Fourth Grade

Wayland Union Schools utilizes Bookworms Reading and Writing as the basis of our Language Arts program. We are excited to share the list of books your child will be reading this year as part of our 4th grade Bookworms Reading and Writing program. Bookworms is a research-based curriculum that builds strong reading skills, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar, and writing through engaging, high-quality literature.

Your child will read books during two main parts of their ELA block:

✅ Shared Reading – books students read together with the teacher to build reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies.

✅ ELA – chapter books read aloud by the teacher to build listening comprehension, vocabulary, and writing connections.

Students will also participate in a Differentiated Instruction Block to receive diagnostically-driven, Science of Reading-aligned instruction targeting foundational reading skills.

Below are the texts your child will read this year:

Shared Reading Texts

• A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson (Green)
• Love, Amalia (Ada and Zubizarretta)
• Blood on the River: James Town, 1607 (Carbone)
• Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? (Fritz)
• Tangerine (Bloor)
• My Life as a Book (Tashjian)
• Starry River of the Sky (Lin)
• The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin (Giblin)

ELA (Read-Aloud) Texts

• Earthquakes: All about Earth’s crust, colliding plates, tsunamis, and more! (Simon)
• Go Straight to eh Source: Super Smart Information Strategies (Fontichiaro)
• Roanoke: The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History (Yolen and Stemple)
• Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud (Jurmain)
• My Life in Dog Years (Paulsen)
• Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World (Hood)
• Hatchet (Paulsen)
• Alabama Moon (Key)
• A Vocabulary Disaster (Frasier)
• Freedom on the Menu:: The Greensboro Sit-Ins (Weatherford)
• The Moon Book (Gibbons)
• Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong’s Work for Sustainable Farming (Schmalzer)
• Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic (Lo)

These books will spark rich conversations and writing activities to deepen your child’s learning. If you would like to borrow any of these texts to read at home with your child, please let their teacher know.

Essential Standards for 4th Grade Language Arts:

• Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (charts, graphs, timelines, etc) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
• Determine the meaning of general academic words or phrases in a text relevant to a 4th-grade topic or subject area.
• Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says.
• Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on 4th-grade topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• Produce clear and coherent writing that is appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
• Summarize key supporting details and ideas in a text.

Wayland Union Schools utilizes Everyday Mathematics as the core resource for addressing our math curriculum.

Essential Standards for 4th Grade Math:

• Multiply and divide a 4-digit number by a 1-digit number, multiply two 2-digit numbers
• Identify all of the components of the place value system
• Compare fractions and determine equivalent fractions
• Add and subtract simple fractions
• Determine factors and multiples of numbers
• Understand and use targeted math vocabulary words

Parents looking to help their child with math at home might find the following resources useful.

Everyday Math At Home - 4th Grade

In fourth grade, students build on previous knowledge by investigating energy, natural resources, and Earth’s processes. Mystery Science presents questions like "What causes earthquakes and volcanoes?" and "How is energy transferred?" to guide students through lessons on earth science, energy conservation, and ecosystems. They’ll engage in activities that deepen their understanding of renewable resources, the rock cycle, and the impact of natural events, fostering critical thinking about the environment and human impact on Earth.

Mystery Science

In fourth grade, students focus on the history and geography of their state, as well as the broader regions of the United States. They’ll learn about Native American history, early explorers, colonial America, and statehood, gaining a deeper understanding of how their state and country were shaped. The Studies Weekly curriculum also covers government and civic responsibility, teaching students about the structure of the government and important documents like the Constitution. Students will begin exploring economic principles and the role of different industries, both past and present, in shaping society.

Studies Weekly

Elementary students at Wayland Union Schools attend classes in Music, Physical Education, Media, and Art on a weekly basis.

Wayland Union Schools offers access to several different programs that can keep students learning at home. Please read below to learn about the various programs. Usage may vary from grade to grade so please be sure to look at the target audience and work with your child's teacher to maximize the benefit of each program.

Please contact your child's teacher or the Technology Helpdesk (helpdesk@waylandunion.org) for usernames and passwords for the various websites.

To learn about the different programs that students may utilize at home, click here.

The elementary curriculum at Wayland Union Schools is aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Math and Language Arts and Michigan Standards for Science and Social Studies. Though essential standards and general topics of study have been identified for each content area, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in all or most grade level standards in order to be promoted to the next grade level.