Grade 4
By the 4th grade, students are becoming more self-confident as their perception of the world sharpens. At the same time, they experience a stronger separation from their surroundings that can be painful and frightening. These developmental steps are supported by a curriculum focusing on broadening perspectives and students metaphorically expand their horizons.
Norse mythology is studied through the year, giving students many stories centering on strength of character, courage, self-sacrifice, perseverance and the ability to choose consciously.
The language arts curriculum emphasizes independent writing and longer dictations. There is practice with spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure and vocabulary development. Parts of speech and tenses are introduced along with independent and group reading exercises and book reports.
Mirroring the sense of the world as breaking apart at this age, fractions are introduced. Other mathematical operations of study include practice with measurement, the four basic operations, long division and more advanced multiplication.
Additional class study includes local geography, animal study and continued work in foreign languages, music, art and handwork.