4th grade Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in 4th grade social studies in the Arizona Academic Standards, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Civilizations of the Americas
- Exploration, encounters and the Columbian Exchange
- The colonies and their economies
Easy ways to practice social studies at home
- Look at a map of your community and find places you visit.
- Ask an older relative or neighbor what the area was like when they were young.
- Read stories from many communities, including Indigenous authors, and talk about what is the same and different.
- Talk about how rules and jobs help a community work.
What each unit covers
Geography of the Americas
The landforms, bodies of water, climate zones and resources of the Western Hemisphere (the Andes, Rockies, Amazon, Great Lakes and Panama Canal), kinds of maps, and how the land shapes where people live and work.
Civilizations of the Americas
What makes a civilization (cities, government, job specialization, writing, social classes), city-states and empires, and how the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca, Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan peoples farmed, built and adapted to their land. Maya, Nahua and Quechua peoples live in these lands today.
Maya, Aztec & Inca
How the Maya, Aztec (Mexica) and Inca arose, their cities, farming, achievements in mathematics and astronomy, and how the Aztec and Inca empires were defeated by Spain. Maya, Nahua and Quechua peoples are living communities today.
The Columbian Exchange
The plants, animals, people, ideas and diseases that crossed the Atlantic after 1492, sugar plantations, and the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage, told factually, with how enslaved Africans resisted and kept their cultures alive.
Exploration & Exchange
The great voyages, the ships and tools that made them possible, mapmaking, the Columbian Exchange and the rise of colonial empires and mercantilism.
The Thirteen Colonies
Why the colonies were founded, how the three regions differed in land, climate and work, and early self-government such as the Mayflower Compact and the House of Burgesses.
Colonial Trade & Work
Resources, specialization and trade in the colonies, mercantilism, and the Atlantic slave trade and its impact on African peoples, told plainly and age-appropriately.
History Detective
Primary and secondary sources, timelines and centuries, fact and opinion, claims and evidence, and judging a source by its maker, date and purpose, using early American history.
The Americas Through Time
Ordering events in the history of the Western Hemisphere, from the founding of Tenochtitlan and Columbus's voyages to independence movements, the Panama Canal and trade agreements.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Arizona report card guide.
Common questions
Look at a map of your community and find places you visit. Ask an older relative or neighbor what the area was like when they were young. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Arizona Academic Standards 4th grade social studies units include Geography of the Americas, Civilizations of the Americas, Maya, Aztec & Inca, The Columbian Exchange, Exploration & Exchange, The Thirteen Colonies.
Free printable 4th grade social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.