Webpage with Videos to Support all the Following Standards for Grade Four

Earth and Space Sciences

4 -ESS1 Earths Place in the Universe
4 -ESS1 1 What evidence of a changing earth can we find by looking carefully at patterns of rock
formation and the fossil record?
Construct a claim with evidence that changes to a landscape due to erosion and deposition over long
periods of time result in rock layers and landforms that can be interpreted today. Use evidence from a
given landscape that includes simple landforms and rock layers to support a claim about the role of
erosion or deposition in the formation of the landscape.
Understand that the Earths crust is made entirely of rock
Know that rocks are made of minerals
Achieve a basic understanding of the rock cycle and the different types of rocks in order to
apply this knowledge as evidence of a changing Earth. (Chapter 8 - Lesson 2 & 3)
Some examples of evidence may be:
Rock layers with shell fossils above rock layers with plant fossils without shell fossils
(indicating a change from deposition on land to deposition in water over time)
(Chapter 8 - Lesson 2)
Canyon with rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom (indicating that a river
eroded the rock over time)
(Chapter 9 - Lesson 1 & 2)

Activities to Support:
Solid as a Rock
Rocks & Soil Lesson Plan BBC
How the Earth Works by, Michelle OBrien (See AnnMarie if you need to view this book, everyone should
have a copy)
4- ESS2 Earths Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
4 ESS2 1 How do forces shape Earth? (Constructive/ Destructive)
Make observations and collect data to provide evidence that rocks, soils, and sediments are broken into
smaller pieces through mechanical (physical) weathering and moved around through erosion by water,
ice, wind, and vegetation.
Understand that water ice, wind, living organisms and gravity break rocks, soils, and
sediments into smaller particles (weathering) and move them around (erosion).
Look at examples of different landforms and how weathering shapes the land.
(Chapter 9 - Lesson 1 omit chemical weathering)
Acknowledge that mechanical weathering can include frost wedging, abrasion, and tree root
wedging.
Look at examples of how weathered materials move and what landforms may be constructed

or destructed. (Chapter 9 - Lesson 2)

Acknowledge that erosion can include movement by blowing wind, flowing water, and
moving ice.
Living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions (plants and animals affect
environments by reducing erosion and creating more fertile soil).
Activities to support:
Chalk Experiment (Textbook pg. 260)
4 ESS2 2 What patterns can we discover by looking at the location of mountain ranges, ocean
trenches, earthquakes, and volcanoes?
Analyze and interpret maps of Earths mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, and the placement of
volcanoes and earthquakes to describe patterns of these features and their locations relative to
boundaries between continents and oceans.
Acknowledge the existence of Plate tectonics and its cause and effect throughout Earths
history
Understand that mountain ranges, ocean trenches, ocean floor structures, earthquakes, and
volcanoes occur due to plate tectonic patterns
Observe that most earthquakes and volcanoes occur in bands that are often along
boundaries between continents and oceans
Use maps to help locate the different land and water features of Earth
Activities to support:
Use of Physical Maps
Pangaea Maps
How the Earth Works by, Michelle OBrien (See AnnMarie if you need to view this book, everyone should
have one)
4-ESS3 Earth and Human Activity
4 ESS3 2 What steps can humans take to reduce the impact of natural hazards?
Evaluate the design of a solution on its potential to reduce the impacts of an earthquake, flood, tsunami,
or volcanic eruption on humans.
A variety of hazards result from the Earths natural processes (Chapter 9 - Lesson 3)
Humans cannot eliminate the hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts such as
earthquake resistant buildings, improved monitoring of volcanic activity, and landscape practices
(such as mangroves, or more plant-life).
Activities to support:
How to Control the Effects of a Landslide
How to Control the Effects of a Tsunami
How the Earth Works by, Michelle OBrien (See AnnMarie if you need to view this book, everyone should
have one

Physical Science

4-PS3 Energy
4-PS3-1 How does energy move from place to place?
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
The faster a given object is moving the more energy it possesses.
Energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through heat, sound, light, or
electric currents.
4-PS3-2-3 When is energy present? What happens when objects collide? What evidence can we
gather to explain that energy is transferred?
Make observations to show that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and
electric currents. Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when
objects collide.
When is energy present?

light, or heat.

Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound,

What happens when objects collide?

When objects collide, energy can be transferred from one
object to another, thereby changing their motion.
What evidence can we gather to explain that energy is transferred?
Evidence: Light also transfers energy from place to place
Evidence: Energy can also be transferred from place to place
by electric currents, which can then be stored locally to produce motion, sound, heat,
or light.
4-PS3-4 How can we construct a device that exhibits the conversion of energy or the use stored
energy?
Apply scientific principles of energy and motion to test and refine a device that converts motion energy to
electrical energy or uses stored energy to cause motion or produce light or sound.
Activities to support:
MOS Solar Oven Unit
4-PS4 Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
4-PS4-1 How do waves move? How do waves differ?
Develop a model of a simples waves to communicate that waves: a. are regular patterns of motion along
which energy travels, and b. can differ in amplitude and wave length.
How do waves move?

 Waves, which are regular patterns of motion, can be made in

water by disturbing the surface.
When waves move across the surface of deep water, water
goes up and down in place; it does not move in the direction of the wave except
when water meets the beach.
How do waves differ?
Waves of the same type can differ in amplitude (the height of
the wave) and wavelength (spacing between wave peaks).
Activities to support:
MOS Sound Resources
Changing Sounds Lesson Plan BBC
4-PS4-2 Why is light necessary? How do animals respond to light?
Develop a model to describe that light must bounce off an object and enter the eye for the object to be
seen.

An object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eye
Pupil functions in relation to light

Activities to support:
Seeing is Believing
How We See Lesson Plan BBC
How We See Video Clip BBC
*Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include knowledge of specific colors reflected and seen,
cellular mechanisms of vision, or how the retina works.
4-PS4-3 How is technology used to transfer information?
Develop ways to transfer information through encoding, sending, receiving, and decoding a pattern.
Digitized information can be transmitted over long distances without significant degradation.
High tech devices such as, computers or cell phones can receive and decode informationconvert it from digitized form to voice- and vice versa.
Examples of solutions could include: drums sending coded information through sound
waves, using a grid of 1s and 0s representing black and white to send information about a picture,
and using morse code to send text.
Activities to support:
Sending Pictures with Waves
Pixel Coding Activity
*Animal sounds MOS resources show how animals communicate via sound waves

Life Science

4-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

4-LS1-1 What role do internal and external structures in animals play in behavior, growth, survival,
and reproduction?
Construct an argument that animals and plants have internal and external structures that support their
survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
External animal structures might include: legs, wings, feathers, trunks, claws, horns, and
antennae.
Internal animal structures might include organs such as: eyes, ears, nose, heart, stomach,
lung, brain, skin.
Plant structures might include: leaves, roots, stems, bark, branches, and flowers.
Activities to support:
How Animals Adapt book
Animal and Plant Adaptations project that requires students to research and argue how plant and animal
internal and external structures support their survival.
Owl Pellets
Plant Adaptations