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, 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, 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science created this resource as part of an online workshop series, but you are welcome to use or modify it for your classroom. It includes a video and written directions for creating nature journals and tips for incorporating them into your classroom. For information on taking any the Nature Neighborhood online workshops for CEUs or EE credit, visit: https://naturalsciences.org/learn/educators/online-workshops.

Students will investigate ways to save animals around the world and create a written opinion piece to share their thoughts and ideas to save the animals. Students will be able to choose a structure that best supports their opinion. They will use correct grammar and spelling to write clear sentences and draft an opinion piece. Optional:  Students will take action by adopting an animal through the World Wildlife Foundation. 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 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 imports and exports for various countries around the globe and discuss the effect on the global economy. 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 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 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.