Unit Plan 1 (Grade 4 Math): Building Our Math Community & Problem-Solving Norms
Build math community and place-value fluency in Grade 4 as students compare numbers, practice estimation, use notebooks, and analyze errors to strengthen problem-solving norms.
Focus: Establish discourse routines, math notebooks, error analysis, and estimation with rich whole-number tasks (comparison and place-value games).
Grade Level: 4
Subject Area: Mathematics (Community Launch • Place Value & Problem Solving)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
This launch week builds a shared culture for productive struggle and mathematical talk while revisiting whole-number place value and comparisons. Students set up notebooks, practice partner and group norms, and use estimation and place-value reasoning to make and defend decisions.
Essential Questions
- How do collaborative norms help us solve problems more effectively?
- When is estimation better than exact calculation?
- How does understanding place value help us compare, compose, and explain large numbers?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Establish discussion norms (listening, turn-taking, using sentence stems) and organize math notebooks for clear work.
- Use place-value reasoning to compose/decompose multi-digit numbers and to compare with symbols and language.
- Choose and justify estimation or exact computation in everyday contexts.
- Represent thinking with models (place-value charts, base-ten sketches, number lines) and explain choices.
- Engage in error analysis and revise solutions based on peer feedback.
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 4 (spiral across the unit)
- 4.NBT: Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers; read, write, compare (light intro to 4.NBT.1–2).
- 4.OA: Interpret multiplicative comparisons and represent situations with equations (light spiral to 4.OA.1 via contexts).
- Mathematical Practices (MP.1–MP.8) threaded throughout.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can explain our discussion norms and use them during problem solving.
- I can compare multi-digit numbers using place-value reasoning and correct symbols.
- I can decide when to estimate and when to compute exactly—and explain why.
- I can show my strategy clearly in my notebook and revise after feedback.