Grade 04 Science - EC: S4.A.3.3.1
Grade 04 Science - EC: S4.A.3.3.1
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Define pattern?
- Give two examples of patterns you see in nature.
The graph below shows the average annual high temperatures in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania over a two-year period. Use this graph to answer questions #1-3.
- Make two observations about the temperature pattern that this graph shows.
- Which three months represent summer? How do you know?
- Which three months represent winter? How do you know?
- Explain how the lifecycle of a butterfly is a pattern.
- What facts would you select to help prove that the moon changes its phase in a pattern?
- Many patterns in nature occur with the pattern of changing seasons. Explain one of these patterns. How is this pattern related to the pattern of the changing seasons?
Answer Key/Rubric
- A series of things or events that take place over and over again.
- Examples include but are not limited to: moon phases, tides, life cycles, seasons
- Examples of appropriate observations include but are not limited to:
- The hottest temperatures are in July.
- The coldest temperatures are in January.
- The temperature increases then decreases each year.
- The temperatures in the first summer are similar to the temperatures in the second summer.
- June, July, and August represent the summer months.
Student reasoning should state that these months have the warmest temperatures and this is characteristic of the summer months in Pennsylvania. - December, January, and February represent the winter months.
Student reasoning should state that these months have the coldest temperatures and this is characteristic of the winter months in Pennsylvania.
- The lifecycle of a butterfly is a pattern because every butterfly goes through the same stages in its lifetime. These stages always occur in the same sequence for all butterflies.
- Facts to defend student’s argument may include, but are not limited to:
- Moon repeats phase about every 28 days.
- Moon phases occur in the same sequence.
- Moon phase can be predicted.
- Seasonal patterns may include:
- Hibernation
- Migration
- Temperature changes
- Growth of vegetation
- Birth of animals
