This article describes the features, adaptation, nutrition, hybernation habits of one of the most typical German animals: the hedgehog. It also explains how to take care for hedgehogs that would not survive the winter and how to provide natural winter shelter for wild hedgehogs.The text is written for natural speakers age 8 and up.

This scientific article provides anatomical features and the adaptive advantages of those features of owls and giraffes. The text is written for native speakers 9 years and up.

This scientific article iluminates with three different examples, how animals produce venom and for which reason: poison dart frogs absorbs it by feeding on venomous plants; spitting cobras produce their own venom within the system; puffer fishes probably eat bacteria that produce the venom. The text is written for native speakers 9 years and up.

This resource contains a vocabulary map that can be used to help students understand new vocabulary by thinking about the meaning of words in various ways.

This informational text discusses the unique property of ice - that it floats in liquid water. Students learn why this occurs and how ice is necessary for life in the polar regions. The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

This informational text introduces students to Mt. Erebus, a volcano located on Ross Island, just off the coast of Antarctica. Mt. Erebus is the world's southernmost active volcano. Students in grades 4-5 read about Dr. Philip Kyle, a scientist with the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO). The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

This informational text explores how glaciers form, have eroded and shaped Earth's landscape. It is at a reading level appropriate for fourth through fifth grades. It is a full-color pdf file that can be printed, cut, and folded to form a 2 1/8" by 2 3/4" book. It contains color photographs and illustrations.

It is important that students learn how to search safely online. Students will get an introduction to safe search engines, including MeL (Michigan e-Library.org), to find ways to search safely for information. Students will also review how using key effective keywords will give them better results.

Students will read a passage and examples, and then write to answer questions and apply a strategy based on the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a passage and use context clues to determine the meanings of words. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read a passage and use context clues to determine the meaning of vocabulary in the passage. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

This informational text explores Laura Gladstone's experience working at the IceCube telescope at the South Pole. She shares the clothing worn, food, what she did for fun, and how life there differs from what most of us know, including what one does NOT hear or see. The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

Students will research lighthouses of North Carolina using print and digital resources and create a digital presentation on the NC lighthouse of their choice. After studying basic electric circuits, students will use cardboard and Makedo tools to design and build a model of this lighthouse and wire it to light using a kit of electronic supplies. Students will showcase their final products with friends and family using digital photography, Google Presentations and a screencast video on Flipgrid or another platform of the teacher’s choosing. Students will submit a Seesaw documenting their experience with the Design and Engineering Process while building their lighthouse.

In this lesson using Ben’s Dream, a picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, students highlight ten major landmarks of the world: the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, the Sphinx, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Rushmore. After reading and discussing Ben’s Dream, students identify the landmarks shown in the book and examine photographs of them. Working in small groups, students select one landmark to research. Using their research skills, students locate these famous landmarks, conduct further research on them, publish their findings using an online tool, and share that information with the class.

 This is a multi-day culminating activity based on Wonders Unit 4 weeks 3-4.  Students will use the Wonders materials provided in the Reading/Writing companion, as well as their Literature Anthology to identify and describe the moon phases. Partners will get a moon phase card.  They will work together to program the robot to reach the appropriate moon phase to match the card on the map.  For an optional extension activity, students can create an audio recording to describe the moon phase that they were assigned.  Encourage students to utilize text for support of identification and description of moon phases.

This is a multi-day culminating activity based on unit 3 of the 4th grade Wonders curriculum. Students will work in groups to research a given landmark in Beaufort County, NC. After researching the landmark, they will record their data in the Google Slides presentation attached in the lesson for each landmark. After recording their research, students will use the DASH Robots to move throughout the Beaufort County, NC map, stopping at their destination. Groups will then use the DASH Robots to record audio of themselves describing the landmark. A rubric accompanies this activity so teachers have guidelines on how to assess student work.

Students differentiate between observations and hypotheses after reading an article about pterosaurs. They then consider how challenging and further testing hypotheses is part of the nature of science.

Students will work or in learning teams to design and build a cardboard ship bow using Makedo tools to transform their desk or a copy paper box into a pirate ship for the classroom museum. Students will research historic North Carolina pirates including Blackbeard using multiple print and digital texts to prepare a written entry for their exhibit.Family and other classes will be invited to view the museum.  Students will share their experience with the Design and Engineering Process through class discussion and by publishing a digital record of the DEP on Seesaw.

This informational text introduces students to the discipline of geology, and specifically polar geology. Students meet Julie Codispoti, assistant curator of the U.S. Polar Rock Repository, and learn how she overcame an initial dislike of science to become a geologist. Students also learn that rocks, like books, can teach us about the world long ago. The text is written at a grade four through grade five reading level. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations.

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.