Grade 4 Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 4 science in the New Brunswick Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Grade focus: Properties and Uses of Earth Materials.
- Scientific Literacy: Investigation. Plan investigations to solve problems relating to the natural world: the Earth’s crust, changes in the Earth’s surface, rocks, minerals, soils, and uses of Earth’s resources.
- Scientific Literacy: Sensemaking. Analyze data to construct explanations and conclusions based on evidence from scientific inquiry.
- Scientific Literacy: Communication. Communicate procedure, result, and conclusion of scientific inquiry using a variety of media.
- Learning & Living Sustainably: Responsible and Sustainable Application. Apply scientific knowledge and an understanding of sustainable practices responsibly with respect to the natural world.
Easy ways to practise science at home
- Try a kitchen experiment, such as what dissolves in water and what floats or sinks.
- Keep a simple weather or moon log for a month.
- Ask “What do you think will happen?” and then test it.
- Visit a park, beach or creek and look for living things and their habitats.
What each unit covers
Habitats & Communities
Habitats as places that meet the needs of living things, communities of interacting species, why habitats have limits, how species depend on each other, and how human actions can help or harm.
Food Chains & Webs
Producers, consumers and decomposers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, how energy moves along a food chain, and why a food web is a more complete picture.
Light
Natural and artificial light, things that make light and things that reflect it, shadows, transparent, translucent and opaque materials, mirrors, refraction, and how light technology affects people and wildlife.
Sound
Vibrations and sound waves, pitch and volume, how sound travels through different materials but not through empty space, echoes and absorbing sound, how we hear, and how noise and sound devices affect people and animals.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Working below
- 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 practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excelling
- 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 New Brunswick report card guide.
Common questions
Try a kitchen experiment, such as what dissolves in water and what floats or sinks. Keep a simple weather or moon log for a month. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The New Brunswick Curriculum Grade 4 science units include habitats & communities, food chains & webs, light, sound.
Free printable Grade 4 science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.