The Grammar School mathematics program develops mathematical thinkers who value collaboration and communication when investigating big ideas, identifying patterns and explaining relationships. Students learn to think flexibly and persevere through productive struggles as they develop the growth mindset needed for problem solving. Concepts and skills build from grade to grade in each of the major domains: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations in base ten, numbers and operations with fractions, measurement and data, and geometry. Students are given ample opportunity to construct their own understanding of foundational concepts and computation strategies through hands-on experiences and rich opportunities for discourse, as well as the use of concrete materials, pictorial models and contextual problem solving. Our teachers and math specialists promote the type of learning environment that encourages risk-taking and celebrates mistakes as students revise and develop their thinking.
Fourth grade mathematicians eagerly tackle challenges and a variety of rich tasks that allow them to practice applying all that they know about the four operations with multi-digit numbers. They continue to use properties of operations as well as special relationships between numbers to find slick and sophisticated strategies for mental computation. Students enrich their understanding of a base ten number system by applying place value concepts to strategies for multi-digit multiplication and division and build a conceptual understanding that ultimately connects to a procedural understanding. Throughout the year, problem-solving strategies and creative thinking are indispensable partners as students engage in collaborative tasks rich with opportunities for discourse and critical thinking. A comprehensive unit on fractions and an introduction to decimals covers equivalent fractions, using multiplicative reasoning to find common denominators as well as exploring the connections between fractions and division. Algebraic reasoning is an overarching theme throughout as students work to identify patterns in number sequences, build proportional reasoning through ratio tables and use equations to represent contexts and diagrams.