4th grade Social Studies
10 units matched to the New York State Learning Standards. Kids see this subject as “Our World”.
Focus areas
- New York State: its land, maps and the Haudenosaunee and Algonquian-speaking peoples
- Colonial and revolutionary New York, and how the state and local governments work
- The fight for freedom and rights, the Erie Canal and New York's industries
- Immigration and migration, from Ellis Island to today
Units
Unit 1
New York's Land & Maps
Reading physical, political and climate maps of New York State: the Adirondacks and Catskills, the Hudson, Mohawk and St. Lawrence rivers, the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes, Long Island Sound, Albany and the largest cities, and the states and country that border New York.
Learning standard: 4.1; 4.1a; 4.1b · using physical, political and climate maps to find New York's mountains, rivers, lakes, capital, largest cities and neighbors
Unit 2
Haudenosaunee & Algonquian Peoples
The Haudenosaunee (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) and Algonquian-speaking peoples such as the Lenape, Mohican, Shinnecock and Unkechaug: how they used the land, longhouses and wigwams, the Three Sisters, clans and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and nations in New York today. Light, in the present tense, and with nothing sacred or ceremonial.
Learning standard: 4.2; 4.2a; 4.2b; 4.2c · how the Haudenosaunee and Algonquian-speaking peoples used the land, governed themselves and built their ways of life
Unit 3
Explorers & New Netherland
Verrazzano, Hudson and Champlain, the Dutch fur trade and New Netherland, the English takeover in 1664, Dutch words and place names that last today, and the many peoples of colonial New York, including free and enslaved Africans.
Learning standard: 4.3; 4.3a; 4.3b · European exploration of New York's waterways, the Dutch colony of New Netherland and life in colonial New York
Unit 4
Wars for New York
The French and Indian War and its battles in New York, why the colonies broke with Britain, Patriots and Loyalists, the Battle of Long Island and the turning point at Saratoga, and the sides Haudenosaunee nations and African Americans took.
Learning standard: 4.3; 4.3c; 4.3d · the French and Indian War and the American Revolution in New York, and why New York's location mattered
Unit 5
Governing New York
The three branches of the federal government, the New York State Constitution, the governor, Senate and Assembly in Albany, how a bill becomes a law, the state seal, counties, cities, towns, villages and boroughs, and citizens' rights and responsibilities.
Learning standard: 4.4; 4.4a; 4.4b; 4.4c; 4.4d; 4.4e · the levels and branches of government, New York's constitution and local governments, and citizens' rights and responsibilities
Unit 6
Freedom & Rights
Slavery in New York and its end in 1827, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Samuel Cornish, the Underground Railroad, the Seneca Falls Convention and the fight for women's right to vote, and New York's part in the Civil War.
Learning standard: 4.5; 4.5a; 4.5b; 4.5c · the fight against slavery in New York, the struggle for women's rights, and New York's support for the Union in the Civil War
Unit 7
The Erie Canal
Moving west after the Revolution, corduroy roads and turnpikes, the Erie Canal (opened 1825) and the towns that grew along it, its effect on the Haudenosaunee, and steamboats, railroads, the telegraph and later ways to travel and communicate.
Learning standard: 4.6; 4.6a; 4.6b; 4.6c · westward movement in New York, the Erie Canal, and how new transportation and communication changed communities
Unit 8
Making & Earning in New York
Farming, mining, lumbering and finance in New York, inventors and entrepreneurs such as Lewis Latimer, Thomas Jennings, Willis Carrier and Elisha Otis, the growth of factories from 1865 to 1915, and today's service and high-technology jobs.
Learning standard: 4.6; 4.6d; 4.6e; 4.6f; 4.6g · New York's farming, resources and finance, its inventors and entrepreneurs, industrialization and today's service and high-tech industries
Unit 9
Coming to New York
Why people came to New York (push and pull factors), Irish immigration after the potato famine, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, tenements and neighborhoods, the Great Migration and Harlem, and newcomers from around the world today. Factual and neutral.
Learning standard: 4.7; 4.7a; 4.7b · why immigrants and migrants came to New York, where they settled and how they shaped the state
Unit 10
New York Through Time
Ordering events in New York's history, from Hudson's voyage and New Netherland to the Revolution, the Erie Canal, Seneca Falls, Ellis Island and the 1900s.
Learning standard: 4.3; 4.5; 4.6; 4.7 · putting New York's history in order, from the colonial period to the growth of the state and immigration
Ready to try Gradelings?
Curriculum-matched practice for Kindergarten to Grade 9 in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, and in Washington, Oregon, California, New York, Texas, Maine, Minnesota, Alaska, Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas, with kind hints, learning games and no ads. Subscribe now, or try everything free for 30 days with no card.