tlh teacher’s little helper
Year 4 - Science

Lessons

16 lessons

  1. Lesson 1 — Ecosystems: Living and Non-Living Biological sciences, unit launch. Students revisit living and non-living things and are introduced to the idea of an ecosystem — all the living and non-living things in an area that depend on one another. Through a schoolground walk they observe and sort living and non-living things, then reason about what would happen to the ecosystem if one part were removed. Sets up the big question for the term: how do living things get what they need to survive? Includes a slide deck with an animated 'what makes an ecosystem' build-up, the Ecosystem Explorer worksheet, and the Living or Non-Living? sorting-card resource. Connects to Sustainability and to First Peoples' knowledge of Country (caring for Place).
  2. Lesson 2 — Producers, Consumers and Food Chains Biological sciences. Students learn that all energy in a food chain begins with the Sun, that producers (plants) make their own food, and that consumers eat other living things to get energy. They build a food chain as a paper chain using living things from a local Australian ecosystem (for example grass \u2192 rock wallaby \u2192 wedge-tailed eagle), and learn the key convention that the arrow points towards the living thing doing the eating (energy flows in the arrow's direction). Addresses the common misconception that a food chain shows 'what can kill what' rather than the flow of food and energy. Includes a slide deck with an animated food chain that shows energy passing from the Sun along the chain, and the Building Food Chains worksheet.
  3. Lesson 3 — Food Webs, Decomposers and a Changing Ecosystem Biological sciences. Students connect several food chains into a food web using a string-web modelling activity, and discover that having more than one food source makes an ecosystem more resilient to change. They investigate decomposers through a fruit-decomposition time-lapse, learning that decomposers break down dead plants and animals and return nutrients to the soil, which producers use to grow \u2014 so every living thing in a web has arrows leading back to a decomposer. Students distinguish indigenous from introduced Western Australian species (numbats, quenda, bobtails vs cats, foxes, rabbits, cane toads) and trace how an introduced species or a broken link affects the whole web. Includes a slide deck with an animated food web forming and nutrients cycling, the Food Webs and Decomposers worksheet, and the Indigenous and Introduced Species card resource. Connects strongly to Sustainability and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.
  4. Lesson 4 — Build an Ecosystem (Assessment) Biological sciences, summative task. Students design their own ecosystem (built around a tree) that includes producers, consumers and decomposers, draw and label the feeding relationships with correct arrows, and explain the ecological relationships in writing \u2014 including what would happen to the ecosystem if one living thing were removed. This is the strand's summative assessment, modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar 'build an ecosystem' task. A gallery walk with 'what if\u2026' questions consolidates understanding of how energy flows and how the parts depend on one another. Includes a slide deck that reviews the big ideas and the Build an Ecosystem assessment task sheet.
  5. Lesson 5 — Physical Properties of Materials Chemical sciences, strand launch. Students learn that physical properties are the characteristics of a material we can observe and measure without changing it (hardness, strength, flexibility, transparency, absorbency, brittleness). Through a 'guess the material' feely-bag game and hands-on examination of familiar objects, they build the vocabulary of properties and reason about fit-for-purpose — why windows are glass (transparent, not absorbent) and why rain boots are not made of paper. Includes a slide deck with an animated properties-testing sequence, the Material Detectives worksheet, and connects to Design and Technologies (choosing materials for a purpose). Modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar (Mr Tuggle's Troubles; What If Rain Boots Were Made of Paper?).
  6. Lesson 6 — From Raw Materials to Processed Materials Chemical sciences. Students learn that raw materials are collected from the environment (wool from sheep, ore from rock, sand, oil from underground) and are changed by people into processed materials (yarn and fabric, metal, glass, plastic). They match raw materials to their processed products and build a flowchart modelling the processing steps (for example sheep \u2192 shear wool \u2192 clean \u2192 spin into yarn \u2192 weave into fabric). Connects to Design and Technologies (food and fibre production) and to Sustainability (why recycling saves raw materials). Includes a slide deck with an animated raw-to-processed transformation, the From Raw to Useful worksheet, and the Raw and Processed Material Cards resource. Modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar.
  7. Lesson 7 — Fair Test: Which Material is Most Absorbent? Chemical sciences plus inquiry. Students plan and conduct a fair-test investigation comparing the absorbency of everyday materials \u2014 changing only the material, keeping the amount of water, the time and the method the same. They measure the water absorbed with a scaled instrument (using 1 g = 1 mL), record results in a table, and represent them on a column graph to identify which material is most absorbent and why that suits its use. This lesson develops the recurring inquiry cycle using the shared Fair Test Investigation Template. Includes a slide deck with an animated fair-test set-up and an animated column graph, and the Absorbency Investigation worksheet. Connects to Numeracy (measurement, tables and column graphs).
  8. Lesson 8 — Egg-Drop Design Challenge (Assessment) Chemical sciences, summative design task. Students apply their knowledge of material properties to design a container that protects a raw egg from a drop. They choose materials, justify each choice by its physical property (for example bubble wrap because it is cushioning; tape because it is strong), draw a labelled design, test it, and reflect on what worked and how it could be improved. This is the strand's summative assessment, modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar egg-drop design challenge, and integrates the Design and Technologies design process and Critical and Creative Thinking. Includes a slide deck with an animated forces-on-the-egg explainer and the Egg-Drop Design Challenge assessment task sheet.
  9. Lesson 9 — Changing Earth's Surface: Weathering Earth and space sciences, strand launch. Students discover that Earth's surface changes over time \u2014 usually very slowly. They are introduced to weathering (the breaking down of rock where it is) and its three types: mechanical (e.g. freeze\u2013thaw, river rocks), chemical (e.g. acid rain on limestone, rust) and biological (e.g. tree roots, mining). Learning begins with the Aboriginal story The Rainbow Serpent (Dick Roughsey), connecting change in the landscape to First Peoples' knowledge of Country, then a schoolground weathering hunt. Includes a slide deck with an animated freeze\u2013thaw and weathering-types build, the Weathering Detectives worksheet, and the Weathering Match-Up resource. Connects strongly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and to HASS geography.
  10. Lesson 10 — Fair Test: Freeze–Thaw Weathering Earth and space sciences plus inquiry. Students model mechanical weathering by freeze\u2013thaw (frost wedging): they fill a sealed container ('rock') with water, predict what freezing will do, and plan a fair test \u2014 changing the temperature while keeping the container size, water amount and time the same. After freezing, they observe that the expanding ice cracks the container, just as water repeatedly freezing in rock cracks widen it over thousands of years (producing the characteristic straight cracks). Uses the shared Fair Test Investigation Template. Includes a slide deck with an animated freeze\u2013thaw cross-section (water seeping in, freezing, expanding, cracking) and the Freeze\u2013Thaw Investigation worksheet. Safety: seal the container in a bag before freezing.
  11. Lesson 11 — Erosion, Transportation and Deposition Earth and space sciences. Students see chemical weathering in action (vinegar fizzing on limestone, modelling acid rain) and revisit biological weathering (tree roots, mining). They then model the erosion\u2013transportation\u2013deposition sequence using sand and dyed salt in trays, using water (a watering can) and wind (straws) to move material and watch it settle in a new place. Real Western Australian contexts anchor the learning: the weathering and shaping of Uluṟu over vast time, and the erosion of topsoil on farmland and why that threatens food production. Includes a slide deck with an animated erosion\u2013transportation\u2013deposition flow and the Wearing Away worksheet. Connects to Sustainability and HASS geography.
  12. Lesson 12 — Waste Rock Stockpile Investigation (Assessment) Earth and space sciences plus inquiry, summative investigation. Students apply their weathering and erosion knowledge to a real Western Australian mining problem: acid mine drainage from a waste-rock stockpile. Using dyed salt in sand to model the stockpile, they plan and conduct a fair-test investigation of a design (a cover of rocks, twigs, vegetation or plastic wrap) to reduce how much coloured 'acid' leaches out when it 'rains', record and compare their results to an uncovered demonstration, and evaluate and improve their design. This is the strand's summative assessment, modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar Waste Rock Stockpile task (Appendix C). Uses the shared Fair Test Investigation Template. Includes a slide deck with an animated leaching-and-cover model and the Waste Rock Stockpile assessment task sheet. Connects to Sustainability, Ethical Understanding (mining and the environment) and Design and Technologies.
  13. Lesson 13 — Forces: Pushes, Pulls and Arrows Physical sciences, strand launch. Students learn that a force is a push or a pull that can change how an object moves. They sort everyday actions into pushes and pulls, then meet the key distinction: contact forces act only when objects touch (a push, a pull, friction), while forces at a distance act without touching (magnetism and gravity). Using a tug-of-war, they discover balanced forces (equal and opposite \u2014 no movement) and unbalanced forces (movement), and learn to represent forces with labelled arrows (bigger arrow = bigger force). Includes a slide deck with an animated push/pull and balanced-vs-unbalanced tug-of-war, and the Forces All Around worksheet. Connects to the recurring inquiry cycle used through the strand.
  14. Lesson 14 — Fair Test: Friction and Surfaces Physical sciences plus inquiry. Students investigate friction \u2014 a contact force that slows movement \u2014 by rolling or kicking a ball across different surfaces and measuring how far it travels, changing only the surface and keeping the ball, the push and the starting point the same. They feel friction first-hand (socks on carpet vs vinyl; stopping on a slide) then discover the pattern that rougher surfaces create more friction and stop the ball sooner. They measure with a scaled instrument, record in a table and graph the results. Uses the shared Fair Test Investigation Template. Includes a slide deck with an animated friction-on-surfaces comparison and an animated column graph, and the Friction Investigation worksheet. Connects to Numeracy (measurement, tables, column graphs) and to everyday uses of friction (brakes, walking).
  15. Lesson 15 — Forces at a Distance: Magnetism and Gravity Physical sciences. Students explore forces that act at a distance. They investigate magnetism as a non-contact force: magnets have two poles, like poles repel and unlike poles attract, a magnetic field can be seen with iron filings (teacher-handled for safety), and magnetism can even act through other objects. They test a range of objects and sort them into magnetic and not magnetic (discovering that only some metals, like iron and steel, are attracted). Gravity is revisited as another force at a distance that pulls everything towards Earth. Everyday uses of magnets (fridge magnets, fasteners, screens) connect the science to daily life. Includes a slide deck with an animated attract/repel and magnetic-field visual, and the Magnetic or Not? worksheet. Safety: the teacher handles iron filings.
  16. Lesson 16 — Balanced and Unbalanced Forces (Assessment) Physical sciences, summative task. Students demonstrate their understanding of forces by analysing everyday situations: drawing labelled force arrows (with arrow size showing the size of the force), classifying forces as balanced or unbalanced and justifying this from the object's movement, and identifying whether each force is a contact force (like friction) or a force that acts at a distance (like magnetism or gravity). This is the strand's summative assessment, modelled on the SCSA Year 4 exemplar balanced-and-unbalanced-forces task. A shared tug-of-war moment re-anchors the balanced/unbalanced idea. Includes a slide deck reviewing the big ideas and the Balanced and Unbalanced Forces assessment task sheet.