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Everything you need to teach energy, collisions, energy transfer, and electric circuits. Standards-aligned reading passages, worksheets, anchor charts, and hands-on activities — all inside your Workybooks library.
Every resource on this page is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for 4th grade physical science.
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
Click any topic to explore reading passages, worksheets, and activities. All resources included with your Workybooks subscription.
Explore how energy makes things move, from potential and kinetic energy to collisions and electric circuits. These NGSS-aligned 4th grade physical science worksheets and reading passages help students understand energy transfer, speed, and motion through real-world examples.
Introduce students to the fundamentals of energy, including potential energy, kinetic energy, and the different forms energy can take. These reading passages use everyday examples like slingshots to make abstract energy concepts easy for 4th graders to understand.
Help students discover how speed is measured and how motion and energy are connected in everyday life. These passages explore how height and speed affect energy, with fun examples like roller coasters to engage young learners.
Students investigate what happens when objects collide, including how energy changes form during a collision. From car crashes to helmet safety, these reading passages make collision science relatable while building critical thinking skills.
Teach students how energy moves between objects through heat, light, sound, and electricity. Real-world questions like "Why does metal feel colder than wood?" and "How does a thermos work?" bring energy transfer concepts to life.
Students learn how electric current flows through circuits and how switches, conductors, and insulators work. Hands-on examples like flashlights and light switches help 4th graders connect circuit concepts to everyday technology.
Human Uses of Energy Discover where our energy comes from and how energy choices affect the environment around us. These NGSS-aligned reading passages cover fossil fuels, renewable energy sources, and pollution — building science literacy and environmental awareness.
Students explore where energy comes from in nature and how natural resources are converted into usable energy. These passages introduce fuels and energy production in simple, age-appropriate language for 4th graders.
Learn how coal, oil, and natural gas are formed, extracted, and used to power our world — and why they eventually run out. These reading passages help students understand fossil fuels and the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Introduce students to solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass energy and how each source generates clean power. These passages cover the benefits and challenges of renewable energy, building a foundation for informed environmental thinking.
Students examine how burning fuels, mining, and energy production affect air quality, land, and wildlife habitats. These reading passages empower 4th graders to think critically about pollution, conservation, and smart energy choices.
From ocean waves to Wi-Fi signals, students explore how waves carry energy and information across distances. These NGSS-aligned 4th grade reading passages cover wave properties, light, sound, and modern communication technology.
Students learn the basic parts of a wave, including amplitude, wavelength, crests, and troughs. Fun scenarios like "Why do big waves knock you over?" help 4th graders connect wave science to real-life experiences.
Explore how waves create circular and straight patterns in water and how they bounce off surfaces through reflection. These passages use relatable examples like jumping into a pool to help students visualize wave behavior.
Discover how light travels, reflects, bends, and gets absorbed — and why we see colors, rainbows, and blue skies. These reading passages explain vision science and everyday optical phenomena in language 4th graders can easily grasp.
Students explore how waves carry information through signals, codes, and modern communication technology. From Morse code to Wi-Fi and cell phones, these passages show how wave science powers the technology we use every day.
Your Workybooks subscription includes this entire physical science unit — plus thousands more standards-aligned resources across K–8 Science, ELA, Math, and Social Studies.
In fourth grade, students dive into physical science through the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), specifically the PS3 standards that focus on energy. This is the year students build foundational understanding of what energy is, how it moves, and how it can be harnessed — concepts they’ll build on through middle and high school.
The 4-PS3 standards ask students to explore four big ideas: the relationship between speed and energy (faster objects have more energy), how energy transfers from place to place through heat, light, sound, and electricity, what happens to energy during collisions, and how engineers design devices that convert energy from one form to another. These ideas connect naturally to students’ everyday experiences — from rolling balls down ramps to flipping light switches.
At Workybooks, we’ve built this complete physical science unit around all four NGSS performance expectations (4-PS3-1 through 4-PS3-4). Each of our 28 topics includes a standards-aligned reading passage written at an appropriate Lexile level for 4th graders, plus worksheets, activities, and anchor charts that help students build and demonstrate understanding. Whether you’re a classroom teacher looking for print-and-go resources or a homeschool parent building a science curriculum, your Workybooks subscription gives you instant access to everything you need.
