Grade 4 Scope

How to read this scope

Each unit_id in the frontmatter resolves to a unit file under units/. start_day/end_day map the unit onto the 180-day school year; the list is a continuous sequence from day 1 to day 180 with no gaps or overlaps. domain and pillar name the primary domain(s) and pillar(s) each unit serves. domain_weighting expresses the intended balance of instructional time across the ten domains, in percent of the year. lesson_count counts the core lessons; the days between lessons carry flex time, assessment, integration, and celebration. assessment_plan describes how a child’s growth is seen and recorded at this level.

Year at a glance

The Grade 4 year is a spiral that deepens what Grade 3 began, and it opens inward. Feelings in Full Color & My Growing Self (U.04.001, D01) builds on Grade 3’s changing feelings: children now describe the strength of a feeling, recognize complex feelings such as jealousy and pride, explain how their experiences shape them, and describe a family tradition that connects them to a community. My Body at Work & at Rest (U.04.002, D03) reads the body with new precision — how heartbeat and breathing change with activity and rest, and the many ways bodies sense and move, including people who use assistive tools.

Listening, Perspective & Belonging (U.04.003, D02) turns outward into the practice of care. Where Grade 3 learned to take turns and speak without blame, Grade 4 learns to listen actively — paraphrasing before responding — and negotiate fairly. The heart of the year belongs to the two great tools of school, now working with real independence. Reading, Writing & Many Languages (U.04.004, D04) grows comprehension and craft: summarizing main ideas, using context clues and word parts, carrying a piece of writing through plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish — a peer’s language honored, multilingualism held as wealth. Numbers, Patterns, Shapes & Data (U.04.005, D05) reaches place value to 1,000,000, multi-digit operations checked by estimation, area and perimeter by formula, and line plots with fractions — mathematics as sense-making with real things, for everyone.

From there the year looks out at the world. Controlled Experiments & the Living World (U.04.006, D06) turns wonder into a careful, repeated test: measuring with tools, comparing results across trials, and following how living things in an ecosystem depend on one another, and how energy moves as heat, sound, and light. Making, Music & Movement (U.04.007, D07) gives craft to the imagination — notation read and played, a dance form from another culture met as a living tradition, and design for a specific user — while Healthy, Safe & Strong (U.04.008, D03) returns to the body with growing independence: reading food labels, honoring the many ways families eat well, safety rules, and respectful behavior online.

The final third steps into the wider human story, told in many voices. People, Places & Long Ago (U.04.009, D08) places events from two places on a dated timeline, compares daily life then and now, compares how two cultures explain the same natural event through story and observation, describes a knowledge tradition such as star navigation or oral history, and shows on maps how landforms and water shaped settlement. Rights, Fairness & Our Shared Rules (U.04.010, D09) weighs two reasons for a choice, explains dignity and where it is honored or denied, and asks whether a rule is fair to all it affects. Tools, Media & Our Earth Home (U.04.011, D10) compares two tools for the same job, checks a claim against a second source, and asks how one action helps or harms a place. The year closes in All of Me, All of Us (U.04.012, D01 + D02), celebrating each whole person and the caring community, and looking ahead to Grade 5.

Throughout, the four pillars are interwoven. Intellectual awareness (P3) carries the most weight — reading toward chapter books and non-fiction, multi-digit number work, and repeated experiments are the year’s central work — but emotional and social awareness (P1) and physical and somatic awareness (P2) remain strong, for a known, cared-for, and capable body-and-self is the ground all formal learning stands on. Contextual and ecological awareness (P4) keeps growing: history toward dated timelines and knowledge traditions, civics toward rights, dignity, repairing harm, and peaceful resistance, and ecology toward ecosystems and stewardship. No high-stakes tests anywhere: growth is seen through reading aloud, writing, number work with real things, and a portfolio of what they make, say, and do.