For this lesson, the students will work in small collaborative groups investigating a polar bear. Students will describe the habitat of a polar bear and determine what characteristics it possesses to live within that ecosystem. They will also determine if the ecosystem the animal lives in becomes compromised or changed, will that animal still have a chance of survival. They will discuss and decipher the information in order to generate opinions. Students will present their ideas to the class to create a boxes and bullets graphic organizer. This lesson was developed by Lindsey Chavis-Turner as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Review with students how they have been learning about how all living organisms have basic needs. Ecosystems are made up of interactions of organisms with their living and non-living environment. Organisms and their environments are interconnected and therefore rely on one another for survival. If one part of the environment changes, the interconnectedness will change and cause a chain reaction. Using this information, students will create a Google Slides presentation using the research from their collaboration with ELA class. This lesson was developed by Lindsey Chavis-Turner as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

After this lesson students will be able to combine word choice and procedural writing; thus enhancing their overall writing skills.

Students will create posters based upon graded readers and present the posters to classmates. The lesson provides a template for the posters, instructions for presentations, and tips on student notetaking. This resource supports English language development for English Language Learners.

This imaginative activity will teach your students ways to use the modal verbs of ability and possibility to talk about places and situations. For this activity, students work in pairs. Each pair is handed a place or situation to describe. The pairs create five sentences by using the modal verbs of ability and possibility to depict the place/situation on their card. Once all the students have completed their sentences, pairs present their sentences to the class. The other students in the class try to guess the places or situations described.

Fourth grade task cards for all seven MITECS and ISTE Standards for Students

Students Share Their Reading Through A Short Movie! Integrates plot structure, main ideas and summarizing.
Much better than a written report!

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade English Language Arts.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade English Language Arts. 

In this lesson, students will develop a deeper understanding of chemical and physical changes as they participate in an activity to see the effect salt has on the body, participate in discussions about making healthy choices about salt and then research/share findings about reasons (pro and con) for reducing salt intake. Extension activities included.

Last year the Siuslaw 97J School District changed our food service operation from a national supplier (Chartwell’s) to in-house food service. Our Food Service Manager instituted an organic philosophy and wanted to source local produce. Utilizing our school garden program we now help supply fresh produce for our Siuslaw Elementary School cafeteria. Crop production is stronger in the 4/5 wing because of wind protection from the building. Florence experiences high winds and we are located close to the beach so we have constant sand blowing into our crops. The K-3 garden beds do not have the same protection as the 4/5 beds, and as a result have a lower yield. Our goal is to have students design and engineer wind barriers for these beds and then present the best solutions to our school board so that we can get funding to implement our ideas. This project can be used in any school with a garden by using preexisting barriers on a the school property. The unique environment of the school would dictate the lessons required to be adapted to fit the environmental needs of the community. If the school is lacking a garden, the students can focus on an at home garden project.

Help students explore an important moment of environmental activism in North Carolina with Save Our Sand Dunes by Hannah Bunn West and with Ann-Cabell Baum. This complementary learning guide to the book is designed to help educators guide young readers in discovering how Carolista Baum rallied a community and advocated for local and state leaders to preserve Jockey's Ridge.

This guessing game teaches students how to use modal verbs of possibility and certainty in an authentic situation. The teacher places some everyday objects behind a screen at the front of the class. The class members are then separated into two teams. One volunteer operates one of the objects behind the screen. The teams take it in turns to guess what they think the object could be. Each time a team makes a guess, they use a modal verb of possibility by saying "It could/may/might be a ..." If a team is very certain what the object is, the team uses a modal verb of certainty by saying "It must be a ..." Teams have points added and subtracted for right and wrong answers.