Children in fourth grade start to increase their speed in reading and become more comfortable without assistance. Students' vocabulary increases. Additionally, children practice reading comprehension by learning methods of reviewing, interpreting and understanding text. When fourth grade ends, children should be able to understand what they read, identify the main topic of a paragraph, summarize reading material and identify a host of new vocabulary words. For example, children need to identify compound words, homonyms, synonyms and antonyms.
Math is a subject where students usually build upon skills they learned from previous years or the previously assignment. Teachers start to expand to math topics such as multiplication, division, fractions, patterns, measurements and statistics. Children become comfortable adding and subtracting, which are the bases for more complicated math problems. Depending on the school district, children need to understand how to round numbers, name the different types of shapes, comprehend various graphs and use tools such as thermometers and rulers.
Social studies allow fourth-graders to expand their knowledge of geography. Some fourth-grade class lessons teach about the region of the United States. However, some classes will include other regions of the world. Social studies teachers teach students about drawing symbols for objects, recognizing cardinal directions, locating the equator and understanding various types of lands.
Students in science class learn the process and concepts of science. For example, teachers instruct children to evaluate and measure objects, classify organisms and objects and place objects in serial order. In addition, fourth-graders usually learn the various methods of a science project. Additionally, children leave the fourth grade with the knowledge of the way matter changes, inherited traits, learned traits and causes of erosion, weathering and sedimentation.
If they haven't done so in third grade, student starts to learn how to write in cursive. Some teachers start to require student to write assignment in cursive for most of their class assignments. Children learn the various parts of speech. In addition, children start to write to inform, persuade and describe items. They also learn about compound sentences and spelling rules.