Curriculum
GRADES 4–6 CURRICULUM
By the end of Grade 3, our students are well on their way to developing their literacy and numeracy skills in both English and Mandarin. Now it is time to hone these skills even further in Grades 4-6.
In addition, we help our students explore their place in the world through our science and social studies programs. We encourage students to understand other cultures and their traditions, with the ultimate goal of preparing them to become good global citizens.
Once again, our students spend half of their day in an English-speaking environment and the other half in a fully-immersive Mandarin environment. Phys ed, art and music are incorporated throughout both language programs on a weekly basis.
Our rigorous curriculum promotes interaction between children that builds cooperation, collaboration and leadership skills. We have small class sizes that allow our caring staff to deliver personalized attention that will enable our students to learn and excel.
Students will need to speak Mandarin to enter The Dalton School at this time.
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Over the course of their Grades 4-6 education, our students will learn all about writing genres and how to write persuasive reports, poetry, pamphlets, news articles and stories. We will help them improve their punctuation and grammar and teach them how to debate. Students will expand their knowledge of reading genres, engage in novel study, begin to write essays, work through the SRA reading labs and sharpen their presentation skills.
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Our Grades 4-6 Mandarin literacy program picks-up where our Grades 1-3 program left off. Our students learn common idioms, complex characters and fluid stroke order. We focus on reading comprehension — short stories, articles, literal, inferential and figurative. We teach our students descriptive words usage, proper sentence structure and help them become fluent in multiple sentence conversations.
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Mathematics is taught in both languages at The Dalton School. Our enriched, accelerated math program teaches advanced number sense, patterning and ensures students develop a solid understanding of the four operations in the abstract. As well, students will learn about the metric system, data management, rate and ratio, fractions, percentages, perimeter/area, and be introduced to algebra.
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Social studies and science are taught in both languages. Our students take an in-depth look at Canada and its provinces. They explore Ancient Rome and Medieval Times and learn about rocks and minerals, energy, physical and chemical changes, habitats, gears and pulleys, the human body, environmental issues, the diversity of living things and flight and motion. Our students develop a sense of scientific inquiry and an understanding of the scientific method – and they learn the role humans play in our ecosystem.
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Technology is incorporated into all areas of our curriculum. Grade 4-6 students develop proper keyboarding skills and learn about shortcut commands. They are taught how to create charts and tables and how to insert pictures into documents. They learn about internet safety and how to use online resources for learning and research purposes. As well, they use a number of online learning programs in both languages.
