4th grade Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in 4th grade science in the Washington State Learning Standards, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Energy and waves
- How plant and animal structures work
- Rocks, erosion and Earth's processes
Easy ways to practice 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
Sense & Respond
How people, animals and plants sense and respond to their environment: the nervous system, reflexes, special animal senses and plant responses to light, gravity and touch.
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.
Energy on the Move
Practices energy sources, how energy moves from a source to an object or living thing to cause action, and how people use their senses to detect heat, light and sound.
Adaptations & Habitats
Practices habitats, body and behavior adaptations, camouflage, migration and hibernation, and how plants and animals rely on each other (pollination, seed dispersal, soil nutrients).
Energy, Speed & Collisions
Practices how an object's speed relates to its energy, what happens to energy when objects collide, and devices that change energy from one form to another.
Waves & Codes
Practices how waves have amplitude and wavelength and can make objects move, and how patterns like codes, flashes and digital signals carry information.
Rock Layers & Erosion
Practices how water, ice, wind and plants break down and move rock, and how patterns in rock layers and fossils show how a landscape changed over time.
Volcanoes, Quakes & Maps
Practices reading maps of mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes and ocean features to find patterns, and comparing solutions that reduce the impacts of earthquakes, eruptions, landslides and tsunamis, using the Cascade volcanoes as examples.
Energy Resources
Practices how energy and fuels come from natural resources like moving water, wind, sunlight, coal, oil and gas, and how using them affects the environment, including hydropower dams on the Columbia River.
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 Washington 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 Washington State Learning Standards 4th grade science units include Sense & Respond, Light, Sound, Energy on the Move, Adaptations & Habitats, Energy, Speed & Collisions.
Free printable 4th grade science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.