Posted on: Thursday, September 16, 2004
What your fourth-grader is expected to learn
Advertiser Staff
Here's a brief description of what your fourth-grade child is being taught and is expected to know by the end of the year. The goals are intended to help assure that your child is at the appropriate development level and that Hawai'i's public schools are working toward meeting Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards.
Language Arts Susan Burch, a Kane'ohe Elementary School fourth-grade teacher, offered these tips for helping your child stay on track during fourth grade: • Encourage your child to read for enjoyment. Many schools will ask parents to monitor how long their children read, and to log the time and the titles. • Limit TV and video games to the weekend so children aren't rushing through their homework and can take time to enjoy their reading. • Set up a homework routine at home that includes a quiet place for your child to work. • Learn what the standards are. The parent-teacher conference gives you the opportunity to ask questions about what your child is expected to learn. • While driving, think of questions to ask your children that might help them build their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. • Make sure your children have strong basic math skills and, if not, help develop them. Children will have an easier time figuring out how to solve word problems if they aren't bogged down by simple arithmetic, Burch said. • Reads different kinds of texts
• Uses a process to get at the meaning in a text and identify the main ideas
• Makes personal connections to text, interprets ideas in texts and shares an opinion about the writer's skill
• Writes and shares pieces that are developed and organized and clear, and that reveal the writer's individuality and voice
• Watches and listens to others when conversing in order to clarify meaning
• Uses standard English
• Interprets accurately general health concepts related to risk areas, such as implications of high- fat diet and lack of exercise
• Identifies the effects of internal and external factors that affect health, such as media and family values
• Sets personal goals using goal-setting strategies and applies the process to a health-enhancing choice such as physical fitness or staying drug-free
• States and defends a health-enhancing position and uses facts, data and evidence to support position.
• Identifies components of health-related fitness
• Combines locomotor and manipulative skills with control and fluidity, such as weight transfer in balancing and rolling, or accuracy in throwing to a moving receiver
• Identifies sources of health fitness information
• Continues to learn and practice appropriate behaviors in physical fitness settings
• Learns to touch-type in a commonly used word processing program
• Uses digital cameras and camcorders to record images and video
• Describes how the law protects creative works on the Internet and electronic media
• Understands and abides by school rules about Internet use
• Computes fluently with whole numbers
• Uses strategies to compute with fractions and decimals
• Makes simple unit conversions and scale drawings
• Uses transformations and coordinate systems
• Represents and generalizes ideas about patterns
• Investigates, represents and analyzes data and applies basic probability ideas
• Uses multiple sources to understand the chronology, relationships and cultural dynamics of the people and events in Hawaiian history
• Studies the migration, concept of 'ahupua'a and early monarchy of Hawai'i
• Uses participatory skills to demonstrate an understanding of the geography and economics of Hawai'i as they apply to Hawaiian culture
• Documents how technology such as air travel and container shipping has changed the nature of work and life in Hawai'i
• Constructs a list of careers based on own strengths and interests
• Researches how careers and job requirements change over time
• Identifies how doing well in school leads to career opportunities
• Participates in memorized conversations, interviews or role-playing
• Creates simple crafts from other cultures
• Names some features or customs from other cultures that are also present in own culture
• Selects and combines elements, processes, materials, and technology to create and present a visual artwork, musical performance, drama scene and a dance
• Designs investigations and justifies conclusions
• Describes states of matter and what happens when objects move
• Analyzes the impact of natural and manmade forces on the environment
Source: Department of Education
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Next week: What your fifth-grader is expected to learn.
How parents can help
Health
Physical education
Educational technology
Mathematics
Social studies
Career and life skills
World languages
Fine arts
Science
