Grade 4 Lesson plan
Where the Downspout Water Goes at Kirkhollow School
A 50-minute grade 4 lesson in which students walk the schoolyard, record what roof water has done to the ground at four downspouts, and rank the damage.
NGSS · Grade 4
4-ESS2-1 Measure effects of weathering and the rate of erosion by water
Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
Clarification statement: Examples of variables to test could include angle of slope in the downhill movement of water, amount of vegetation, speed of wind, relative rate of deposition, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling, and volume of water flow.
Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to a single form of weathering or erosion.
Why water teaches this standard well
Water is the erosion agent this standard names first, and slope angle and volume of water flow are its suggested test variables, both easy to control with a stream table or a soil-filled gutter. The same physics explains why utilities armor riverbanks and manage stormwater velocity in real drainage channels.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement and assessment boundary, and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
9 materials aligned to 4-ESS2-1
Lesson plans
Worksheets
Grade 4 Worksheet
Measuring How Far the Pennard Brook Bank Moved
A grade 4 worksheet using a year of post-to-bank measurements at three bends of a fictional brook, with subtraction items comparing erosion, cover, and deposition.
Grade 4 Worksheet
Cloudy Water at Bright Pond: An Erosion Evidence Worksheet
A grade 4 worksheet using a fictional pond's weekly cloudiness scores as evidence of erosion, comparing rainy and dry days.
Grade 4 Worksheet
Water and the Shape of the Land: An Erosion Data Worksheet
A fourth-grade worksheet built on a class's soil-hill data, comparing slope and water flow to explain, then predict, real rates of erosion.
Math problem sets
Grade 4 Math problem set
Erosion Rates from Sedgeholt School's Four Slope Trays
Nine grade 4 problems using a four-tray erosion test record, turning grams of washed-out soil into rates per minute and comparing trays that differ only in slope.
Labs & experiments
Grade 4 Lab / experiment
Timing How Fast Quillen Bend's Muddy Water Clears
A two-session grade 4 lab timing how sand, garden soil, and clay settle out of shaken jars, then linking the results to the settling basin at a water plant.
Grade 4 Lab / experiment
Ice Wedging Under Gattock Road: A Freeze-and-Thaw Lab
A grade 4 lab running three freeze-and-thaw cycles on wet and dry chalk samples to show why a fictional town's roads and pipes crack most in late winter.
Classroom activities
Grade 4 Classroom activity
Holding the Chandry Creek Bank: A Cover Fair Test
A grade 4 station rotation testing bare soil, grass mat, and gravel on identical sloped trays to see which cover keeps a fictional creek bank from washing away.
Graphic organizers
Grade 4 Graphic organizer
Cutbank Creek's Bend: An Erosion and Meander Cause-Effect Organizer
A grade 4 cause-effect chain organizer tracing how moving water erodes the outer bank of a creek bend and builds a sandbar on the inner bank over time.