skills into our science curriculum which focuses primarily on water and the watershed. Using their math knowledge, the fourth grade conducts frequent water quality tests of the local stream, understanding the importance of clean water, and how a healthy aquatic system relates to living creatures; specifically horseshoe crabs. We will all walk away from the fourth grade as expert aquatic ecologists.
The main topics of our social studies this year are: regions of the United States, Native Americans, and Pennsylvania history. The year is compiled of many vast learning opportunities that allow students to learn while applying their knowledge to real life experiences. We learn from each other and from the outdoors, expanding our local knowledge of environmental concepts and applying them to regional issues. Fourth grade at Green Woods really is a “watershed” year!
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