Fourth Grade Curriculum: Language Arts, et al

Going by the title, one would think that this post would be very short. One would be wrong.

I'm grouping all things language related into this post: Literature, Grammar, Spelling, Writing, Penmanship, and Latin! Here we go:

Literature

Since our history time frame this year is from 1850 to the present, this is the year I'm going to cover all nine of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books. We've already done Farmer Boy. The remaining eight will be covered one each month loosely using the suggested study helps and activities from this book:

(Link)

Grammar

We didn't finish this whole book from last year, so we'll take care of that this year.

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SPELLING

J is a strong speller. In the future I will use his writing as a guide for checking on his spelling, but right now I'm using random spelling books that I pick up at sales to see where he might be weak. This year's book of choice is this one:

(Link)

WRITING

J loves to write. His writing skills have been surprisingly good considering his age. I attribute that to the huge amounts of reading he's always done. Now it's time to make sure that he has the tools he needs to be a REALLY good writer. At some point in the future (junior high?) I hope to have him ready to spend a year writing a novel. We need to make sure he has everything he needs at the ready when the time comes.

I picked up this Evan-Moor book at a sale because it looked like it laid things out in an attractive, thorough way.

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Just for fun I'm going to have him do a monthly report using this book (also from Evan-Moor):

(Link)

PENMANSHIP

J's printing and cursive has evolved over the years. I think he wrote more neatly in first grade than he does now! I know that computers are the future. I know that good handwriting is useful but no longer holds the same level of respect it once had. Still, I feel that the discipline and artistry of good handwriting is a good thing. Once a week I will have him carefully copy passages from his favorite books with the understanding that I'm looking for the muscle control and attention to detail.

He may not agree with the need. That's OK. I'm the mama.

LATIN

I am still completely enamored with the Latin course I discovered last year. We completed Book 1 and J has kept up with his vocabulary charts over the summer. We're ready for Book 2 now!

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My husband and I have a plan for J's foreign language studies. He will continue to study Latin through the 12th grade. We hope that continuing with Latin will give him a huge help in learning on several levels: history, science, English, other Romance languages and general educational value. It would also be cool to be able to read some of the classics. I know he'll pass me up fairly quickly as I don't have the time to study that he does. That's OK. He can translate for me.

Back to the plan. Beginning in fifth grade, we're going to do four years of Spanish. I've take a little Spanish, so I at least have a basic understanding of form and pronunciation. Fluent I am not. Perhaps I'll be that much closer after we complete the studies.

In 9th grade we are going to let him choose another language to learn. Or more than one. We're going to have him do that completely on his own. With Latin background and a good command of Spanish, this should be a fairly easy transition for him if he chooses a Romance language. If he chooses Japanese or Russian or Swahili, he'll at least won't be afraid to try!

This completes the posts regarding our fourth grade plans. We'll start school officially on October 3rd. It's good to have this finished!