PO Box 560 / 90 Alexander Lane, Solomons, Maryland 20688
Phone (410) 326-3171 | olssschool@comcast.net | Fax (410) 326-9478
OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA SCHOOL
Mrs. Kimberly Weber
Mrs. Weber earned her Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Hawaii. She taught sixth grade in Honolulu, Hawaii and Omaha, Nebraska before settling in Maryland. This is is 23rd year teaching at OLSS; she has also taught middle school grades. Both of her children graduated from OLSS.
Email: grade4@olsss.org
MATH
Series used: Saxon Math
1) Number Sense: Students understand the place value of whole numbers and decimals to two decimal places, and how whole numbers and decimals relate to fractions. They identify and write whole numbers up to 1,000,000, order and compare numbers using symbols for “less than”, “equal to”, and “greater than”. Students rename and write whole numbers as fractions, mixed numbers as improper fractions, and write tenths and hundredths in decimals and fractions.
2) Computation: Students solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers and understand the relationships among these operations. They extend their understanding of whole numbers to the addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals. They understand standard algorithms (step-by-step procedures for solving a problem) for addition and subtraction. Students demonstrate a mastery of multiplication tables for numbers between 1 and 12, and the corresponding division facts.
3) Algebra & Functions: Students use and interpret variables, math symbols, and properties to write and simplify numerical expressions and sentences. They understand the relationships among the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They learn to plot, label, and estimate numbers on a number line.
4) Geometry: Students show an understanding of plane and solid geometric objects, and use this knowledge to show relationships and solve problems. They identify rays, right angles, acute angles, obtuse angles, and straight angles. They identify and draw parallel, perpendicular, and oblique lines, as well as parallelograms, rhombuses, and trapezoids.
5) Measurement: Students understand perimeter and area, as well as measuring volume, capacity, time, and money. They measure length to the nearest eighth-inch and millimeter, subtract units of length that require renaming of feet to inches, or meters to centimeters. They use formulas for finding perimeters and areas, use volume and capacity to measure space, determine amounts of change from purchases, and determine times using hours and half hours.
6) Data Analysis & Probability: Students organize, represent, and interpret numerical and categorical data by representing data on a number line and in tables, interpret graphs, and summarize probabilities.
7) Problem Solving: Students make decisions about how to analyze problems, including breaking them into simpler parts. They express solutions clearly and logically, using appropriate math terms.
ADW 4th Grade Math Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS
Series used: McGraw-Hill Wonders 2023
READING:
1) Word Recognition, Fluency, & Vocabulary Development: Students see letter patterns and know how to translate them into spoken language by using phonics, syllables, vocabulary, and word parts. They apply knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, homographs, and idioms to determine the meaning of words and phrases. They use knowledge of root words to determine the meaning of unknown words.
2) Reading Comprehension: Students use a variety of comprehension strategies to understand what is read. They make predictions about text by using prior knowledge, and evaluate new information and ideas.
3) Literacy Response & Analysis: Students read and respond to a variety of literature. They identify and discuss the characters, theme, plot, and setting of stories. They identify the differences of imaginative forms of literature, including fantasies, fables, myths, legends, and fairy tales. Students learn figurative language such as similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification.
WRITING & SPELLING:
4) Writing Process: Students write clear sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. They progress through the stages of the writing process; prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. They select a focus, structure, and point of view for the purpose of their writing. They learn to quote and paraphrase, and use multiple reference materials.
5) Writing Applications: Students write informational reports and responses to literature, writing summaries that contain the main ideas and most significant details. They continue to write compositions and narratives, using varied word choices.
6) Written English Language Conventions: Students write in cursive. They use simple and compound sentences, and use descriptive words including adjectives, adverbs, appositives, participial phrases, prepositional phrases, and conjunctions. They identify regular and irregular verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. They learn punctuation concepts including the use of parentheses, commas, contractions, italics, and apostrophes. They spell root bases of words, inflections, suffixes, and prefixes.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING:
7) Skills, Strategies, & Applications: Students listen and respond to oral communication. They speak in a manner that conveys ideas by using proper phrasing, pitch, and modulation. They learn to convey information including cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing/answering a questions. They recite poems, soliloquies, and dramatic dialogues.
ADW 4th Grade Language Arts Standards
SOCIAL STUDIES
Series used: Harcourt Social Studies & The Maryland Adventure
1) History: Students study early regional culture and settlement, including local Native American Indian cultures, and the effects of European settlement upon them. They learn how Maryland developed as a state, and its role in the growth of the US. They learn about the Civil War, including the events leading up to it, Maryland’s participation, and post-Civil War growth in the areas of agriculture, industrialization, and political changes..
2) Civics & Government: Students study the three branches of state government, including their duties and offices.
3) Geography: Students use geographic tools to identify locations and characteristics of places in the Mid-Atlantic Region. They learn to estimate the distances between two places on a map or globe.
4) Economics: Students learn the basic principles of a Market Economy, such as definitions of productivity, profit, and money. They describe the role of savings, investment, and trade in the development of an economic system, and learn about the role of supply and demand in a market economy. Students identify how Maryland’s economy has changed over time in types of goods produced, and levels of productivity.
ADW 4th Grade Social Studies Standards
SCIENCE
Series used: Harcourt Science
1) Nature of Science: Students learn about supporting evidence, recognizing that the results of repeated experiments may be different, and identifying possible reasons why. They support findings and conclusions with data from investigations, and use tables and graphs to show their findings.
2) Nature of Technology: Students identify differences between the disciplines of science and engineering.
3) Physical Science: Students study the properties of matter, identifying that all matters if made up of parts too small to be seen without magnification. They identify heat as a form of energy, and learn how thermal energy can come from different sources.
4) Earth & Space Science: Students use models show the relationship between the Earth’s day-night cycle and the rotation of the Earth in a 24-hour period. They compare the different ways in which wind, heat, water, and ice constantly reshape the Earth's surface. They begin to study geology.
5) Life Science: Students investigate the structures and functions of living systems, comparing how plants and animals meet their energy need, and how all animals are directly or indirectly dependent upon plants for food.
ADW 4th Grade Science Standards
RELIGION
Sadlier Religion’s “We Believe” series is a spiral curriculum that presents the key concepts of faith each year, in a deeper and broader way, as children grow more capable of understanding and living in discipleship. The 4th grade series is comprised of four units: “Growing in Jesus Christ”, “The Commandments Help Us to Love God”, “The Commandments Help Us to Love Others”, and “We Are Called to Holiness”. Students are given the opportunity to plan the school’s weekly Liturgy, and participate by reading Scripture readings, acting as song leaders, saying the Prayers of the Faithful, and taking up the offertory gifts. Service projects are also incorporated into lessons. Each of the Ten Commandments is studied in detail.
ADW 4th Grade Religion Standards
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
1) Movement Forms: Students work on mastering locomotor, non-locomotor, and manipulative skills. Variations of motor skills are combined to form more complex movement patterns, which are then combined to be specialized skills for specific sports.
2) Motor (Movement) Skills: Students apply movement concepts to improve their performance.
3) Physical Activity: Students learn about the physical, emotional, and psychological benefits of healthy lifestyle activities.
4) Responsible Behavior: Students continue to develop cooperation skills, following rules and procedures with fewer reminders.
Skills and Activities taught throughout the year include soccer, football, basketball, hockey, badminton, paddleball, volleyball, ball type skills (kickball, wiffleball), lacrosse, parachute play, scooter play, tag type games, rope skipping, and Frisbee.
ADW 4th Grade PE Standards
SPANISH
Students engage in written and spoken conversations on a variety of topics, and participate in conversations emphasizing previously learned material. They respond to simple requests, commands, and directions. They examine and experience the relationships among the practices, products, and perspectives of another culture and their own.
ADW 4th Grade Foreign Language Standards
MUSIC
Students learn to perform by singing and playing instruments alone and with a group, with attention to breath control, tone quality, and dictation. They play melodies, rhythms, and chords with correct technique, steady tempos, and appropriate style and dynamics. Students apply an expanded vocabulary of musical symbols and terms.
ADW 4th Grade Music Standards
ART
Students learn Art History and the connection of artworks to different cultures. They observe, select, and utilize a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas in their work, and produce artwork that reflects their personal ideas, experiences, and emotions. They apply elements and principles of design in their work, discriminating between types of shape, colors, textures, and space. A variety of art media is explored, including drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, and mixed media.
ADW 4th Grade Art Standards
TECHNOLOGY
4th GRADE ACADEMIC STANDARDS & CURRICULUM
Archdiocese of Washington Academic Standards define what students in Catholic Schools should know and be able to do at each grade level.