Category Archives: fourth grade

Explore Every Trail - menu page with six choices of people or communities on the Lewis and Clark Trail

People You’d Meet on the Lewis & Clark Trail

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by Lacey Schweitzer, Longfellow Elementary School

Standard:

H.3_5.9 – I can explain how individuals and groups contributed to North Dakota.

Time

The unit will take 8-9 class periods, a total of 320 – 360 minutes. Each lesson requires 40 minutes.

Technology Needed:

Internet connection on a PC or Chromebook laptop, tablet, or phone. NOTE: The unit includes videos that are hosted on YouTube. If your school network blocks YouTube access for students, you may want to plan to show these from the teacher computer during class time.

Summary:

This Unit plan on Lewis & Clark will cover how individuals and groups contributed to North Dakota. These individuals and groups include: Corps of Discovery, Sacagawea, expedition, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Thomas Jefferson, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Sioux, Chippewa, Metis, tribe, sovereign, treaty, reservation. Students will be able to describe the effects of the Lewis and Clark expedition in North Dakota history and be able to explain the contributions of Native Americans in North Dakota. Students will follow along by creating a Lewis & Clark journal, which will be based off of the readings completed in the Frontier Era of North Dakota textbook. 

Lesson

  1. Introduce the unit with the downloadable Google Slides presentation is available here and as a PowerPoint presentation here. This presentation helps students gain a perspective on the adventure that the Corps of Discovery went through. Students will also be introduced to Native Americans who contributed to the discovery and how they helped shape North Dakota. NOTE: Assigned pages refer to the specific textbook used in North Dakota fourth-grade classrooms. Teachers using a different textbook will need to revise the presentation to match the pages in their textbook.
  2. Students watch the video: The Making of a Nation: Louisiana Purchase
  3. Students create a journal they will use as they read about the expedition in their textbook. Instructions for journal entries are given in the introductory presentation (#1)
  4. Students watch the video: Lewis and Clark: An American Adventure Story
  5. Students read about the expedition in the textbook used at their school. Alternatively, students can read from The Frontier Era of North Dakota, available online.
  6. Students read assigned pages on the Lewis and Clark and write in their journals. It is advisable to review each day’s assignment from the presentation.
  7. Group assignment #1: Students work in groups to research a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
  8. Group assignment #2: Students meet in new groups and share the results of their research.

Game

For a review, students will play the game – “Math and Science on the Lewis & Clark Trail”.

Assessment

Students will take the post-assessment test. Teachers will be able to check for understanding, based on the data from the assessment. 

You are Here: On the Lewis and Clark Trail - splash screen from game

What was life like in Lewis & Clark’s America?

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by Zoe Hodenfield, Longfellow Elementary School

Standards

North Dakota State Standards

 G.3_5.8 Analyze patterns of human settlement in North America 

G.3_5.6 Explain how United States regions are created from common physical and human characteristics 

H.3_5.6 Describe multiple causes and effects of contemporary global events and developments in relation to the United States. 

⏰ Time

45 – 60 minutes

📲 Technology Required

Device with web-browser – Chromebook, laptop or desktop computer to play game.

Teacher will need either a projector/ smart board to show pictures OR will need to print the images to distribute OR share a link to students to see on their own devices.

NOTE: The slides presentation refers to a specific curriculum, TCI, which may not be available at your school, but alternate curriculum can be substituted.

📃 Summary

Students observe and discuss changes in the geography and society of the U.S. through 1806. They read passages on the U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th century, discuss with a partner and brief knowledge checks. The lesson culminates with a game that teaches about scientific knowledge along the trail.

📚Lesson

Start with this Google Slides presentation which includes images for activities and instructions to students. It uses the TCI curriculum materials but the slides can be copied and modified. Template slides for drag and drop activities are included.

  1. Anticipatory set: Set up the lesson by having students look at an image in the presentation, an artist’s representation of the expedition, and give their initial reactions.
  2. Class discussion: Students look at two different maps and share their observations about each one.
  3. Individual reading: Students read a passage on the United States in 1783.
  4. Individual knowledge check: Students drag and drop events in order.
  5. Partner activity: Students read a passage on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
  6. Partner knowledge check: Students drag and drop events in order.
  7. Individual interactive media: Students play the game: You Are Here: On the Lewis & Clark Trail. This game teaches about the scientific contributions made by Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, as well as the scientific knowledge of the Native American communities they visited along the trail.
Original map from the Lewis and Clark Trail

Primary sources from Lewis & Clark with crop-it

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Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7
Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

NCSS Theme 3 – Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.

Technology required

Device with a browser for students to access crop-it activity. Teacher should have a computer with projector to give slides presentation, but if this is not available, students can see slides on their own device. 

Time

40 – 50 minutes

Lesson Summary

Students watch a video or play through the introduction of the You are Here game, including the levels on Lewis and/ or Clark. The teacher gives a presentation introducing the crop-it tool and students complete an assignment that requires answering questions using the map provided.

What is crop-it and how to use it

It’s a fun tool that lets your students zoom in on a section of a primary source. You have three options:

  1. Use a crop-it activity from the gallery
  2. Print out resources and do the activity using paper
  3. Create your own crop-it

Lesson

Begin with watching the video “Why study Lewis & Clark?” (Note: In summer, 2025, we will be releasing a new game, You are Here: STEM on the Lewis & Clark Trail.)

Next, do a crop-it activity.

In this lesson, we’ll go with Option 3. Because we’re not sure as of this writing if the government is going to shut down and whether the Library of Congress will be available, I uploaded a map to the Growing Math site. While the image below is only 600 pixels in width, the image I uploaded for this exercise is 20 times this size.

Zoom in or Crop the Map

Here is the link of the crop-it I created for the map Lewis and Clark made that went as far as the area they named Cape Disappointment.

Here is a Google slides presentation showing your students step by step how to crop an image, add notes, save notes, zoom in and create a PDF showing their responses.

Differentiation

On the crop-it site, you can design your own crop-it activity with fewer questions or simpler images.

For a simpler crop-it, you can use this photo of a Hidatsa bull boat on the river.

silhouette of a man playing saxophone during sunset

All That Math Jazz

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Author: Isabel Bozada-Jones

Standard

STANDARD

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.3.C Add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators, e.g., by replacing each mixed number with an equivalent fraction, and/or by using properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.

Background Knowledge

Prior to this lesson, students should understand the basic concept of fraction and how to add fractions with like-denominators. Basic knowledge of musical notation (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes) would be helpful, but is not necessary. 

Instruction

  1. Reflect back on students’ prior work with fractions and ask about what they have learned so far. 
  2. Explain that musical notes can be thought of like fractions and that today we are going to be working in 4/4 time signature, which is something they will learn about later, but means that a measure contains four beats and each quarter note is a beat. 
  3. Today, we are going to be starting with whole notes, which take up an entire measure, and we are going to be finding out what different rhythms are equivalent to each other. 
  4. Show students this picture of different notes. 
  1. Explain that each measure in the picture is equivalent to each other, depending on how fast the notes are, they take up different amounts of the measure, or the whole note. Show students the same picture with the equivalent fractions on it. Ask them what they notice and wonder. 
  1. Watch Using Music to Study Fractions
  2. Show students several note combinations and have them find the least common denominator to create equivalent fractions. Demonstrate how these fractions fit into measures (equal to one whole note)
  3. Have students play Jazz Math  to practice creating equivalent fractions 

Extension

  • Have students write addition and subtraction equations with different notes. Have them clap or play a percussion instrument to show the different parts of their equations. 
  • Have students create their own equivalent fractions to add to the next version of Jazz Math. How would they make the game harder? How would they make it easier? 

Potential Questions for Game

What notes are equivalent to this fraction? 

UNIT: Word Problems with Multiplication and Division

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Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.D.8 Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.B.5 Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide. 
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.D.8 Solve two-step word problems using the four operations. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.A.3 Apply the area and perimeter formulas for rectangles in real world and mathematical problems.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NBT.B.4 Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm

Time

Five hours

Technology Required

If teaching in person, the teacher will need a computer and projector or smart board to show the videos, or students can be given the links to watch on their own devices. Students will need a PC, Mac or Chromebook or tablet. Making Camp Premium, Making Camp Lakota and Making Dakota are all playable on any web browser on those devices. Spirit Lake: The Game, playable on Mac or Windows computers also teaches these same concepts or students can watch the videos from the game on any device with a browser.

UNIT SUMMARY

This cross-curricular unit teaches solving word problems with multiplication and division with a variety of strategies and in contexts ranging from agriculture to traditional dwellings.

Lessons

Lesson Multiplying to find perimeter of polygons

In this 45-minute lesson, students will learn how to compute perimeter of different polygons using multiplication and apply those skills in game-based practice problems. They will then learn about different Indigenous traditional dwellings. The lesson ends with students contributing to and solving problems that integrate the reading on dwellings and perimeter in an online assessment. 

Multiplication word problems

In this 40-minute integrated lesson, students learn about responsibilities of children in traditional Dakota society and discuss their responsibilities today. They learn a problem-solving strategy that can be applied to a wide range of situations, including mathematics. Students play Spirit Lake: The Game or watch videos solving multiplication problems set in the context of a story based on Dakota culture.

Travois, multiplication and 2-step problems

In this 45-minute lesson, the students will develop an understanding of the meanings of the four operations of whole numbers through activities and problems involving real life scenarios from Indigenous history. Students use properties of operations to calculate products of whole numbers, using increasingly sophisticated strategies based on these properties to solve using the four operations problems involving single-digit factors. It includes educational videos, games and video presentations that can be used for reviews and daily practice.

Problem-solving with pigs: Start at the end

This 75-minute cross-curricular lesson includes activities and instruction in agricultural science and math. Students begin by watching a video and learning about pig farms. After making their own pig barn, they watch two short videos about solving math problems. This information is then applied to solve multiplication and division word problems during a presentation on math around the pig farm. Students end playing one of the Making Camp games to reinforce skills and knowledge.

Lesson. Problem-Solving Two ways

his 40-minute lesson assumes that students have some familiarity with multiplication of one-digit numbers and division with one-digit divisors. Students are introduced to the various means of problem solving in a brief presentation. They watch a video on visualization, then solve a problem that asks them to visualize. After watching a video on building a model, students build and/or draw their own model of a multiplication problem or property. Lesson concludes with game play to reinforce these problem-solving strategies and learn more. T

Learn 4 Math Facts at Once with Google Slides

This 60-minute lesson starts with a video as an ice breaker. Then, students read or listen to a presentation explaining how each math fact is actually four. Students complete an activity where they create their own math facts slides. A recommended video explains features of Google slides. Students complete the lesson playing Making Camp Dakota, solving word problems using division.

Using Visual Models To Compare Fractions

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Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A.2 Compare two fractions with different numerators and different denominators, e.g., by creating common denominators or numerators, or by comparing to a benchmark fraction such as 1/2

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.A.2 Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. 

Technology Required

Students will need a Mac or Windows computer or an iPad to play the Fish Lake game. Alternatively, students can play Forgotten Trail on the web using Chromebooks or any computer with a web browser.

Time

35-45 minutes

Lesson Summary

Students play 2-3 levels of a game that teaches and assesses adding and comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators, with the context of a story from Ojibwe history. They create their own problems using visual models to compare fractions. Students discuss classmates’ problems. The lesson culminates with a video on visualization as a problem-solving strategy.

Lesson

Start with a Game (10-20 minutes)

Students play the Fish Lake game through level 2. This requires installing the game on an iPad or a Mac or Windows computer. If only Chromebooks are available, students can play the Forgotten Trail Game instead. We do recommend Fish Lake if iPads are available. Although mathematics and social studies standards taught in both games overlap, the change from using Chromebooks in most lessons to a more console-level game can improve student engagement.

Students create their own problems (10 minutes)

Use slides 1-4 of this Slides presentation to explain the assignment. Optionally, for students learning at home or for homework, it can be assigned to students in Google classroom or similar system.

Discuss math problems students created (10 minutes)

Because students very often ask, “What do you mean?” or “Give me an example?” slides 5-11 of the presentation give an example.

A visual model of equivalent fractions

Watch a video (2.5 minutes)

Visualize! One way of solving a problem

Assessment

This lesson includes three types of assessment. In the games, students are presented with math word problems that relate to the game narrative. Their answers are scored and data can be accessed for each student from the teacher reports. Students submit math problems they have written for teacher feedback. Also, teacher can use whole class discussion of student problems as a gauge for understanding or have students in pairs or small groups submit written discussion of their peers’ math problems.

Ojibwe Clans and Migration (Bilingual English & Spanish)

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📖STANDARDS

NCSS theme – The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. 

Minnesota State Standard – History Sub-strand 4, Standard 15 “North America was populated by indigenous nations that had developed a wide range of social structures, political systems, and economic activities, and whose expansive trade networks extended across the continent.”

⏰ Time

40 minutes

📲 Technology needed

Internet connection on a PC or Chromebook laptop, tablet, or phone.

📃 Summary

This Ojibwe clan lesson for Grade 3 is focused on Ojibwe culture. Students learn where people and places are located and why they are there. They will become familiar with the causes, patterns and effects of Ojibwe settlement and migration. They will learn of the different population centers in Ojibwe society and investigate the impact of human activities on the environment. 

📚 Lesson

The downloadable Google Slides presentation is available here. This has a digestible summary of the Ojibwe migration, and why and how it happened. The Ojibwe clans are introduced as well as the new lifestyles that the Ojibwe adopted after they migrated to the Great Lakes area and Ontario, Canada.

Game

Making Camp Bilingual can reinforce clans and culture studies using the Life section.

  1. Select the LIFE button from the main choice screen.
  2. From the LIFE choices, click on the box in the middle of the bottom row, the one with the four people, and watch the video about Ojibwe social structure. Answer the questions that follow the video. 
  3. Next, select the box on the bottom right. Watch the overview video on clans and totems. Answer the questions.
  4. Students can also click on each individual clan totem icon to learn more about each Ojibwe clan and answer a question about each of them to earn points.
  5. Return to the wigwam and trade with the points earned in this lesson.

Students can use the language button to switch between English and Spanish while watching the videos.

Alternatively, students may also play Forgotten Trail, which is an adventure game that homes in on the Ojibwe migration. Two kids in the game retrace the Ojibwe migration on their own and learn more about Ojibwe history along the way.

Assessment

Teachers will be able to view student reports for Making Camp Bilingual to view how many modules students completed in the LIFE section and their scores for each one.

Related Lesson

“Ojibwe Clans and Migration” – The English Only version of the lesson plan above featuring Making Camp Premium.

10-Minute Multiplication Practice with Ojibwe History (Bilingual English & Spanish)

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📖Standards

CCSS. Math 3OA.A.4 Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers. 

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7– Fluently multiply and divide within 100

NCSS The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. 

⏰Time Required

10 minutes

📲Technology Required

Computer/tablet with internet access for reporting student assessment data from Making Camp Bilingual.

📃Summary

Ojibwe History Integrated with Math If your students are like most people, you’re having a hard time getting them to focus. Each of these three activities only takes a few minutes and teaches Native American history or multiplication. These 10-minute lessons can be done as stand-alone activities at the beginning or end of a class to raise student engagement, or the three in this unit can be combined for a single 30-45 minute lesson.

📚Lesson

Activity 1

Matching Multiplication

Step 1: Have students open Making Camp Bilingual. If you need more detailed instructions on how to access Making Camp Bilingual, student usernames and logging in, please go to this lesson plan. 

Step 2: If students are playing the game for the very first time, they will watch the two introductory videos that talk about Native Americans and how to play the game (5 minutes). Then you will see the Making Camp choice screen.

Step 3: Have students click the NUMBERS (NÚMEROS) box to view the six math challenges. You can press the round, green button at the bottom left with white squares to return to the choice screen at any time.

Step 4: Have students click on the top left box (with cards) to play a memory game. In this game, you match multiplication problems with their answers. You may assign this activity for 5 minutes of multiplication drills.

Activity 2

The Multiplication Dog

Step 1: Have students click on the icon with the dog. 

  • This lesson opens with a paragraph explaining that some tribes used dogs to haul heavy loads, using a type of sled called a travois. The player then has the opportunity to earn a dog and items for their dog in the game by answering multiplication problems. The game resets when it is finished, and also takes about 5 minutes.

Activity 3

Reaping the Rewards of Math Practice at the Wigwam 

The player should now have enough points to get a wigwam and at least two items to supply their wigwam. 

Step 1: Click on the wigwam icon on the bottom left. This will play a video on how a wigwam was built, followed by a second video that briefly discusses that trading existed between and within tribes long before the settlers came.

Step 2: The player then has an option to trade points for items for their wigwam.

Clicking on the wigwam in the lower left corner will bring the player to their wigwam. Purchased items appear here for decoration and interaction. 

  • Clicking on an item brings up a text box with information on how that item was used or obtained by the Ojibwe people.
  • Some items also perform actions when clicked. For example, the parfleche opens to show pemmican inside; when clicked, the dog walks across the wigwam.

Assessment

Making Camp Bilingual offers Data and Reports for teachers to access after students are finished playing. 

State Standards

Minnesota History Substrand 2, Standard 3. Historical events have multiple causes and can lead to varied and unintended outcomes.

Related: 10-Minute Multiplication Practice with Ojibwe History

The lesson above has a companion lesson for English Only Learners. 10-Minute Multiplication Practice with Ojibwe History is the same lesson from above but provides the resources in English only, featuring Making Camp Premium.

Learn 4 Math Facts at Once with Google Slides

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Standard

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.1 Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 × 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. 

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.2 Interpret whole-number quotients of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 56 ÷ 8 as the number of objects in each share when 56 objects are partitioned equally into 8 shares.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NBT.B.4
Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.

TIME

45-60 minutes

Technology Required

Students will need access to a computer or tablet and Google slides.

Summary

Start with a video as an ice breaker. Then, students read or listen to a presentation explaining how each math fact is actually four. Students complete an activity where they create their own math facts slides. A recommended video explains features of Google slides. Students complete the lesson playing Making Camp Dakota, solving word problems using division.

LESSON

Watch a video : Four Math Facts in One

In 4 minutes, this video explains how each time you learn a math fact, you are really learning four facts

Listen to/ Read a presentation on four math facts at a time

This presentation explains how one math fact is actually four because 7 x 6 = 42 means that 42 ÷ 7 = 6 and also that 6 x 7 = 42 and 42 ÷ 6 = 7. As an added bonus, it includes some ranch vocabulary like cattle, steer, heifer and bull.

Example from presentation

After the teacher has given the first part of the presentation, students are challenged to first show how a given math fact is actually four math facts, using steers. Next, students create their own examples. The easiest way to do this is through assignment in Google classroom or other system, including email, giving students their own copies of the slides to modify.

Recommended Video: Math Facts with Google Slides

If your students are unsure how to copy and paste, how to select multiple elements at a time, rotate objects or insert a duplicate slide, it is all in this video. Why not watch the video first? Because students often pay more attention once they realize they have questions that can be assigned by the assigned video.

How do you copy 84 chickens?

Play Making Camp Dakota

Making Camp Dakota
Making Camp Dakota teaches division of two- and three-digit dividends

Play Making Camp Dakota: Past and Present to learn about Dakota history and culture and solve division problems, such as dividing the people on the buffalo hunt. Students can be assigned to go directly to the game here or to access it by selection in the games portal for kids.

Assessment

Two types of assessment are included in this lesson:

  1. Students create their own math facts slides, and in-game assessment.
  2. Problems are scored automatically in Making Camp Dakota and data are available through the teacher reports.

Differentiated Instruction

Many students with learning disabilities have stronger achievement in one area than another, for example their grade level in reading is higher than in mathematics. For these students in higher grades, an assignment to learn to use presentation software such as Google slides is age appropriate and intrinsically interesting and at the same time increases their knowledge of basic math facts.

Better Dirt, Better Lives

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📖STANDARD

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A.1
Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.

📲Technology Required

Students will need a Mac or Windows computer with the Fish Lake game installed. A video can be a substitute for students who do not have access to one of these devices.

⏰Time

30 minutes

📃Summary

Begin with playing the Fish Lake game. A video of the section on crop rotation may be used by schools that don’t have Fish Lake installed. Give a presentation (included) on crop rotation. Watch a video on “What is one-half” and end the lesson with a presentation (included) on whether one-half is fair.

📚Lesson

Play Fish Lake or watch video of game play

Even though you can use this lesson without playing the game, I urge you to install Fish Lake on your iPads, Mac or Windows computers. You can download it for free for computers. For iPads, email support@7generationgames.com for a discount code and we’ll get back to you the same day. Seriously, even if you normally use Chromebook, it will be a nice break and your students will love it. We recommend letting them play for 15 minutes.

Play the game Fish Lake, (available to Growing Math schools, on iPad, Windows or Mac computers). If students do not have devices to access the game, students can watch a video here.

Slide presentation on crop rotation

Use this Google slides presentation to explain crop rotation as more than just being sure each farmer did her fair share of the work or had a fair share of the fields. It was good science.

Watch a short video: What is half ?

This short (1:40) video explains that one-half is two equal parts, with examples of one-half as a distance between two points or as a shape divided into two parts.

Slide presentation on one-half as fair

Use this Google slides presentation to show two halves are equal and that 2/4 = 1/2. Multiple examples of dividing something in half are given, from six blankets to half a deer. Students can also read the presentation and manipulate the examples on their own.

Half a deer

Assessment

Fish Lake data reports are available for teachers to access after students have finished playing.