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What Grade 4 covers in British Columbia — and how to practise it at home

Grade 4 is the year numbers get big, fractions get real, and writing gets structured. Here is the year as BC schools actually teach it — unit by unit, in order — so you can see what your child is working on right now, and what's coming next.

7 unitsMath
4 unitsScience
5 unitsSocial Studies
43 weeksEnglish & French

Math — BC's curriculum, in teaching order

British Columbia math runs as a sequence: each unit builds on the one before it. The week ranges below follow the school year from September; teachers vary pacing.

1

Numbers to 10 000

Weeks 1–6 · September–October

Number concepts and place value to 10 000, multiples, flexible counting, and comparing, ordering, and estimating large quantities.

2

Addition and Subtraction to 10 000

Weeks 7–12 · October–November

Adding and subtracting to 10 000 with flexible decomposing, regrouping, and compensating, and estimating sums and differences.

3

Multiplication and Division

Weeks 13–19 · November–January

Multiplying and dividing two- or three-digit numbers by one-digit numbers using flexible strategies, with introductory multiplication and division facts to 100.

4

Fractions and Decimals

Weeks 20–26 · January–February

Comparing and ordering fractions with common denominators using benchmarks, decimals to hundredths, the relationship between fractions and decimals, and adding and subtracting decimals to hundredths.

Worth watching: this is Grade 4's big conceptual jump. If "is ⅓ bigger than ¼?" gets a guess instead of a reason, it's the unit to practise most.

5

Patterns, Equations and Time

Weeks 27–32 · March–April

Increasing and decreasing patterns using tables and charts, algebraic relationships, one-step equations with an unknown for all operations, and telling time on 12- and 24-hour clocks.

6

Polygons, Perimeter and Symmetry

Weeks 33–38 · April–May

Describing and sorting regular and irregular polygons, finding the perimeter of regular and irregular shapes, and line symmetry.

7

Data and Money

Weeks 39–43 · May–June

One-to-one and many-to-one bar graphs and pictographs, probability experiments with single outcomes, and monetary calculations including making change with amounts to $100.

Try one — a real Grade 4 question

Math · Multiplication & Division

267 students are going on a school trip. Each bus holds 40 students. How many buses does the school need?

A typical first answer
6 remainder 27
Homework Hub's feedback
Your division is right — 267 ÷ 40 is 6 with 27 left over. But read the question again: those 27 students still need a ride! When a remainder is real people, you have to round up.
Next try
7 buses
Exactly — 6 full buses, plus one more for the remaining 27 students. That's what "interpreting remainders" means. 🚌

Science across the year

1

Sensing, Responding, and Biomes

Weeks 1–11 · September–November

How humans, other animals, and plants sense and respond to their environment, and biomes as large regions grouped by similar temperature and precipitation.

2

Phases of Matter

Weeks 12–22 · November–January

The phases of matter and the effect of temperature on particle movement, including the reversible phase changes caused by heating and cooling.

3

Energy and Its Transformation

Weeks 23–32 · February–April

The various forms of energy, the law of conservation of energy, and devices that transform energy from one form into another.

4

Motions of Earth and the Moon

Weeks 33–43 · April–June

Local changes caused by Earth's axis, rotation, and orbit, and the effects of the relative positions of the sun, moon, and Earth such as moon phases, tides, and eclipses.

Science · Light & Sound

The Moon doesn't make its own light. So why can we see it shining at night?

A typical first answer
Because it glows in the dark.
Homework Hub's feedback
Good thinking about light — but the Moon can't make or store light of its own. There's a very bright object that shines ON the Moon. What is it, and what does the Moon do with that light?
Next try
The Sun shines on it and the light reflects off to us.
Exactly — the Moon works like a giant mirror, reflecting sunlight back to Earth. That's reflection. 🌙

Social Studies

1

Early Contact Between First Peoples and Europeans

Weeks 1–9 · September–October

Early contact between First Peoples and Europeans in what became British Columbia and Canada — trade, exchange, cooperation, and the early explorers — told respectfully and including First Peoples' perspectives; where there was tension, keep it general and understanding-focused, not detailed or one-sided.

2

The Fur Trade in Pre-Confederation Canada and BC

Weeks 10–18 · November–December

The fur trade in early Canada and British Columbia — how it worked, the trading companies and explorers, and the important role of First Peoples as partners and experts in the trade; told respectfully and centring First Peoples' perspectives and contributions.

3

Colonization of BC and Entry into Confederation

Weeks 19–27 · January–March

How British Columbia was settled and joined Confederation — migration, the gold rush, and the Canadian Pacific Railway; include honestly that colonization brought major changes for First Peoples (such as newcomers arriving on their lands), at a general, age-appropriate level and from their perspectives, without distressing detail.

4

Impact of Colonization and Local History

Weeks 28–35 · March–April

The strength, cultures, and enduring presence of First Peoples in British Columbia, and an age-appropriate understanding that colonization brought serious and unfair changes to their communities — including loss of land and disruption to their ways of life — whose effects still matter today; told with respect and from First Peoples' own perspectives, focused on understanding and resilience rather than the details of what was done. Do not quiz specific policies, institutions, or numbers.

5

Physiographic Features and Natural Resources of Canada

Weeks 36–43 · May–June

The physiographic features and natural resources of Canada, describing any map, region, or landform fully in words.

English & French — skills that build weekly, not units

How language works in Grade 4

Unlike math and science, the language curriculum isn't taught as a sequence of units — it's a set of skills that deepen all year: reading comprehension and inference, writing structure and conventions, vocabulary, and oral communication. French works the same way. Homework Hub practises these as grade-matched weekly skills — a reading passage with real comprehension questions, a sentence to fix, a short prompt to write to — rather than pretending there's a unit list.

Practice that follows this exact sequence

Homework Hub generates fresh questions matched to these very units — in season, at your child's level, marked with hints that teach. You set the days; it does the rest.

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This page is generated from the same curriculum map that powers Homework Hub's practice questions (BC's curriculum and current science and social studies expectations, described in our own words). School boards and teachers vary pacing — week ranges are a typical rhythm, not a rule.