4th Grade Curriculum Overview

Social Skills your child will learn include: team playing, whether at work or play; ability to express feelings, to understand proper conflict resolution; cooperative sports; respect for everyone; and sensitivity to others and to those in need.

Study Skills your child will learn include: organization of books, supplies and assignments; organization of notes and notebooks; budgeting time for assignments, long-term and short-term; developing good study skills for test-taking; and recording homework, projects and special events in the planner.

Field Trips your child will take will include: visits to the Sun-Sentinel, the Flagler Museum, a play, and Billie Swamp Safari. (Field trips are subject to change)

Secular Curriculum Overview

In Reading, students will learn to extend previously learned knowledge and skills of the third grade with increasingly complex reading selections and assignments and tasks. Students will read a variety of literary and informational texts (fiction, drama, poetry, biography, historical fiction), understand the major theme in a story, explicit and implicit ideas and information in fourth grade or higher texts. Students will identify examples of fact, fiction and opinion in text, and understand the development of plot in a fourth grade level or higher story. They will make inferences and draw conclusions regarding story elements of a fourth grade or higher level text, and know the similarities and differences of characters, settings and events, presented within fourth grade or higher level texts. Students will form ideas about what has been read in a literary text and use specific information from the text to support these ideas.

In Writing and Language, students will learn to use an organizational pattern appropriate to purpose and audience.   They will also learn to use supporting ideas, details, and facts from a variety of sources to develop and elaborate the topic. Students will follow the conventions of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling appropriate for the fourth grade. They will use various parts of speech correctly in writing and use correct paragraph indentation. Students will create a central focus through the use of suspense, humor, creativity or fantasy.  They will exhibit a consistent awareness of topic with little or no irrelevant information and create a logical organizational pattern appropriate to narrative writing.

Over the course of the year, students will do book reports on a number of genres including fiction, biography and fantasy.

In Mathematics, students will learn to read, write and identify whole numbers through millions; read, write and identify fractions and mixed numbers with denominators including 2,3,4,5,6,8,10,12,20,25,100,and 1000; use language and symbols (e.g., >,<,=) to compare numbers; recall from memory basic multiplication facts and related division facts; solve real-world problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, and addition and subtraction of decimals and fractions using an appropriate method (mental math, pencil and paper); solve real-world multiplication problems with whole numbers (three-digit by one-digit); solve real-world division problems having divisors of one digit and dividends of three digits, with and without remainders; solve real-world problems involving the addition or subtraction of decimals (to hundredths) or common fractions with like and unlike denominators. They will solve real-world problems involving measurement of length, weight, capacity, temperature and angles, use schedules, calendars, and elapsed time to solve real-world problems. Students will use appropriate geometric vocabulary to describe properties and attributes of two- and three- dimensional figures (faces, edges, vertices, diameters); apply the concepts of area and perimeter to solve real-world and mathematical problems; identify, locate and plot ordered pairs of whole numbers on a graph or on the first quadrant of a coordinate system. In fourth grade, math students will use a variable to represent a given verbal expression (e.g., 2xR=16); solve problems involving equations or simple inequalities using diagrams or models, symbolic expressions, or written phrases. They will interpret and compare information from different types of graphs, including graphs from content-area materials and periodicals, as well as interpret and complete circle graphs using common fractions.

In Social Studies, students will study the State of Florida, its early history, land and climate, agriculture and industry, state government, local government, the new Florida and tourism. They will compare regions (New England, Middle Atlantic, and Southeast). Students will also develop map skills appropriate for fourth grade.  

In Science, students will study Life Science – the Human Body; Physical Science – Magnetism and Electricity; and Scientific Reasoning and Technology – Ideas and Inventions.

Judaic Curriculum Overview

In Tefillah, students practice reading from the Siddur and increase the Tefillot as the year progresses. As each new Tefillah is introduced, the students practice reading and are also taught the meaning and significance of each Tefillah.

In Chumash, students continue to see the foundation of the Jewish people through the story of Yaakov and his twelve sons and the beginning of the emergence of the Jewish Nation. The Parshiot covered in the fourth grade are Vayeshev, Miketz, Vayigash and Vayechi. Students learn the historical events of the Jewish people and their descent into Egypt. Students gain insight into the lives of the Avot, Imahot, and Shevatim, learning important lessons in Hashkafa. Students learn to see G-d’s hand in historical events and are taught to look for the same in their daily lives. Students are taught our obligations to G-d.

Skills they will learn are accuracy and fluency in reading of the text. They will have the ability to find the Parsha, Perek and Posuk in the text and accurately translate the text. Students will break down words into root, prefix, suffix, and tense. In the fourth grade, students will identify the cities learned in the Chumash on the map of Israel. They will have reading proficiency in Rashi script. Skills acquired in the third grade will be built on, and students will continue to develop their skills in reading Rashi and understanding his approach to Torah commentary. They will learn the sequence of events in Chumash Bereishit, and the lineage of the Jewish people.

The story of the weekly Torah portion and concepts are reviewed in class to familiarize the students with the details and sequence of events.

Navi is introduced in the fourth grade with the Book of Yehoshua. Students will understand the origins of Jewish life and conquest of the Land of Israel. Map skills and geography are related to the text being studied.

In Ivrit, students will expand vocabulary based on continued study of Chumash, Navi and reading of level- appropriate literature. They will demonstrate comprehension when reading stories or texts. Students will learn to use male, female, singular and plural with nouns, verbs and adjectives; use proper pronouns; conjugate verbs in past and present tense; use prepositions; identify antonyms, synonyms and homonyms; identify numbers 0-1000 and use colors in sentences with appropriate genders. Students will be taught the Jewish date, day of the week, and month. They will compose short stories, use conjunctions, and use possessive pronouns in singular and plural. They will learn to tell time in Hebrew. Students will learn to use infinitives and be introduced to the future tense. They will write book reports in Hebrew and learn to orally express his/her self in Hebrew.

In Dinim, students will learn, in depth, the laws and customs of each holiday and special events in the Jewish cycle of the calendar. They will learn about the laws of Tzedakah. Students will learn about Gemillut Chasadim: Hachnossat Orchim (welcoming guests), Hatzolat Nifoshot (saving a life), Havoat Shalom (making peace), Tzedakah (laws of charity).

Once a week, the B’not Sherut Leumi teach about Medinat Yisrael. In the fourth grade, the students learn of the wars fought in Israel since the War of Independence.