Your fourth-grader and math
In your child's classroom
Emphasis on real-world problem solving
The math your fourth-grader is learning may look different from the math you learned in school, particularly in regard to the emphasis on real-world applications.
"In the fourth-grade classroom, lifelong skills should be embedded in the curriculum and daily lessons," says Wendy Miller, our consulting teacher and the 2006 North Carolina Teacher of the Year. "Students should develop skills such as reasoning and problem solving in order to be productive in a globally diverse society. The purpose of math in the fourth grade is to help students make the connection from classroom math concepts and processes to real-world problem solving."
Your child may map a bus route or determine how much paper is needed to cover a bulletin board. She may learn more than one way to solve a problem, focusing on the process and not just the solution. She works to develop an understanding of mathematics, rather than just memorizing rules, and engages in activities that require her to think about numbers and their relationships. She may work in groups to find solutions to math problems.
"Having students work in groups is an extremely effective technique for getting students actively involved in doing math," explains Kathy Rank, our consulting teacher and Ohio's 2005 Teacher of the Year. "It is important that students share solutions and explain their thinking and that they know their ideas will be valued."
Math topics and standards
Math is separated into topics that are taught sequentially. The name and number of topics vary from state to state and textbook to textbook. The topics we are covering here are numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data and probability.
Academic standards describe what your child should be learning. You can look up your state's math standards and compare them with the work your child is doing to see if he is learning what your state's standardized tests will measure. But this can be difficult because some state standards include long lists of expectations and no clear areas of emphasis for each grade.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has released a listing of the three topics it considers most important for each grade from kindergarten through eighth grade. The NCTM's short list is an attempt to start a discussion about making the study of math more consistent and coherent, the group says. The focal points have already been the subject of many news stories and are certain to be discussed in your state and district.
Numbers and operations
Your child is expected to read and write whole numbers to the millions and understand number place value through the millions.
Your fourth-grader works to understand numbers: ways of representing them, relationships among them, and number systems. Your child continues his work from previous years on "number sense," the ability to understand numbers and work with them in a variety of ways — from computing mentally to estimating and judging whether an answer seems reasonable.
He may still use visual models and manipulatives, such as base 10 blocks, to develop his understanding of numbers.
He might be asked to place whole numbers, decimals, or fractions in order from largest to smallest on a number line. He learns to use the symbols for greater than (>), less than (<), and equals (=) to compare numbers.
Mastering math facts
Because your child will be computing with larger numbers in the fourth grade, it is important for her to recall math facts quickly. She should know times tables up to 10. By the end of the year, she will typically be multiplying three-digit numbers by two-digit numbers (for example, 42 x 638) and dividing four-digit numbers by one-digit numbers and 10 (for example, 7,445 ÷ 4) with and without remainders. She will also be adding and subtracting five-digit numbers.
Understanding the meaning of operations
Your fourth-grader figures out the meanings of operations and how they relate to one another, learning to explain the relationship between addition and subtraction and between multiplication and division. Your child solves word problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. He is asked to select the appropriate computational and operational method to solve multi-step problems. For example: Four children ate two pizzas. There were eight slices in each pizza. If each child ate the same number of slices, how many slices did each child have? (2 x 8) ÷ 4 = 4 slices of pizza each.
Working with fractions and decimals
Your child adds and subtracts fractions with like denominators (the bottom number of the fraction). For example: 3/8 + 2/8 = 5/8.
To develop their number sense, students learn to compare fractions to decide whether the fraction is closer to a half or a whole. Students typically relate decimals — also a type of fractional number — to money because this is a familiar context. Your child compares fractions and decimals to learn, for example, that the decimal 0.5 represents the fraction 5/10 and the decimal 0.25 represents the fraction 25/100. She adds and subtracts decimals and places decimals in order from smallest to largest. Your child also rounds decimals to the nearest tenth and hundredth or to the nearest whole number. She should be able to tell you that 1.768 rounds to 1.77 to the nearest hundredth, 1.8 is to the nearest tenth, and 2 is to the nearest whole number.
