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Fourth Grade

Welcome to Fourth Grade

The fourth grade is a new beginning for elementary students. It is a time when they begin their independence by changing classes, learning organization skills, and experiencing new challenges academically. Teachers consistently encourage opportunities for group activities and critical thinking. Ultimately, the desire is for students to gain strong literacy skills and grasp the relevance and importance of God in all areas of life and learning. From worm dissections in Science to a field trip to St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama, students truly engage in the learning process. The team teachers strive to model servant leadership to encourage students to excel not only in academics, but also in leadership and service.

In the fourth grade, students review major characters, stories, and themes from previous levels of study. The curriculum focuses on the kings and prophets of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, as well as the life, captivity, and the return of Judah. Other curriculum topics include servanthood and God’s Brave Messengers.

The language arts curriculum focuses on developing spelling, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, sentence editing, and comprehension skills. The primary goal is to assimilate these entities into everyday usage. Students receive instruction in parts of speech, sentence and paragraph structure, composition, grammar, mechanics, referencing, as well as thinking, listening, and speaking skills. As fourth graders, students concentrate on writing personal narratives, fiction, non-fiction, expository, descriptive, persuasive, functional writing, and as well as daily journaling. The spelling program incorporates Greek and Latin roots and affixes in order to develop the skills needed to decipher unknown words in multiple content areas.

The McGraw Hill: My Math curriculum presents math concepts in small increments. These increments are distributed throughout the year, building in level of difficulty, so that students have a richer understanding at the end of the year. Units of study include the following: numbers and operations; measurement; geometry; algebra; statistics, data analysis, and probability; problem solving strategies, mathematical reasoning; and communication.

The reading curriculum consists of demonstrating knowledge of books by listening, oral and written comprehension exercises, journaling, group discussion, vocabulary development, and differentiating literal and inferential meaning in a text. Students are taught to evaluate characters and their actions based on a biblical model, demonstrate knowledge of the elements of reading, and compare and contrast different points of view. Beginning assignments help with analogies, fact and opinion, inference, and comprehension. Projects further increase understanding through written and oral presentation. Vocabulary is increased with literary terms and application.

The Christian School International Science curriculum integrates science concepts throughout the day in learning centers, whole group experiments, and special units. Teachers employ methods that focus primarily on investigation, observation, and experimentation, which include a hands-on science lab. Topics include the following: Scientific Investigation, Investigating Organ Systems, Investigating Living Things and Their Homes, Investigating Light, Investigating Sound Waves and Hearing, Investigating Minerals, Rocks, and Earth’s Structure, and Investigating Packaging. 

The fourth grade social studies curriculum encompasses the history of the Christian Church and the earliest technological advances that established Western Civilization. Through further study, students will learn about the world in which Christ’s church was built and developed. Students will also see the tremendous strife and conflict that many Christians faced as they sought to establish churches that were founded upon God’s Word.

The course operates through a series of thirty-two history cards, with one card being studied each week. These cards feature important people, events, and concepts of the early church.

In addition, classes will concentrate on world geography, culture, and religion as a necessary means to understand the importance of global evangelism. Students will develop an understanding of different people groups and the progress of the gospel throughout the world. Each week, students will study a new country. They will not only be able to locate the country on a map but also be knowledgeable of the country’s culture and government, as well as the status of the evangelical Christian church within that country.



Mrs. Neely Whiteside 



Mrs. Dara Meyers (picture coming soon)