Resources for the Comprehensive Curriculum

Grade 4

Social Studies

Unit 2: Location of the Regions

Activity 8: Natural Disasters and Social Studies Skills (GLE: 17)

CC:  Divide students into groups, and assign each group the task of researching one of the natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires, and earthquakes.

Web Sites:

World Book Online (Search terms: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires, and earthquakes)

http://www.louisianaschools.net/worldbook/

EBSCO (Kid Search:  Search terms: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires, and earthquakes)

Use your school link for EBSCO

Unitedstreaming videos:

http://www.unitedstreaming.com

Weather Smart: Hurricanes (15:00)

How Katrina Grew (03:29)

Hurricane! (01:18)

Hurricane (12:00)

Weather Smart: Tornadoes (15:00)

Exploring Weather: Severe Weather (18:07)

Tidal Wave (12:00)

Tornado (12:00)

Protecting Structures from Earthquake Damage (03:23)

Earthquakes (01:38)

Enviro-Tacklebox: Module 4: Forces in the Environment: Rebirth in Fire (20:11)

CC: Have them report their findings to the class in the form of posters or PowerPoint presentations highlighting the causes and effects of the natural disasters.

Use MS Word to create a storyboard for planning the student PowerPoint presentations.

Word template - "Storyboard for PowerPoint Presentation"

CC:  During the presentation, the members of the class may take notes using a cause and effect organizer similar to the following:   

Use MS Word to create a cause and effect graphic organizer.

Word template - "Natural Disasters"