Grade 4 Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 4 science in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Life Science: Habitats.
- Physical Science: Light.
- Physical Science: Sound.
- Space and Earth Science: Rocks, Minerals, and Erosion.
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
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.
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.
Adaptations & Habitats
Practises habitats, body and behaviour adaptations, camouflage, migration and hibernation, and how plants and animals rely on each other (pollination, seed dispersal, soil nutrients).
Our Local Habitat
Children study a local habitat by asking questions, observing, collecting data and showing results, and consider how their own actions affect habitats.
Built to Survive
Children compare external features and behaviours of animals and plants and link them to how they meet their needs in their habitats.
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.
Wind, Water, Ice
Children learn how wind, water and ice change the landscape, how soil forms from rocks, and which natural events cause sudden changes.
Rocks vs. Minerals
Children tell rocks from minerals, describe and classify them by their properties, and link their properties to how people use them.
Think Like a Scientist
Practises measuring tools and units, safe use of equipment, fair tests, hypotheses, collecting data and drawing conclusions from evidence.
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 practising 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 PEI 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 Prince Edward Island Curriculum Grade 4 science units include food chains & webs, habitats & communities, adaptations & habitats, our local habitat, built to survive, light.
Free printable Grade 4 science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.