British Columbia · Grade 4 · 2026–27 · For parents

What your child learns in Grade 4 in British Columbia

In Grade 4, British Columbia students work through Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies — 86 specific skills across 18 units, set by the province's official curriculum. This page lists them all in plain words, subject by subject, so you know exactly what "how was school?" is actually covering this year.

4Subjects
18Units
86Skills
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Built from the official British Columbia curriculum · free to start · web, iPhone & Android

How to read this page

British Columbia publishes its curriculum as long official documents written for teachers. This page is the same content, translated for the fridge door: each subject below shows this year's units and the skills inside them. If a skill sounds unfamiliar, that's the point — now you know what to ask about at dinner.

Mathematics this year

Math builds in layers, and this year's layer matters — each unit below leans on the ones before it. In British Columbia, that's Mathematics 4 — 6 units, 18 skills.

Number

  • Understanding numbers to 10 000
  • What decimals to hundredths mean
  • Which fraction is bigger?

Computational Fluency

  • Adding and subtracting big numbers
  • Multiplying and dividing by a one-digit number
  • Adding and subtracting decimals
+ 2 more skills in this unit →

Patterns and Algebra

  • Reading patterns in tables and charts
  • Connecting two changing quantities
  • Finding the missing number

Measurement

  • Reading clocks both ways
  • Measuring around a shape

Geometry

  • Sorting regular and irregular polygons
  • Finding lines of symmetry

Data, Probability, and Financial Literacy

  • When one picture stands for more than one thing
  • Trying chance experiments and recording results
  • Making change and simple money decisions

See the full Mathematics 4 curriculum, with the ministry's own wording →

English Language Arts this year

Reading, writing, and speaking skills deepen this year — less "can they read it," more "what do they make of it." In British Columbia, that's English Language Arts 4 — 3 units, 47 skills.

Story and Text

  • Forms of text
  • Using text features
  • Theme
+ 10 more skills in this unit →

Strategies and Processes

  • Using contextual clues
  • Focusing on the speaker
  • Reflecting
+ 19 more skills in this unit →

Language Features, Structure, and Conventions

  • Tone
  • Topic sentence
  • Sentence structure
+ 9 more skills in this unit →

See the full English Language Arts 4 curriculum, with the ministry's own wording →

Science this year

Science gets more structured this year — real investigations, real explanations, real vocabulary. In British Columbia, that's Science 4 — 4 units, 11 skills.

Living Things

  • Sensing and responding in humans
  • Biomes as large regions with shared features
+ 2 more skills in this unit →

Matter

  • The phases of matter
  • How temperature changes particle movement

Energy

  • Energy has various forms
  • Devices that transform energy
+ 1 more skill in this unit →

Earth and Space

  • Local changes from Earth's axis, rotation, and orbit
  • Effects of sun, moon, and Earth positions

See the full Science 4 curriculum, with the ministry's own wording →

Social Studies this year

Social studies widens the lens this year — history, geography, and how communities and governments work. In British Columbia, that's Social Studies 4 — 5 units, 10 skills.

First Contact and the Fur Trade

  • Contact, trade, co-operation, and conflict
  • The fur trade in early Canada and BC

A Colony Takes Shape

  • How BC's population changed
  • Economic factors in BC's colonization
  • Political factors and BC's entry into Confederation

The Impact of Colonization

  • Broad impacts of colonization
  • Government laws and policies affecting First Peoples

Our Local Community

  • The history of our local community

Canada's Land and Resources

  • Canada's physiographic features
  • Canada's natural resources

See the full Social Studies 4 curriculum, with the ministry's own wording →

Grade 4 is an FSA year

BC students take the Foundation Skills Assessment in Grade 4 — a low-stakes check of literacy and numeracy against the curriculum below.

Three ways parents use this list

At report-card timeMatch the teacher's comments to the units above — "working on number sense" stops being a mystery phrase.
At parent-teacher nightPick one unit per subject and ask "how is my child doing with this?" — specific questions get specific answers.
When they're stuckFind the exact skill on this page, open it in MapleMind, and the tutor teaches just that — step by step, as many times as it takes.

Common questions

What does my child learn in Grade 4 in British Columbia?

British Columbia's official curriculum sets out Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies for Grade 4 — 86 specific skills in total. The big themes: Mathematics covers number and computational fluency; English Language Arts covers story and text and strategies and processes; Science covers living things and matter. The full list is on this page.

Is this the official British Columbia curriculum?

It's built from British Columbia's official program of studies, reorganized into plain language — and each subject links to a course page that quotes the ministry's own wording and links to the government source, so you can check our work. One honest caveat: we're not the ministry, curricula do change, and we can't guarantee this reflects the very latest revision, so confirm anything important against the live provincial curriculum data.

Does Grade 4 have a provincial test in British Columbia?

BC students take the Foundation Skills Assessment in Grade 4 — a low-stakes check of literacy and numeracy against the curriculum below.

My child is finding one of these skills hard. What can I do?

That's normal — every skill on this page is one most kids wobble on at first. MapleMind teaches any of them one-on-one: a short lesson in plain words, a worked example, then solving together. It's free to start, on any device, in 14 languages.

Keep exploring

All Grade 4 courses in British ColumbiaThe full curriculum, skill by skill Grade 1 in British ColumbiaParent guide Grade 2 in British ColumbiaParent guide Grade 3 in British ColumbiaParent guide Grade 5 in British ColumbiaParent guide Grade 6 in British ColumbiaParent guide Grade 7 in British ColumbiaParent guide All parent guidesFilter by province & grade

Knowing the list is half the job

The other half is the teaching — and that's what MapleMind does. Pick any skill on this page and see it taught properly, free, in under a minute.

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MapleMind isn't affiliated with any ministry of education. We build these guides from each province's official program of studies and refresh them from time to time — but curricula change, and we can't guarantee this page reflects the very latest revision. Always confirm against the live provincial curriculum data. Last updated 2026-08-15.