During fourth grade, students learn fractions and numbers with decimals. To help students to understand the concept of fractions, use flashcards that you hand out to the students. Before you give the cards to your student, color them in according to the fraction you write on them. Ask the student to place quarters, thirds, halves and three-quarters in sequence, beginning with the lowest. Children who have problems with reading fractions will still be able to perform the task successfully by looking at the amount of color on the card. Various online resources offer sequencing games where fourth graders learn to count by 3's and 4's to help an animated figure over a dangerous bridge or sort decimals written on apples, among others, to feed a monkey.
Fourth graders are expected to be able to read easy texts and stories as well as having an understanding of the content. To test the comprehension skills of students, play a sequencing game where you cut a short text covering one page into four to five sections. Give the puzzle pieces to each student, and ask the class to place the text in the right order. To make the game more fun and to add a visual effect, cut out the individual frames of a short comic strip and mix up the pieces before the students place the pictures into the correct order. In sequencing games offered online, students have to drag and drop flashcards of well-known fairy tales into the right order to tell a story correctly, or they are encouraged to build their own sentences by sequencing nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Music is based on a sequence of notes and sounds that together make songs and melodies. To explain sequencing to your fourth graders, play them a pop song repeatedly to let them get a feel for it. Then play parts of the song and ask the students to repeat the sound or rhythm by clapping their hands, tapping pens on tables or using other tools at hand. Continue until they are able to repeat the entire song without having to listen to it anymore. In the course of the exercise, the students will not only learn to order sounds and rhythm, but also realize that songs often are constructed around a sequence of chorus and verse. Online resources also offer musical sequencing games where, among others, players have to repeat a series of sounds with the help of colored onscreen keyboards or build a musical island by adding elements making sounds to a blank space.
Physical education uses a variety of sequences in, among others, athletics, dance or gymnastics. To teach children the order and sequence of different movements, arrange games with obstacles where the participants have to climb, jump, run, crawl or hop based on the hinders placed in front of them. In games based on square and ballroom dancing, teach the fourth graders a sequence of dance steps that have to be used depending on the music or called commands. In a game involving dance, ask the children to make their own choreography using sequences of movements or dance steps. Traditional playground games, including hopscotch and rope jumping, also are suitable to play for sequencing purposes in physical education as the games are based on structured series of actions and movements, often determined by a variety of rhymes and songs.