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. 

This lesson outlines teacher-led discussion on the topic of migration as an adaptive behavior in response to changes in the animal's environment. Journaling questions are also provided to help build each student's individual understanding.

In this lesson, traditional stories of the Native peoples (i.e., narrative text) introduce students to the study of animals in Alaska (i.e., expository text). Students use the Internet to listen to a Yu'pik tale told by John Active, a Native American living in Alaska. They also use online resources to find facts about animals in Alaska. Students compare and contrast the two types of text in terms of fiction and nonfiction. The narrative stories provide students with a context to begin studying a content area topic; this lesson emphasizes the integration of curriculum.

In this lesson, students overcome their fears by using a traditional poem to teach students about alliteration. After reading the book, A My Name Is... by Alice Lyne, students use a variety of print and online resources to brainstorm their own alliterative word lists. They then create a poetry link that uses the traditional poem they have read together as a framework for their own poems.

In this lesson students will explore adaptations that animals have that help them survive in their environment. Students will build understanding by identifying adaptations as described in two folk tales and sorting descriptions of adaptations into categories of their choice. They will then compare and contrast the snowshoe hare and the cottontail rabbit. Students will work in groups to research and organize information they gather about the two animals, summarizing their research in their science journals. In an associated activity, "Camouflage: An Adaptation of Survival," students simulate the use of camouflage as a survival adaptation.

n this lesson, students explore a historic event in depth by reading fiction and nonfiction literature. Then, to enhance and extend the reading experience, students participate in website exploration and virtual field trips. Throughout the process, students gather facts and relevant information, which they later organize and present to the class. This lesson is easily adaptable to accommodate a wide range of historic events, instructional objectives, and grade levels.

In this lesson students will describe how weathering and erosion change Earth's surface after observing the effects of erosion from wind and water on three types of ground: bare ground, ground with sparse vegetation, and ground covered with vegetation. Students will record their observations in their science journals and then participate in a discussion about the results of the activity. They will be assessed by a final written summary of the activity where they will cite the reasons they think understanding soil erosion is important. Note: Teachers will need to build the Erosion Chamber mentioned in the lesson ahead of time; directions for building are included.

In celebration of Earth Day, students research famous environmentalists and write letters to them asking for their opinions on current issues and turn their letters into a poem.

In this lesson, students will review story components using the original Cinderella story. They will then compare and contrast Cinderella tales from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

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.

Students will read through a nonfiction text picking out key ideas and details. Students will create their own note taking sheet using boxes and bullets based on teacher modeling. This lesson was developed by Sara Kull 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.

This lesson will continue to support students' investigation of the world by identifying word connections from the unit's vocabulary in their graphic organizer (lesson 1). They will work collaboratively in teams to classify the words by the subtopics: cause, effect, challenges, emotions and hopes. 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 introduces Fluency Folders which are used as a daily beginning activity. They include the unit's vocabulary (taken from Lesson 1 activity) categorized by parts of speech and writing log. This establishes a daily routine in order for students to build their self-efficacy by practicing and tracking their time to read the vocabulary fluency list and using the vocabulary to write sentences. This routine also allows for grammar mini-lessons with word work when needed. This daily activity supports language development with classroom anchor charts that identify and define needed unit vocabulary, cognates and sentence types with samples. This unit is a foundational piece intended to be used as a beginning activity for most of the lessons in this unit. 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.

This lesson will involve students in the process of identifying and labeling geography on a "blank" classroom World Map. The students will hear about historical and current immigration with pictorial representation and words to support students' understanding. Using these visuals, students have a deeper understanding of immigration around the world and are able to make inferences about cause and effect, feelings, time (era), and location. 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.

Students learn to use the QuIP (questions into paragraphs) comprehension strategy to organize information and then synthesize it in writing.

In this lesson, students use balloons, plastic bags, and glass and metal rods to investigate static electricity and then write complete a series of writing assignments to describe what they have learned.

Students will read directions and write a U.S. president. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read directions and write a poem about America. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Students will read directions and write a poem about an ocean. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.