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 unit includes a combination of fourth grade writing and social studies standards. It focuses on research and public discourse.

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, 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.

Higher-level students will work to solve analogies that relate to how location impacts supply and demand. They will also write their own analogies, and then they will write 3 ways that location affects supply and demand. 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.

After reading several stories by Sandra Markle, and researching a landform of choice, students will make a list of adaptations that an animal living in that environment would need such as, fur, wings, claws, sharp teeth etc. Then using recycled materials such as paper rolls and craft materials such as wiggly eyes and pom poms, create a new animal.

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.

This lesson will teach how characters evolve across a story, and that often times the important changes are subtle. This lesson uses accountable-talk during a read aloud of One Green Apple by Eve Bunting to demonstrate how, as readers, students can use the traits of their character as a lens through which to interpret deeper, more significant changes stirring within. They will ultimately use those observations about their characters to author an epilogue for their books. The epilogue will allow students to demonstrate what they have learned about their main character, and it will allow the teacher to assess how well the students understand their characters and the changes their characters experienced across the text.

In this lesson, students will research a specific chromebook troubleshooting technique, write a short script, and perform a skit in person or via flip grid to share with the class.

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.

Write an introduction that explains why they are famous and some interesting information about them.

In this lesson, students will explore the creation of repetitive designs using variables in the Artist environment. Students will learn how variables can be used to make code easier to write and easier to read, even when the values don't change at runtime.

In this online activity, students will have the opportunity to push their understanding of loops to a whole new level. Playing with the Bee and Plants vs Zombies, students will learn how to program a loop to be inside of another loop. They will also be encouraged to figure out how little changes in either loop will affect their program when they click `Run`.

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.

Higher-level students will be divided into 7 groups so that they may collaborate with their peers to complete projects regarding how their school can contribute positively to the environment using 7 of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Musical, Naturalist, Spatial, and Logical-Mathematical).  If your students have never taken an inventory to know their M.I. strengths, allow them to go take the assessment and print off their M.I. strengths for use in this lesson as well as others. 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 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.

Higher-level students will collaboratively construct a classroom newspaper, “Diversity Matters” or “Diverse Times” etc.  Students will learn about different cultures within their community and region via the internet, videos, books, and local newspaper articles about local and regional cultural festivals.  Then students will compare and contrast the cultures (traditions, celebrations, dress, food, language, etc.).  Students will work together to make analogies and metaphors to compare/contrast different cultures.  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.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

Students select an endangered or threatened animal to research, locate it on a map, and create a persuasive essay or poster to convince others to help the animals.

In this lesson, students will look behind the story at the historical, social, and cultural circumstances that shape the narrative throughout Esperanza Rising. The lesson also invites students to contemplate some of the changes Esperanza undergoes as she grows into a responsible young woman and the contradictions that she experiences.