Elementary / Fourth grade
Fourth grade
Plant + Algae = Total Photosynthesis for the Earth
Fourth grade is the thinnest grade in this unit. There is one performance expectation here, 4-LS1-1, and two lessons that reach it. We would rather tell you that up front than pad the page out with lessons whose standard actually sits in third or fifth grade. If you teach fourth grade, have a look at the pages either side of this one as well.
What standards are covered
Plants and animals have parts that do a job, inside and out
In plain words: Children build an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that help them survive, grow, respond to things, and reproduce.
Lessons: Both lessons on this page. What Eats Light? gives you the outside view and the behaviour. The Parts of Plants and Algae gives you the inside, and the celery dye uptake is the piece that actually earns the standard, because internal structure is where most classrooms come up short on this one.
One performance expectation, and we are not going to pretend otherwise
Where it stands: Fourth grade is the thinnest grade in this unit. There is one performance expectation here, 4-LS1-1, and two lessons that reach it. We would rather say that plainly than pad this page out with lessons whose standard really sits in third or fifth grade.
Why: NGSS puts most of fourth grade into energy, waves, and earth history. Our unit is built on algae, salt, and light, so it lands hard on third and fifth and only touches fourth in one place.
What to do: Run both lessons here for 4-LS1-1, then borrow from the third and fifth grade pages when you need more. The lessons work fine with fourth graders. It is the standards that sit next door.
If there is no fourth grade standard for it, it is not on this page
Why: Plenty of our lessons run well in a fourth grade room, but their standard sits in another year. Listing them here would make your planning harder, not easier.
Where they are: On the other grade pages, in the bar further down.
Check the grades either side of this one
Why: Both states introduce some of these ideas a year ahead of NGSS or a year behind, so a lesson filed under a neighbouring grade here can be exactly on grade in a Texas or Florida classroom.
On every lesson: The NGSS, Texas and Florida codes are printed on the cover page.
Lessons
Lessons for the Fourth Grade Classroom
What Eats Light?
Standard: 4-LS1-1, the parts of a living thing and the jobs those parts do.
What happens: Three sealed bags in the window. One grows a radish, one grows algae, one grows algae with brine shrimp eating it. The shrimp bag ends up less green than the bag without animals, and the class has to work out which parts of which organism made that happen.
Document: ARS-35-BBE-001, the third to fifth grade version. Word file.
The Parts of Plants and Algae
Standard: 4-LS1-1, internal and external structures.
What happens: The outside parts first, then a stalk of celery standing in dyed water until the transport tissue shows up as a coloured line running the length of the stalk. Algae get compared alongside, because they do much the same job with almost none of the same parts.
Do not skip: The celery dye uptake is the part that earns 4-LS1-1. Leave it out and the argument only has the outside of the organism in it, which is half a standard.
Document: ARS-35-BBE-009. Word file.
Free downloads
Downloads and where to go next
There is one document per lesson. The teacher material and the answer keys come first, then the student pages sit behind an orange PRINT FROM HERE divider, so you can print from that page on. There is one Administrator Guide for the whole of elementary, and that is the one to hand a principal or a curriculum director. Everything is free and editable whether or not you buy a kit.