Fourth grade science

Fourth grade is the water cycle done properly, circuits, and the difference between weather and climate. This is the year to spend fifteen dollars on batteries, bulbs, wire and alligator clips. Watching someone else build a circuit does not teach a circuit.

• K
• 1st
• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th
• 5th

What to aim for this year

By the end of fourth grade, a child working at grade level can usually do these.

• Design and conduct an investigation with one variable you control and one you measure, and run it more than once.
• Describe the water cycle and identify the Sun as the energy that drives it.
• Explain the difference between weather and climate using data covering more than one year.
• Build a complete circuit with a battery, wire and bulb, and explain why an open circuit does not light.
• Test materials and sort them into conductors and insulators based on what happened.
• Describe energy changing form, for example electrical energy becoming light and heat.
• Explain how weathering and erosion shape land over long stretches of time.
• Identify renewable and nonrenewable resources and describe how each is used.
• Describe seasonal patterns in daylight length and temperature and connect them to Earth's motion.
• Explain how a structure in a plant or animal serves a function that helps it survive.
• State a conclusion the data supports, and say plainly what the data does not show.

Free, and legal to use

Every one of these costs nothing. The license tag says what you may actually do with it, which is not the same question as whether it is free to read.

• NASA Earth Observatory Free See terms

  Satellite imagery and plain-language articles on the water cycle, seasons, drought, storms and how climate differs from weather, with a new Image of the Day and the World of Change series showing the same place across years. Real data about real places, updated constantly. Note the old earthobservatory.nasa.gov address now redirects here.

  License: NASA content is generally not protected by copyright and may be printed and adapted. Images from outside providers hosted under permission are excluded, so read the caption credit. Insignia and endorsement limits apply.

• USGS Water Science School Free Public domain

  A full water cycle treatment with printable diagrams at several complexity levels, plus groundwater, runoff and erosion. The newer water cycle diagram includes how human water use changes where water is stored and how clean it is, which is a better fit for this grade than the old arrows-in-a-circle version. Spanish version available.

  License: Public domain as a work of the United States government. Check the credit line under photographs.

• NOAA Ocean Service education Free Public domain

  The ocean's part in the water cycle and in weather, plus short plain-answer explanations covering tides, currents, sea level and how storms form. Good for the weather versus climate distinction, which trips up most fourth graders and quite a few adults.

  License: Public domain as a work of the United States government, with the usual caution about credited third-party photographs.

• UCAR Center for Science Education Free Openly licensed Not confirmed

  Weather, climate and atmosphere material from the consortium behind the national atmospheric research center, including games and simulations. Stronger on the weather versus climate distinction than most elementary sources, and written for classroom use so the activities have actual procedures.

  License: Check the license. Free to read and carries a UCAR copyright notice. Terms vary item by item and some material originates with partner organizations, so do not assume it is openly licensed just because it is free.

• National Park Service, Every Kid Outdoors Free Public domain

  Fourth graders get a free annual pass covering the family's entry to national parks and federal public lands for the school year. That is a real, checkable benefit tied to exactly this grade, and it turns a weathering and erosion unit into a drive. The Park Service kids hub also carries Junior Ranger booklets; the deeper geology material lives on individual park pages rather than the kids landing page.

  License: Public domain as a work of the United States government, with the standard caution about credited third-party photographs.

Paid programs, honestly

Nothing here is required. These are the programs families most often ask about, with the real drawback of each one named rather than skipped.

• Mystery Science Paid $199 list, $179 in August 2026, membership through June 30, 2027.

  Good at: The energy and electricity units give a workable circuit lesson without a kit purchase, and the erosion and water cycle units are well built. For a parent uneasy teaching physical science, the videos genuinely lower the barrier.

  Drawback: Fourth grade is the year a child should handle components and fail at a circuit for ten minutes. Watching a competent adult build one on video is a poor substitute, and the format pulls in that direction. Budget for real batteries and bulbs regardless.

  Suits: A parent who wants the explanation handled and will still buy the hardware.

• Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, Volume II (Grades 3-5), Bernard J. Nebel Paid Commonly $30 to $40 paperback, less as an ebook. Not confirmed with the publisher.

  Good at: The matter and energy thread reaches conservation of matter and particle ideas at about the right moment for fourth grade, and it builds to them rather than asserting them. If you started in third, it is the same book you already own.

  Drawback: Light on electricity relative to what this grade needs, so the circuit work has to come from somewhere else. The absence of pacing bites hardest in the upper elementary years, when the content genuinely needs sequencing and a calendar.

  Suits: A family continuing the sequence who will bolt electricity on from elsewhere.

• Elemental Science, Chemistry or Physics for the Grammar Stage Paid Roughly $22.50 for an ebook guide, $20 to $24 each for print components, optional kit near $55, plus outside reference books. Confirm the specific title.

  Good at: Puts the physical science half of the year on a printed weekly schedule with scripted demonstrations, which is the half most families underteach. Secular and inexpensive as an ebook.

  Drawback: Same structural problem as the rest of the line: required outside reference books that change edition, and a real total cost well above the guide's price. It is a single-discipline year, so earth science and life science are left for you to arrange.

  Suits: A secular family that wants physical science scheduled and will arrange the rest.

• Apologia, Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Paid Build-your-own sets listed at $94.00, on sale at $70.50 in August 2026.

  Good at: The most standards-relevant book in Apologia's elementary line for a Texas fourth grader, since matter, energy and simple circuits are all fourth grade content. Read-aloud format with a notebooking journal that produces a real record of the year.

  Drawback: Christian and creation-based throughout, which decides it for many families in both directions. The reading load is heavy for a nine year old working alone, and there is no earth science or life science in the book, so two strands go untouched.

  Suits: A Christian family wanting the physical science year read aloud together.

Prices are approximate and change often. Check with the publisher before you buy. We describe and link to these programs; none of their material is hosted here.

What a week looks like

1. Monday. Build a circuit. Battery, wire, bulb. Let it fail before you help. Ten minutes of failing is the lesson.
2. Tuesday. Test six household objects for conduction and record yes or no in a table with a reason column.
3. Wednesday. Read one Earth Observatory article and find the same place on a map. Ask what the picture shows and what it does not.
4. Thursday. Add today's weather to a running chart. Once you have a few months, compare it to the climate normals for our county.
5. Friday. Write up one investigation from the week so somebody else could repeat it exactly. This is the year to start that.

Practice it here, free

These rooms on this site cover part of the year's work. No sign-up, and they work offline.

• measure — Accurate measurement, still the backbone of every investigation this year.
• graph — Charting collected data, which is how weather versus climate gets shown rather than asserted.
• units — Units and conversion, needed the moment a child records rainfall or temperature over months.
• know — The body topic touches structure and function. Thin for this grade, and honestly the site has no room that covers circuits or the water cycle.

The rest of fourth grade