4th-grade Curriculum Picks for 2020

These are our 4th grade curriculum picks for 2020.

Getting ready for a new homeschooling year is work in progress all year round. I am always on the lookout for new curricula, better programs and offers but the real prep work starts at least 2 months before we start our new school year.

Here’s how all the materials look together. That’s a LOT of books and I know some of you might get discouraged seeing this. Make sure you read the full article to see how we manage to go through the main (spine) curriculum and what we do about the supplements and extras.

You can also see a part of the manipulatives, boardgames and cards that we might use during this school year.

The Subjects – 4th grade curriculum

I pick our subjects by priority. I always make sure to cover the basics: Language Arts and Maths. These 2 are NON-debatable even if M. doesn’t always like my picks. The rest are based on his interests and what I feel he would enjoy.
I do make sure I pick programs that suit his current level, that give him enough challenge but aren’t overwhelming.
Here’s a list of the subjects for 4th grade with Bridgeway Academy this year, including Electives:

• Math
• Language Arts (Grammar, Reading/Comprehension- book reports, and Writing Elective)
• Science (Chemistry)
• History (Middle Ages)
• Geography Elective (Europe)
• PE Elective

It’s 6 subjects- more than enough for a 4th grader so that he has time to cover everything I picked, learn his basics and then just focus on what he loves doing (chemistry, electronics, and free play).

I try to keep it real because I noticed otherwise we get spread too thin and end up loathing the whole school year.
For example, last year I picked German as an elective, but since I don’t know the language and I couldn’t find a teacher that we liked, we had to force ourselves to just finish the lessons. That was a mistake and I owned it, so this year instead of German, I picked Geography.

Language Arts – Grammar, Reading, Writing

Everything you see above is our Language Arts curriculum for the 4th grade.

I wrote a separate post about each book (with page examples for each). So you can read more here.

Here is a breakdown of what you see in the photo:

• Grammar
  • SPINE: Fix it Grammar by IEW
  • EXTRAS:
    • Beowulf’s Grammar by Guest Hollow
    • 240 Vocabulary Words Kids Need to Know 4th Grade by Scholastic
    • Funny Fairy Tale Grammar by Scholastic
    • Funny Fairy Tale Proofreading by Scholastic
    • Daily Language Review Grade 4 by Evan Moor
• Reading Comprehension– Book Reports for:
  • Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (Usborne)
  • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (Puffin Books)
  • Lincoln and his Boys by Rosemary Wells (Candlewick Press)
  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (Alladin Paperbacks)
• Writing elective:
  • Student Writing Intensive – level A1 (Now Structure and Style A1) by IEW

The main curriculum is Fix it Grammar and Student Writing Intensive along with book reports for the 4 selected books.
Everything else are supplements and we might or might not complete them during this year.

Math

We’ve been doing Math in Focus as our math program from first grade and we like it enough not to switch it. I will be back with a separate post on Math for 4th grade soon.

The extras are:

• Beast Academy 3A
• Daily Math Practice by Evan Moor

Chemistry curriculum for 4th grade

Chemistry is what we will do for Science this year.
I had to buy him more materials because I didn’t know what level M. is at and he tends to work on more levels at the same time.

• SPINE: Middle School Chemistry (the manuals marked with Chemistry 1&2) from the American Chemical Society – its FREE! to download.
• EXTRAS:
  • Real Science Odyssey Chemistry 1 from Pandia Press(in the 2 white binders)
• • The Elements by Ellen J. McHenry – we LOVE her stuff!The Periodic Table Book from DK
  • The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry
  • Balancing Chemical Equations Worksheets
• GAMES and MANIPULATIVES
  • Molecule set
  • Covalence game
  • Ion game
  • Subatomic game
  • Valence Plus Game
  • Compounded Game
  • Elements cards from Isotopiks
  • Elements cards from Top Trumps
• MEL Chemistry Subscription (not pictured here)- we absolutely LOVE it!
  

I will be back with a chemistry deicated post so you see how we use each resource and what other activities we do for chemistry this year.

Geography

Geography also has a dedicated post. You can read more about how we approach Geography this year. I wanted to keep things light and fun since Geography is an elective, so here is the list of materials:

• MAIN:
  • Skill Sharpeners Grade 4 by Evan Moor
  • 7 Continents Europe by Evan Moor
• EXTRAS:
  • A Child’s Introduction to The World
  • World Atlas by Barefoot Books
  • The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia
  • Usborne Sticker Atlas of the World
• OTHER:
  • Wooden puzzle map of Europe by EduJoc

History curriculum

I am keeping history pretty simple because the spine we are using has a lot of activities and book reading suggestions. We own a lot of books for history but we just pull them out if needed.

• MAIN: Story Of The World Volume 2 – Middle Ages
• EXTRA:
  • The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History
  • A Child Through Time by DK
  • Medieval Europe by Core Knowledge (FREE to download)

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This post may contain affiliate links. By making a purchase through these links, I get a small percentage for the item you bought while the price stays the same for you. Thank you for supporting me.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Read my Disclosure to find out more about how I support my website and how you can help.