Grade 4 ( Age 9 )

Foundational Skills
• Apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in reading unfamiliar words
• Read grade-level texts with purpose and understanding
• Orally read grade-level texts with accuracy, expression, and appropriate rate
• Confirm and self-correct words during oral reading

English Language Skills
• Identify parts of speech and their functions in specific sentences
• Use relative pronouns, progressive verb tenses, and prepositional phrases
• Form and use possessive nouns
• Produce complete sentences; correct incomplete or run-on sentences
• Correctly use words that are frequently confused
• Use conventions of English when writing (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling)
• Punctuate dialogue correctly
• Spell grade-level words correctly
• Consult reference materials to check spellings
• Correctly use the English language when speaking, reading, or writing
• Know the difference between formal and informal English and when to use each

Reading Literature and Informational Text
• Identify main topic, idea, or argument in grade-level text
• Show understanding of key details in a text
• Identify text evidence to support the author’s message or reader’s responses
• Retell stories, including tales from diverse cultures
• Describe main message, lesson, or moral from stories or other texts
• Describe characters in a story and how their actions contribute to the plot
• Determine meanings of words or phrases as used in a text
• Describe effects and uses of words and phrases in passages
• Describe overall structure of a passage and its effect on the message
• Describe how parts of a story, poem, or drama build on other parts
• Use features in the text and Internet search tools to locate relevant information
• Explain connections between a series of events, ideas, concepts, or steps in a text
• Explain differences between an author’s point of view and their own
• Explain how visual images and graphics contribute to and clarify a text
• Combine information from two texts on the same topic
• By the end of the academic year, read and understand grade-level literary and informational texts at grade level independently and with proficiency

Speaking and Listening
• Express ideas and feelings clearly
• Speak clearly and audibly in sensible sentences
• Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details
• Add visual components to a speech to clarify ideas, feelings, and thoughts
• Create audio recordings of stories or poems
• Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details
• Give and follow directions
• Participate in conversations with diverse partners and groups
• Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions
• Listen and respond to others with focus and care
• Ask and answer questions about key details heard in an oral or visual presentation
• Present a report or tell a story with appropriate facts, relevant details

Vocabulary
• Use context clues to determine word and phrase meanings
• Use word structure clues to determine word meanings
• Use synonyms and antonyms to clarify and explain word meanings
• Use dictionaries and glossaries (print and digital) to determine or clarify word meaning
• Understand and use figurative language (similes, metaphors, idioms, adages, proverbs, etc.)
• Distinguish literal and nonliteral meanings of words in context
• Distinguish shades of meaning among related words
• Learn and use grade-level general academic vocabulary

Writing
• Write opinion, informative, or explanatory pieces that state a topic or purpose, supplying relevant
facts and reasons, and presenting a conclusion
• Write stories that include details, put events in order, and provide a conclusion
• Make improvements and needed changes to written work
• Use transitional words and phrases to connect ideas
• Add dialogue and descriptions to develop characters and events
• Use tools, including digital tools, to produce and publish writing
• Take part in shared research and writing projects
• Gather information from various sources to answer a question
• Create written and visual works to summarize and share information
• Conduct short research tasks on a topic through investigation
• Gather information from print and digital sources and take notes
• Write regularly for a variety of tasks, purposes, and audiences

Life Science
• Plant manufacture of food
• Populations of organisms
• Food chains and food webs
• Plant and animal structures that support growth, reproduction, and behavior
• Plant and animal relationships in an ecosystem
• Plant and animal adaptation and survival
• Human interaction with the environment
• Animal structures specialized to take in and process information

Earth and Space Science
• Earth history
• Earth changes through plate tectonics (earthquake and volcano activity)
• Rock evidence of Earth changes due to forces
• Locations of earthquake and volcano activity
• Earth changes through physical and chemical weathering
• Natural resources and their importance and uses
• How living things affect the physical characteristics of their region
• Hazards that result from natural processes or extreme natural events

Physical Science
• Definitions of energy
• Movement and transfer of energy
• Law of Conservation of Energy
• Conductors and insulators
• Relationship between energy and forces
• Energy in chemical processes
• Electrical circuits
• Energy and fuels from natural resources
• Magnets and magnetic forces
• Electricity and magnetism; electromagnetic radiation
• Safe use of electricity
• Wave properties and motions
• Transfer of digitized information
• Properties of water
• Changes in state of matter (evaporation, melting, condensation, freezing)
• Water cycle
• Floating and sinking

Geography
• Comparative locations and features of the state (or province, territory) in relation to the United States
(or home country) and world
• Location of one’s home in relation to other cities and features in the state (or province, territory)
• State’s (or province’s, territory’s) location using latitude and longitude grid
• State’s (or province’s, territory’s) borders and neighbors
• Physical features, vegetation, and climate
• Major cities and other human-made or cultural features
• Studying and comparing a variety of maps of the state (or province, territory and region
• Creating maps of physical features of state (or province, territory) and key cities
• The state’s (or province’s, territory’s) natural resources
• Patterns of past and present settlements and population distribution
• Geographic factors influencing settlement and population
• Ways the land has provided for and continues to provide for needs
• Locations of key events in state (or provincial, territorial) history
• Relationship between humans and the environment in the state (or province, territory)

Citizenship and Government
• Rights and responsibilities of citizens in state (or province, territory)
• State (or provincial, territorial) and patriotic symbols, traditions, and celebrations
• Key officials and offices in state (or province, territory) and local area
• Key elements of the state (or provincial, territorial) constitution
• Structure of state (or provincial, territorial) government
• Responsibilities of state (or provincial, territorial) governments
• State (or provincial, territorial) or regional issues

Community and Culture
• Cultural groups that make up one’s own state (or province, territory)
• Immigration in the state (or province, territory) and cultural diffusion
• Contributions of different cultural groups in the state (or province, territory)
• Key cultural and social changes in the state (or province, territory)

Economics
• Economic activities and changes over time in the state (or province, territory)
• Businesses and industries in the state (or province, territory)
• State (or provincial, territorial) resources, physical and human
• Relationships between geography and the state (or provincial, territorial) economy
• Creating maps of products or resources
• Trade, exports, and imports
• Economic issues in the state (or province, territory)
• Economic choices in the sate (or province, territory)

History
• Early settlements
• Path to status as state (or province, territory) and establishment of government
• Structure and key concepts of state (or provincial, territorial) constitution
• Peoples and groups who settled the state (or province, territory)
• Key events, developments, and decisions in state (or provincial, territorial) history
• Key people in state (or provincial, territorial) history
• Key issues in state (or provincial, territorial) history
• Effects of nationwide or regional events on the state (or province, territory) –American revolution,
westward movement, nation-wide or regional conflicts, industrialization, slavery, environmental
decisions, national security, the war on terror, etc. (U.S.A.)
• Ways technology changes affected state (or provincial, territorial) development, communication, and transportation

• Health choices and consequences of choices
• Benefits of health (including healthy eating, exercise, stress-management, adequate sleep, social
and emotional health, disease prevention, and avoidance of accidents and dangers)
• Personal responsibility for fitness, stress management, health, and safety
• Influences of peers, media, family, and cultural pressure on physical, emotional, and social health
• Major body systems and their functions
• Nutrients and benefits of nutrients to the body
• Aerobic and anaerobic exercise (contingent on any physical or other limitations)
• Prevention and transmission of disease by individual behaviors
• Communicable and noncommunicable diseases
• Ways body defends itself against germs
• Basic safety rules for daily and recreational activities
• Skills to identify, avoid, and cope with potentially dangerous situations
• Practices for responding to emergencies
• Identify safe behaviors around strangers
• Use, abuse, and effects of medications, tobacco, alcohol, and other substances
• Ways to avoid use of illegal drugs and other harmful substances
• Positive and negative characteristics of social groups gangs, clubs, cliques
• Reporting and getting help in unsafe situations
• Reasons and ways to avoid violence, gangs, and weapons
• Development of self-confidence and self-esteem
• Respect and consideration for all individuals
• Healthy ways of getting attention
• Healthy ways of responding to disrespectful behavior
• Self-control and appropriate ways to express emotions
• Positive social interactions with peers, in home, and in the community
• Bullying, alternative behaviors to bullying, and appropriate responses to bullying
• Strategies for resolving conflicts with peers and others
• Skills for meeting people, making friends, and being a good friend
• Getting personal support from family
• How and where to get help in making health decisions

• Perform and create artistic movements and patterns
• Understand the physical processes and discipline associated with dance
• Identify melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre in musical selections
• Respond to sounds and sound patterns with body movements
• Improvise music with classroom instruments
• Listen, describe, and respond to a variety of music
• Read and write patterns with musical notes and rhythmic notation
• Read, write, and perform diatonic scales
• Identify some common musical instruments by sight and sound
• Identify and sing a variety of kinds of music and musical forms
• Improvise dramatizations of stories or ideas
• Take part in writing scripts, designing sets, and performing group dramas
• Create costumes and props for a performance
• Observe patterns in nature and works of art
• Identify and describe elements in works of visual art (line, color, texture, shapes/form, space, value, etc.)
• Create original works of visual art in various media and dimensions
• Express observations, ideas, or feelings through music, drama, or visual art
• Identify and discuss some well-known works of dance, drama, music, or visual arts and some artists, actors, writers, musicians, choreographers, or composers
• Describe and analyze a variety of works of art according to their elements
• Learn and use vocabulary of dance, music, drama, and visual arts
• Describe techniques for a given form of art
• Compare and contrast two works of art
• Identify purposes, effects, and influences of art
• Understand how culture affects art and how art reflects culture
• Demonstrate appropriate audience skills for live artistic performances

• Concepts, characteristics, and real-life uses of technology
• Knowing parts of technology devices and systems devices
• Developing advanced keyboard skills
• Exploring virtual environments, simulations, programs, models, and applications
• Effective use of available grade-level technology
• Use of tools to produce creative original works
• Use of tools to interact and exchange ideas with peers, teacher, parents, or other students
• Use of tools and devices to develop cultural understanding
• Use of Internet to find, use, summarize, and evaluate information
• Planning and completing a research project to solve a problem or answer a question
• Understand negative uses of technology and ways to avoid them
• Participation in group collaborative interactive projects and activities
• Developing, printing, and publishing in print and digital
• Evaluating content, applications, and programs
• Digital citizenship and etiquette
• Positive attitudes toward technology for learning
• Demonstrating openness to learning and using new technologies
• Legal use, fair use guidelines, and copyrights
• Procedures for safe online behavior, including use of social media
• Responsible care of digital equipment