4th Grade Curriculum
Religion
Areas of study include: the Ten Commandments, traditions of the Catholic Church, the values of Faith, Hope and Love, and character education. Students also participate in community service programs sponsored by the school.
Reading
A balanced literacy approach to reading is used in the fourth-grade level reading class. Students use the Wonders reading program from McGraw Hill publishers. The program includes direct, explicit instruction in spelling, vocabulary, phonics, grammar, and reading comprehension skills. Students read a variety of texts from many genres including realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, drama, and informational or expository text.
Writing
Judith Hochman’s Basic Writing Skills, an evidence-based program that begins at the sentence level and builds on prior lessons to help students write paragraphs and eventually essays, is utilized. The Hochman Writing Program provides a developmental sequence of goals for constructing sentences, paragraphs, and essays.
Math
Units of study include: place value, adding and subtracting with and without regrouping, rounding numbers, money, time, multiplication with and without regrouping, fractions, division with and without remainders and solving single-step and multi-step word problems.
Science
Units of study include: properties of water, interaction of air, water, and land, animals and plants in their environment, and magnetism and electricity.
Social Studies
The fourth-grade social studies curriculum is a study of the history, geography, and people of New York State. Units of study include the climate of New York, New York State landforms and the Hudson River, Native Americans in New York, the Colonial Period in New York, and the role that New York State played in the American Revolution.
- Homework is assigned daily.
- Assignments should take approximately 45 minutes daily.
JCOS has a wonderful system for updating students’ homework assignments and upcoming tests. It is a web-based system called SchoolNotes. You can access the system at www.schoolnotes.com. Once you access the system, you need to sign up as a parent. You should scroll down to the bottom of the web page to the part that indicates parent sign up. You should “Search by School” for JCOS. There is a drop down menu that asks for the country, state, district (private for JCOS, regardless of your district of residence), and the school’s name. Once you have completed this registration process, you will then be able to locate your child’s homeroom, reading, and math teachers. You can subscribe to each teacher’s page so that you will receive emails directly from SchoolNotes to let you know when the teacher has updated his/her page. There is also a link on each teacher’s page where you can email the teacher directly. JCOS faculty and staff are most willing to respond to communication from parents. Your expectation for a response should be within 24 hours during the school week between the hours of 3-6 pm. If you need immediate assistance, you should call the office directly. SchoolNotes is wonderful communication tool between families and the school.
In addition to SchoolNotes, the children also write their homework down in their planners each day. It is important to check your child’s planner each day as well as to check his/her folder for any handouts, flyers, or other important information.
