Curriculum Overviews > Fourth Grade

At The Branch School, the following objectives are taught through an integrated, developmental, hands-on, and in-depth approach that teaches critical thinking, problem-solving, and cooperative learning.

• Reading, where students read and understand a wide variety of literary and informational texts;
• Writing, where students compose a variety of written texts with a clear controlling idea, coherent organization, and sufficient detail;
• Research, where students are expected to know how to locate a range of relevant sources and evaluate, synthesize, and present ideas and information;
• Listening and Speaking, where students listen and respond to the ideas of others while contributing their own ideas and conversations and in groups; and
• Oral and Written Conventions, where students learn how to use the oral and written conventions of the English language in speaking and writing.
• The standards are cumulative – students will continue to address earlier standards as needed while they attend to standards for their grade.
• In fourth grade, students will engage in activities that build on their prior knowledge and skills in order to strengthen their reading, writing, and oral language skills.
• Students should read and writing on a daily basis.

• Students compare and order fractions and decimals, applying multiplication and division, and developing ideas related to congruence and symmetry.
• Students understand in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics.
• Students use algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as generalizations connected to concrete experiences; and they concretely develop basic concepts of fractions and decimals.
• Students use appropriate language and organizational structures such as tables and charts to represent and communicate relationships, make predictions, and solve problems.
• Students select and use formal language to describe their reasoning as they identify, compare, and classify shapes and solids; and they use numbers, standard units, and measurement tools to describe and compare objects, make estimates, and solve application problems.
• Students organize data, choose an appropriate method to display the data, and interpret the data to make decisions and predictions and solve problems.

• Students discuss important issues, events, and individuals of the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Students conduct a thorough study of regions in Texas.
• Students describe how early Native Americans in Texas and the Western Hemisphere met their basic economic needs and identify economic motivations for European exploration and colonization and reasons for the establishment of Spanish missions.
• Students explain how Native Americans governed themselves and identify characteristics of Spanish and Mexican colonial governments in Texas.
• Students recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge to the Texas Flag.
• Students use critical-thinking skills to identify cause-and-effect relationships, compare and contrast, and make generalizations and predictions.
• To support the teaching of the essential knowledge and skills, a variety of rich primary and secondary source material such as biographies, novels, speeches, letters, poetry, songs, and artwork are used.

• Students are exposed to the basic elements of art and explore them in detail through projects that emphasize each specific art principle. Students engage in exciting exploration with a variety of media such as painting, clay, pastels, etc.

• Students are taught basic library skills. They are read books appropriate to their level as well as given help, if necessary, checking out books.

• Students sing, play rhythm instruments, and recorders. They learn to read and write music. They are exposed to music of various cultures as well as time periods. They are introduced to famous musicians and attend at least one live concert. They perform several times a year at school-wide events.

• Students learn to empathize with, feel comfortable in, and understand fundamental processes of nature. They do this through a “working wildscape” partly accessible to children on the playground, partly fenced to allow more habitat development, and through horticulture activities from growing vegetables to propagating plants.

• Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development through physical activity, and access to a physically active lifestyle. Students learn group games as well as sportsmanship.

• Students are taught the importance of peacemaking with their classmates. They learn conflict resolution as well as communication skills. They learn to be life-long peacemakers. In addition, a curriculum on ethical decision-making designed by the Institute for Global Ethics and a curriculum based on the book, Creating Classrooms and Homes of Virtue, from the Council of Spiritual Education are used.
• Students practice creative thinking through brainstorming solutions to a variety of spontaneous problems. Students also are given opportunities to compose, create, and implement at least one school-wide program. The students are responsible for designing the sets, writing the scripts, and creating the costumes.

• Students are immersed in the Spanish language through a Spanish program two times a week.

• Students are taught basic word processing skills. They learn to access the Internet as well as use various software programs including Inspiration and Kidpix.