This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 4th grade ELA content. Within the folder you will access Parent Guide PDFs in FIVE Languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Vietnamese to help on-going communication with caregivers. 

In this lesson, collaborative groups will read a variety of American tall tales, then report elements of their story to the whole class. Students add story information to a collaborative, whole-class character study matrix that summarizes all the stories. In a writing activity, students compare two characters of their choice. The lesson process is applicable to any set of related texts.

In this lesson, students will learn about accessibility and the value of empathy through brainstorming and designing accessible solutions for hypothetical apps.

Students will focus on the characters in stories; choose precise words and reasoning to describe characters and how their actions contribute to the story.

In this lesson, students will see how artistic materials can extend knowledge. This lesson provides opportunities for students to explore and experience the meaning potential of everyday writing and drawing tools in their own writing. The lesson can adapted for older students.

In this lesson, students begin by working in small groups to analyze differences and similarities among a selection of comics from a variety of subgenres. Based on their discussion, they determine what subgenres are represented and divide the comics accordingly. Students then analyze the professional comics' uses of conventions such as layout and page design. Finally, they create their own comics using an online tool.

In this lesson, students participate in read-alouds and discussions about memories and family. After this exploration, students brainstorm questions to ask family members in order to learn more about important and/or memorable family events. Once students determine a list of questions, they interview family members, taking notes on the events and giving each a positive or negative rating. Using their interview notes, students create a graphic family timeline which includes illustrations or photographs.

Higher-level students will answer questions on a cube to show that they understand how people adapt to, change, and protect the environment to meet their needs. Students should be allowed to view the cube and research any unknown information before “cubing” with a group of higher-level students. Students will then have a high level discussion together. Each student will take turns rolling the cube and answering the question that comes up. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson students explore expository texts about natural disasters that focus on cause-and-effect relationships. As a class students record their understandings in a graphic organizer. Students then work in small groups and write paragraphs outlining the cause-and-effect relationships they have found.

Students will identify why and how Feynman started to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. Students will both learn how memoirs can be as deeply revealing as fiction and how to unpack the meaning of a first person narrative.

In this lesson, students will investigate the term commodity and its relationship to agriculture. From previous work, students know that agriculture includes food, fiber, natural resources and that farmers produce different items. Students have learned that depending on where people live, there are different crops and foods consumed. Note: This lesson was created in accordance with the VIF Global Competence Indicators for Grade 4. For more information about VIF and these indicators, please visit https://www.vifprogram.com/. This lesson was developed by Brenda Todd 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.

In this lesson, students research agricultural career choices. Note: This lesson was created in accordance with the VIF Global Competence Indicators for Grade 4. For more information about VIF and these indicators, please visit https://www.vifprogram.com/. This lesson was developed by Brenda Todd 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.

In this lesson, students will continue to investigate the term commodity and its relationship to agriculture. Students will also review how agriculture is different and the same in other areas of the world, and discover, through their investigations, the importance of international agriculture. Note: This lesson was created in accordance with the VIF Global Competence Indicators for Grade 4. For more information about VIF and these indicators, please visit https://www.vifprogram.com/. This lesson was developed by Brenda Todd 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.

In this lesson students review the concept of the 4 R's and what they have done, and can do, to make the world a more beautiful place. Students will explore how nature sets a good recycling example by analyzing earthworms. As a culminating project, students will make a mini-compost bin to take home. A unit post-assessment is conducted using the pie graph or anchor charts from the first lesson in the unit. This lesson was developed by Lee Ann Smith 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.

This lesson introduces students to ideas on how they can make the world a more beautiful place. Students will discuss trash vs. recycling, decomposition rates of various items, and how to refuse and choose alternatives to single-use items. This lesson was developed by Lee Ann Smith 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.

In this lesson, students will learn about immigration to the United States using primary sources: children's autobiographical stories and videos. In teams, students will practice their conversation and problem solving skills by reading the texts by determining the most important details for the five identified subtopics of the unit: causes, effects, challenges, emotions, and hopes. Students will document their findings in visual representations of each immigrant child. This is a 1 hour per day/4 day lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.

Lesson 8 gives students the opportunity to express themselves after reading the fiction text, The Hundred Dresses, in lesson 7. If students were not able to read the story, they can still contribute their thoughts on the issue of childhood immigration and the impact it has in their school and community. They will discuss their opinions about what needs to improve and what they can do to improve or change the conditions. Students have had exposure to a wide variety of perspectives on the life of immigrants. They now have an awareness and have begun to develop strong opinions and feelings on the subject. With the creation of an immigration awareness brochure to share with classmates and/or their families, students become change agents in their part of the world and their school." This is a 1 hour lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.

Today students will observe, analyze and interpret immigration data. This is a 1 hour per day/2 day lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.

This lesson explores the impacts of immigration on children using a complex fiction text, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Although this book is not an open resource, this lesson was included because after reading the book, students have an even deeper understanding of the immigration and the effects and challenges that it can have on a person, especially a young child. This is a 1 hour per day/5 day lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.

This is the unit launch that introduces students to the context of Immigration in the United States and throughout the world using a variety of videos. These videos provide background knowledge with pictures, stories and language that engage students to think independently as they begin to "take notes" on the topic using a graphic organizer. The lesson will encourage students' development of basic skills and habits as an English Language Learner, such as active listening, effective speaking and concise writing. This is a 1 hour per day/2 day lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.