In third and fourth grade, students begin to move towards more independence and access assignments online as well as build upon studying skills and techniques outside of the classroom.
Language Arts: The students focus on learning language mechanics and writing skills. They become more critical readers and become stronger writers by practicing personal narratives, poetry and descriptive writing. Students work individually and as a class to read, discuss, and analyze reading materials and independent book reports.
Math: Students continue working on more rigorous addition and subtraction facts, place value and multiplication facts working toward developing advanced problem-solving skills. This allows them to explore fractions, decimals, and percentages, as well as geometry and area. Students are introduced to statistics, stocks, and probability. Through the supplemented use of technology, students use critical thinking skills to put what they have learned into practice.
Social Studies and Science: Third-grade social studies focuses on Massachusetts history and colonies while the fourth-grade curriculum focuses on the United States of America. Students study the 50 states and capitals and the four regions. Each unit covers land, climate, natural resources, economy, and the people of that region. In Science, students make observations with hands-on classroom activities and begin to explore the school science lab through experiments.
Religion: Through daily prayers, reciting and practicing the school's mission statement as a part our daily routine, students continues to strengthen their faith and build upon core virtues. Following the Church’s liturgical calendar, students attend monthly Mass on the feast days and holy days of obligation. Much of the unit is devoted to teaching the children about the early life of Jesus. They learn about his family and more about the ways Jesus treated other people with kindness and caring. They come to understand that Jesus wants them to treat others in the same loving way. In fourth grade, we begin to focus more in-depth on understanding the commandments, the liturgy, and each sacrament.