Education Tips for Parents of Fourth Grade Students

Fourth Grade Education Tips for Parents

Know the New Objectives

In fourth grade your child will be expected to learn a variety of new skills, including how to solve mathematical word problems using the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You can find specific information what your child will learn in fourth grade by asking the teacher or doing a search for fourth grade curriculum objectives on the Internet. Being aware of the new skills your child will be required to attain will prepare you to assist her if she encounters any difficulties with her work.

Review Third Grade Material

Fourth grade students build on the information they've learned in their previous grades. Therefore, reviewing the lessons and skills your child learned in third grade will get him ready to tackle fourth grade work. You can make the review fun by incorporating games and technology.

You'll find that the Internet is a good place to look for finding fun, educational activities. It helps to first determine what subject areas you want to address. In language arts, for example, you may want to look for worksheets and other exercises that cover finding the main idea of a story, comparing and contrasting themes, summarizing plots and determining word meanings.

Ask Questions and Discuss

As they get older, students will have to demonstrate greater comprehension of what they've been taught and what they've read. You can assist your fourth grader with this by consistently asking questions. It is also beneficial to have conversations with your child about her work, because students will likely be required to participate in meaningful discussions at school.

These discussions may be led by the teacher, held in groups or take the form of one-on-one conversations. During discussions, students will need to be able to paraphrase or summarize information, identify key elements of an assignment and answer comprehensive questions.

Assign Reports and Projects

After you've gotten familiar with the type of work your child is doing in his fourth grade classroom, you can create reports and projects for him to complete at home. The more practice your child gets at home, the more successful he will be in school. Assigning this extra work at home will also give your fourth grader more experience doing research and using technology.