The Secrets of Ocean Waves is the reading passage at the center of this four-page 4th grade science worksheet, aligned to NGSS 4-PS4-1. It explains that wind makes most water waves and that a wave moves energy, not water. A buoy, a seagull, and a boat show objects bobbing in place as waves pass. Eight questions in three parts follow, from recall to quoting a sentence as evidence. Model answers for each are in the key.
4-PS4-1
“Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.”
Questions 5, 6, and 8, on the toy boat and the buoy, show that waves can cause objects to move. Questions 2, 4, and 7 cover crest, amplitude, and wavelength.
Six short paragraphs start with a pebble tossed into a calm pond and end with a boat bobbing on the water. Along the way they define crest, trough, wavelength, and amplitude.
Three recall questions ask what creates most water waves, what the highest point is called, and what a wave actually moves. Question 3 offers sand, energy, wind, and seaweed as choices.
Question 4 asks what much stronger wind would do to amplitude. Questions 5 and 6 pair a true-or-false item about a toy boat in a lake with a quote from the text as proof.
Students explain how to find wavelength. They then use details from the text to explain why a heavy ocean buoy bobs up and down but does not travel toward shore.
Reading block
Use it as a nonfiction text in your literacy time. Question 6 asks students to quote a sentence as evidence, which is the same skill your reading lessons teach.
Tub demo
Float a cork in a tub of water and make waves at one end. Students watch it bob in place, then answer question 5 about the toy boat.
Split the task
Assign Part 1 to students who need support and the full sheet to the rest. Part 1 answers sit plainly in the passage, and Parts 2 and 3 ask students to infer.
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