When students learn the patterns and structures of words they become word wizards! They are able to more fluently convert a word from one part of speech to another, adjust the meaning, or translate a word from singular to plural (or vice versa). In this set of activities students will build on their knowledge of word structure and practice adding prefixes and suffixes, changing tenses and using contractions.

Words are the wondrous building blocks in language. This unit increases students’ word knowledge by introducing more challenging vocabulary and exploring how words are related. Learners will also discover some of the ways words are constructed using derivational root words, prefixes, suffixes, and compound words. Students will get to explore and create fun literary devices such as similes, idioms and metaphors.

Words are like legos - they can have interchangeable parts. In this unit students will study the construction of words including roots, prefixes and suffixes. Students will also explore how to modify words to make them possessive, a different part of speech and adjust to signify singular and plural. Understanding the basic building blocks of words, will increase students’ vocabulary, improve their spelling and add strategies for decoding unfamiliar words.

Students are going to take a deeper dive into fractions in this unit! Learners will apply previous understanding of finding equivalent fractions, and converting between fractions and mixed numbers to work with fractions in more complex ways. Students will continue to use visual models to learn and practice adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.

Students will have a basic understanding of fractions coming into 4th grade. In this unit students will get to explore new ways of representing fractions, including in a set of data, on number lines and using area models. Students will use their knowledge of fractions to compare fractions with like and unlike denominators.

Fractions can be challenging when taught in an abstract way. That’s why this unit invites learners to engage with fractions and mixed numbers in very visual and concrete ways using number lines, tape diagrams and area models. Students will learn different strategies to practice identifying and generating equivalent fractions.

Multiplication is essentially repeated addition, or growing numbers by doubling, tripling, quadrupling, and so on. This unit presents mental models and strategies that help students learn and review the concept of multiplication. Students explore multiplication using arrays, partial products, doubling methods and the standard algorithm to solve numerical and word problems. Students will multiply whole numbers and simple decimals by base ten exponents (i.e. .3 x 103).

As students become more sophisticated writers, they begin to understand that words have different “jobs” in a sentence. These jobs can be thought of as parts of speech. In this word study unit, students will learn about the work that transition words, prepositions, verbs, adverbs and adjectives do. Students will also explore how certain kinds of words work together, like verbs and adverbs.

Students will have a basic understanding of fractions coming into 4th grade. In this unit students will get to explore new ways of representing fractions, including in a set of data, on number lines and using area models. Students will use their knowledge of fractions to compare fractions with like and unlike denominators.

If you think about math as a language, expressions and equations are the sentences. This unit brings students into the world of “math language”, learning how to write complex expressions in different forms and convert numbers in one form to another (i.e.decimals to fractions). Last, students will apply the order of operations to interpret and solve simple algebraic equations.