English Language Arts — Grade 4

Write on!: Hooking the reader

Students will recognize new and innovative ways to write a narrative by discovering various ways to "hook" the reader with catchy beginnings and using figurative language and writing components to write an interesting story.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Tina Duckwall.

Trees of North Carolina

Students complete activities including tree and leaf identification, species comparison, online research, measurement, and creative writing in conjunction with monthly visits to the "Iredell County Outdoor Education Site"

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Science)

By Amy Luna and Kathy Beck.

Sweet potato fun

These activities allow students to gain knowledge of the North Carolina state vegetable and have fun while doing it! Activities include describing, analyzing and comparing facts about sweet potatoes, creative writing and dramatization, taste testing and completing an online scavenger hunt.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Amy Luna and Kathy Beck.

Observing connections: Art, poetry and the environment (Lesson 1)

Students will explore the poem of Pat Lowery Collins, “I Am An Artist” and create their own poem from what they see and experience. They will then illustrate their poems with a visual design. This is the first lesson in a series of three in which students are creating art based on their observations: Observing Connections —Art, Poetry, and the Environment (Lesson 1); Observing Connections—Changing Landscapes (Lesson 2); Observing Connections—North Carolina Pottery and Face Jugs (Lesson 3)

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

By Lisa Mitchell.

Non-Halloween activity for October 31

Students will rewrite the lyrics to a well-known song focusing on Autumn sounds, smells and sights, but without any of the usual Halloween trappings.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

Native American poetry workshop

This week-long set of lessons uses four different center activities to help students respond to poetry written by American Indians. This lesson plan was written with ESL (English as a second language) students in mind, so there are many opportunities to practice vocabulary, discuss and talk with others, and model expectations.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Liz Mahon.

Diamante poetry using environments: Day two

This lesson will introduce and reinforce learners' understanding of habitat components within an environment. This lesson was designed to be used after the lesson "Animal environments: Day one."

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Science)

By Cheri Cole.

Creature creation: An elaboration writing activity

This lesson will focus on the writing element of elaboration. It will also tap into higher order thinking skills with the creation of a Coastal Plain imaginary animal and a creative story about the creature. This lesson could be linked to 4th grade Science and Social Studies objectives. For more in-depth knowledge in those other subjects, go to the lesson entitled Researching the Coastal Plain

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and English Language Development)

By Ana Sanders and Heather Ennis.

Connecting folktales and culture in North Carolina and beyond

Students will explore connections to North Carolina culture as they engage in reading and analyzing three folktales of North Carolina Literary Festival author, William Hooks. After comparing these stories to other versions of the traditional tales, students will become authors and storytellers themselves as they rewrite a tale from a new cultural point of view. Opportunities are also included to extend this study to world cultures and folktales.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Jeanne Munoz.

A circular journey to imaginative narrative writing

This lesson will help the teacher show students how to bring their imaginative narratives to a logical ending. Students often have difficulty while writing imaginative narratives. They tend to get off to a good beginning and then cannot maintain focus well enough to bring their story to an end. Two well-known stories will be used as effective models. The first story will be analyzed by the whole class and the second will be used in an individual hands-on practice activity. Finally, students will summarize what they have learned and how they can use this information when they write an imaginative narrative.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Sharon MacKenzie.

Resources on the web

Writing Poetry Like Pros

This set of four lesson plans from EDSITEment utilizes poetry to serve as the inspiration for some terrific writing. Using poems available through EDSITEment resources, educators can make poetry an exciting teaching and learning tool in the classroom. ... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Writing and assessing an autobiographical incident

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will build upon their knowledge of biographies to write their own autobiographical incident. Students will be given a rubric and shown several examples. They will then complete the writing process and share their... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Writing a movie: Summarizing and rereading a film script

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students view a videotape or DVD of a film segment that has a great deal of action and little or no dialogue. After viewing the segment, students write a descriptive summary of the scene. They then have an opportunity... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

When I was young in... A literature to language experience

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, appropriate for English language learners, students read Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young in the Mountains and learn about past tense through a writing activity. Prior to teaching this lesson,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Webcams in the classroom: Animal inquiry and observation

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students observe animal habits and habitats using one of the many webcams broadcasting from zoos and aquariums around the United States and the world. Based on the observation of webcams, this lesson plan engages students... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts and Science)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Trees in art and nature

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students use the art of Vincent van Gogh as a point of reference to learn about trees by comparing those in Van Gogh's paintings to those in nature. After learning about the botany of trees, students create leaf rubbings as a culminating... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Science)

Provided by: ArtsEdge

Shape poems: Writing extraordinary poems about ordinary objects

Students write shape poems using their content knowledge and sensory awareness of a familiar object in this lesson. After modeling the poetry activity by having students explore the senses and images that the subject conjures, the teacher shows students... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

A race with grace: Sports poetry in motion

Students explore the aesthetics of sports in this lesson that explores poetry writing. After the teacher shares several sports-related websites with students, the class creates a word wall illustrating terms that might cover a wide range of movement. Then,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Powerful writing: Description in creating monster trading cards

In this lesson, students explore descriptive writing by producing original monster trading cards. Students create imaginative names for monsters, while also stressing the use of vivid details in their description of their creations. Trading cards must include... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Peace poems and Picasso doves: Literature, art, technology, and poetry

Students learn think-aloud strategies in this lesson that challenges them to think about peace in their communities. After the teacher reads Somewhere Today: A Book of Peace, Peace Begins with You,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink