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  • Kindergarten
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Bridges Grade 4

Math Content

The following content strands are featured in Bridges Grade 4 lessons and are spiraled throughout the curriculum:

• Multiplicative Reasoning
• Equivalence
• Computational Fluency
• Computation and Number
• Algebraic Thinking
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

What They're Saying

I wanted to let you know how much my students and I enjoyed the "quick sketch" model for multiplying larger numbers. It is nice to be able to put a visual in students' hands to help them understand a normally complicated process.
- Grade 4 Teacher, Ft. Bridger, WY  

See also:
   Grades 3-5 Competencies and Experiences »
   Bridges Grade 4 Expectations and Content Synopsis »
   Bridges Grade 4 Scope and Sequence »

The Grade 4 Year

The fourth grade year opens with a review of multiplication and division that emphasizes story problems, strategies for finding answers in an efficient way, and the area model. Throughout the year, fourth graders explore computation -- multiplication, division with and without remainders, and multi-digit addition and subtraction -- in the context of story problems so that they consider not only the process of completing calculations, but the meanings of the operations themselves.

By wintertime, students begin a geometry unit in which they explore a variety of 2- and 3-dimensional shapes, symmetry, congruence, and transformations (flips, slides, and turns). The geometry activities are designed to move students away from making simple observations and toward drawing informal deductions. Fourth graders also explore probability concepts in depth by performing experiments, gathering data, analyzing the results, and using what they have learned to make increasingly sophisticated generalizations about probability. Students will also use a rectangular area model for fractions and begin to recognize equivalence between common fractions and decimal numbers.

Interdisciplinary connections are made throughout the year, through art-related projects, connections to the social sciences, an emphasis on acquiring new vocabulary and communicating clearly, regular use of the calculator, and the incorporation of age-appropriate literature. The fourth grade year concludes with an integrated math-science unit on the wingspans of birds, in which students apply what they have learned in the realms of measurement, computation, and data analysis.

Each of the eight units in the fourth grade program features pre- and post-assessments that allow teachers to track the development of students' conceptual understanding and facility with key skills over time. Quick skills checkups are provided on a quarterly basis, and all units feature guidance about collecting work samples, looking at student work, and interviewing selected students as needed.