UPVA 4th Grade | Course Descriptions
UPVA 4th Grade | Course Descriptions
UPVA 4th Grade | Course Descriptions
Language Arts 400
Students in English Language Arts 4 focuses on expanding their reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening skills, with a heavy emphasis on solidifying their writing skills. They use narrative, descriptive, opinion, persuasive, and informative pieces to learn to state ideas, facts, and opinions clearly while correctly using introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. Students create a plan for writing, revise and edit their work, and improve their writing using feedback from an adult. Through their writing, they continue to master the conventions of English grammar, including quotations, relative pronouns, progressive verb tenses, modal auxiliaries, prepositional phrases, antecedents, coordinating conjunctions, compound sentences, capitalization, and punctuation, while avoiding sentence fragments and run-on sentences. They learn to spell words with a wide variety of prefixes and suffixes in addition to homophones, possessives, compound words, and words with silent letters. While reading, students identify, describe, and analyze story elements and compare and contrast these elements in stories, myths, and literature from various cultures. Students further develop their research skills by conducting short research projects, taking notes during research, and creating bibliographies. They develop more concrete speaking skills by creating and delivering presentations on various topics.
Math 400
In Mathematics 4, students refine their skills in the areas of place value, measurement, geometry, fractions, and decimals. They use the order of operations to solve problems with whole numbers up to 1 million, and they explore factors and multiples ranging from 1 to 100. Students use equations, arrays, and area models to explain multiplication calculations. They compare multidigit whole numbers, fractions, and decimals using the symbols for greater than, less than, and equal to. Students practice converting measurements, such as feet to inches, and they use their understanding of size to determine whether measurements are reasonable answers to problems. Mathematics 4 introduces students to the protractor, which they use to measure angles in whole number degrees. Students learn to identify right triangles, and they sketch angles, lines, segments, and rays. Students look closely at fractions and decimals in this course by writing equivalent fractions, ordering fractions from least to greatest, comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators, and writing fractions as decimals and vice versa.
Science 400
Science 4 lays a foundation for future excellence in the STEM fields by introducing technology and engineering concepts, such as simple and complex machines and the steps of the engineering design process. This course encourages students to become innovative problem-solvers equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to address twenty-first century issues. Students explore the technical and sometimes surprising facts behind the things they see and experience every day. They expand their knowledge and understanding of topics in the areas of physics, chemistry, Earth science, ecology, biology, and space science. Students investigate genetics and the physical characteristics of living things, ecosystems and extinction, agriculture and sustainable resources, and pollution and recycling. They get to know the Earth’s landforms and the types of rocks and soil, and extend their learning beyond the Earth to the solar system and the Milky Way. Finally, students encounter important concepts in physics, such as the types and properties of waves, and in chemistry, such as atoms, molecules, and the conservation of mass.
Social Studies 400
Social Studies 4 introduces students to critical analysis, as they develop more detailed knowledge of U.S. and world history and the influence of individual perspectives on documents and events. Students assess and use a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to research compelling questions and present interpretations and arguments in both written and oral form, supporting their positions with details drawn from those reliable sources. They learn the rights and responsibilities of citizens and how people and groups can work together to accomplish common goals. Students also explore how regional differences in physical environment and culture affect how people live and work. This course fosters a command of the concepts and tools of geography, such as latitude, longitude, maps of various kinds, and scales. Students also gain an understanding of core aspects of economics, including resources, production, consumption, and international trade.
Spelling 400
In the fourth-grade spelling course, students will delve into relevant spelling rules and word families throughout thirty weeks of instruction. Students will not only practice phonics skills including vowel combinations and sounding out multisyllabic words, but also incorporation of word parts such as prefixes and suffixes. Units include review of base and root words, plural nouns, and homophones. These lessons not only meet instructional needs for spelling, but also reinforce language arts skills including application of the writing process and reading comprehension..
In the fourth-grade spelling course, students will delve into relevant spelling rules and word families throughout thirty weeks of instruction. Students will not only practice phonics skills including vowel combinations and sounding out multisyllabic words, but also incorporation of word parts such as prefixes and suffixes. Units include review of base and root words, plural nouns, and homophones. These lessons not only meet instructional needs for spelling, but also reinforce language arts skills including application of the writing process and reading comprehension..