English in Fourth Grade: What Children Learn and How to Help at Home
Fourth grade is the year English is a required subject in Israeli schools. Children usually learn to read short words and sentences, build a basic vocabulary, meet am, is and are, and ask simple questions. A child who starts behind classmates who began earlier can close the gap by starting from letter sounds and practicing a little every day.
By TutorNest · Updated 5 October 2026
What do children learn in English in fourth grade?
English is a required subject in Israel from fourth grade. Many schools begin in third grade or earlier, so one classroom can hold children who already read next to children who are just meeting the letters. What is actually taught varies by school.
In most schools the year is about four things: reading short words and sentences, basic vocabulary, sentences with am, is and are, and simple questions and answers. Alongside these come writing words and short sentences, and a lot of listening and speaking.
What does that look like, and how can we help at home?
Skill
What it looks like
How to help at home
Reading
Reads short words and a simple sentence such as The cat is big
Two or three sentences a day out loud, with a finger
Vocabulary
Knows words for family, school, food, clothes and the body
Five to eight words a week, on cards with a picture
A teacher every week, practice every day
TutorNest joins a weekly one-to-one English lesson to about ten minutes of practice at home each day.
Sentences about the family: Dad is tall, we are at home
Simple questions
Understands and answers what, where, who and is it
One question in English at dinner, and a short answer
Writing
Copies and writes familiar words and a short sentence
One sentence a day in a notebook about something from today
Why are am, is and are hard for Hebrew-speaking children?
In Hebrew you say the equivalent of I tired, with no verb. English needs the verb: I am tired. So Hebrew-speaking children drop it and say I tired or he happy. This is not carelessness. It is a natural carry-over from Hebrew, and it is very common.
What helps is hearing and saying the pair as one unit: I am, you are, he is, she is, we are, they are. Ten short spoken sentences about the family do more than a fill-in-the-blank worksheet, because the pair has to sound right to the ear.
What if our child starts the year behind classmates who learned earlier?
This is a common situation, and it says nothing about your child's ability. Classmates who learned in third grade or in an after-school class simply started sooner. The gap is one of learning time, and it can be closed.
The common mistake is trying to keep up with the class material, for example memorizing the words for the spelling test. A child who does not yet know the letter sounds memorizes shapes without understanding, and the gap only grows. Go back to the foundations, even if the class has moved on.
Check what your child already knows: which letters they recognize, and which sounds.
Fill in the letter sounds, a few letters a week, with daily review.
Move on to reading short three-letter words, sound by sound.
Add the common words that do not follow the sounds, such as the, is and you, a few each week.
Only then return to the class material. By this point it will make far more sense.
Tell the school teacher, too, that your child is starting from zero. Many teachers adjust their expectations in the first months when they know, and that takes pressure off the child.
Each day, pick one object at home and say three sentences about it with is: The door is brown. The door is big. The door is open. After a week, move on to are with two objects. The verb settles into the ear without a grammar lesson.
How much home practice does a fourth grader need?
Ten to fifteen minutes a day is enough for most fourth graders. Regularity matters more than length: a short daily practice keeps words and sounds fresh, while a long weekly one starts almost from scratch each time.
A child closing a gap needs the same minutes, not more. Long, tiring practice after a school day builds resistance. It is better to end on a small success and come back tomorrow.
How do we know our child is making progress?
Reads new short words alone, without guessing from the first letter.
Reads a short sentence and understands what it said.
Uses am, is and are in most sentences.
Is willing to try answering in English, even when wrong.
How does TutorNest handle this?
TutorNest is matched to level and not to school grade, so a fourth grader starting from zero begins with letters and sounds. A short check at the start sets where practice opens, and it then moves forward in each skill separately. There is one weekly 45-minute one-to-one lesson with the same teacher, who also speaks Hebrew, and about ten minutes of daily practice in an app. Parents see how each skill is going and the teacher's note after every lesson.
Questions parents ask
My child did not learn English in third grade. Can they catch up?+
Usually yes. The first year's material is limited, and a fourth grader takes it in faster than a younger child. What it takes is starting from the foundations and a short daily practice.
How do we prepare for an English spelling test?+
Practice a little each day rather than everything the night before. Your child says the word, breaks it into sounds, writes it and checks it alone. Words that are not spelled the way they sound are learned separately, two or three at a time.
My child reads but does not understand what they read. What should we do?+
This happens when all the effort goes into decoding. Read the same sentence twice, once to decode and once to understand, and ask a simple question about it. Building vocabulary helps as well.
Should we translate every word into Hebrew?+
Translation helps when a new word is not clear from a picture or from context. There is no need to translate every sentence. The aim is for your child to understand the English directly, and that comes gradually.