This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 4th grade Science content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 4th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

In this lesson, students will construct a house in the same way ancient pueblo people did using resources according to their availability and specific properties. Students will understand the importance of knowing rock and mineral properties in order to determine usefulness.

In this activity students test a variety of liquids and solutions to see which conduct electricity. Note: This is designed for use in a science museum or education center and may need to be modified for classroom use.

In this activity, students practice identification of minerals with very distinct characteristics. They will practice with the properties one uses in mineral identification. They will also learn how to use a simple identification chart. The worksheet at the end can be done either by first identifying the minerals and then doing the worksheet or by skipping the actual identification and simply using the Mineral Identification Chart to fill in the worksheet.

In this lesson, students complete a series of activities in order to learn more about rocks and their characteristics.

In this lesson, students are presented with fossils and other earth materials and given clues as to their origin. After identifying the fossils and materials, they will form a hypothesis as to how they were formed and what is was before preservation.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the many forms of energy. Energy station materials are explored and discussed to introduce and clarify characteristics of each form of energy.

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 activity students will investigate magnets and what they attract through observation and discussion. Students will record their findings in a science journal.

Students will gain an understanding that certain materials are attracted to magnets and some are not. This lesson is the first in a two-lesson series on magnets. Students should carry out many investigations in order to familiarize themselves with the pushes and pulls of magnets. By exploring magnets, students are indirectly introduced to the idea that there are forces that occur on earth which cannot be seen. This idea can then be developed into an understanding that objects, such as the earth or electrically charged objects, can pull on other objects. It is important that students get a sense of electric and magnetic force fields (as well as gravity) and of some simple relations between magnetic and electric currents

In this interactive activity, students are tasked with identifying minerals based on data collected from a series of tests. A "virtual" scientific lab allows students to investigate the properties of the given samples.

This is the educator's guide for a set of activities that teach students about humans' endeavors to return to the moon. The emphasis is for students to understand that engineers must "imagine and plan" before they begin to build and experiment. Each activity features objectives, a list of materials, educator information, procedures, and student worksheets. Students should work in teams to complete the activities. Note: Activities do not align to all objectives that are listed; specific activities align to specific objectives.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science.

In this lesson, students will use compare and contrast skills to sort and classify sample rock specimens according to the assessment of the qualities present in each. Students will use simple symbols to create a Venn diagram for classification.

In this lesson, students use observational skills to identify whether samples are minerals or rocks. They will also distinguish rock samples as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

In this activity, students make a qualitative conductivity meter with a battery, bulb, and foil.

In this activity, students will learn that rocks are made up of one or more minerals.