I love to teach the Energy Unit in 4th grade, and although it is a hard concept to teach, these are the perfect picture books to use in your class! Each of the books serves a different purpose and can be used in different lessons of the unit. You can also use these picture books in addition to the Love Learning Stem Energy Unit or use it in supplement to your school’s assigned science curriculum.
If you find yourself having trouble with the concepts of this unit, you can view the lessons by clicking this blog post. You can also grab these awesome and easy ideas for teaching Energy by viewing this blog post.
Why Use Picture Books for 4th Grade Energy?
According to the NGSS standards, students are expected to answer these questions: What is energy and how is it related to motion? How is energy transferred? How can energy be used to solve a problem? These are very abstract questions, and your students, especially your English Language Learners, will need a lot of differentiated instruction.
Picture books are great to use in all classrooms but especially wonderful in science class. They offer visual support and vocabulary used in context. It also sparked a lot of interest from my students because many of them were visually very appealing.
The books below include affiliate links.
The Powerful World of Energy with Max Axiom
This is one of my students’ favorite books on Energy, because it is a comic book. The topics covered are
- What is energy?
- Types of Energy
- Sources of Energy
- Saving Energy
This book goes into detail about the basics of energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, and even reviews heat, light, chemical, and other types of energy. The visuals and examples are very kid-friendly. It will be the perfect first book for any energy unit in 4th grade.
This book is also my first recommended book, because you can also use this for your natural resources unit. In the sources of energy and saving energy section, the Max discusses fossil fuels and natural resources that humans use.
Potential Energy vs. Kinetic Energy Physics Made Simple
This is another favorite picture book for 4th grade energy, because it does such a great job to break down such difficult concepts into easily accessible knowledge. Each of the pages has a large visual that goes along with the text on that page. The language used is meant for a student to read casually, but it still uses all of the academic vocabulary.
The concepts covered are:
- What is potential energy?
- How is potential energy measured?
- How is potential energy different from kinetic energy?
- What is kinetic energy?
- What happens to energy during collisions?
This is a must-read book in my classes because it is directly aligned to the standards and what the Energy Unit goes over. If you have your students complete a car collision stem challenge at the end of your unit, this book will be a great read before you begin your stem challenge.
Energy All Around
This is such a great book to start your unit with! It begins with the most basic information about energy, different types of energy, and how they all work together. Just like the other books in this series, it has excellent visuals to go with the text. It can also be used in your Natural Resources Unit because it includes information on Fuel Energy as well!
Here are the concepts it covers:
- What is Energy?
- Heat Energy
- Motion Energy
- Fuel Energy
This book covers a lot of information on energy, but it does not go in-depth about any of it. It offers a few examples of each one.
Energy at the Amusement Park
It’s no surprise that when I start talking about kinetic and potential energy, my students always think about roller coasters! They go hand in hand! This is why this book is such an amazing addition to this unit. It will go into all of the details of energy at an amusement park.
The concepts covered are the following:
- Energy all around!
- Potential and Kinetic Energy
- The Buzz on Electricity
- Hot Snacks, Cold Treats, and Lots of Heat
- Bright Lights and Loud Sounds
- An exploding End to the Fun
This is one I use for jigsaw reading activities. I split my students up into groups, and each group reads a section of this book. Each group summarizes what they learned as a presentation to the class. It’s such a fun project, and I cannot imagine teaching this unit without this book!
Helmets, Seat Belts, and Socks Picture Book
If you plan on discussing collisions then this is the book you need to start with! It discusses what could happen if we didn’t wear seatbelts in cars. I read this before we even go into designing our cars for the stem challenges. Students need to understand the concepts of restraint systems and why engineers built them to feel the weight of their designs.
If you use my Energy curriculum, then this will go perfectly before the students read about restraint systems.
If I Built a Car Picture Book
This is the perfect book to read before the car stem challenge! It follows a little boy who will design a car for himself. He thinks about how he can make it a cool car, a safe car, a comfortable car, and so on. My students and I always discuss the criteria and constraints of our stem challenge after reading this book.
Get Your Free Resource
You can get this digital resource and use it as a task card set to see how much your students know about kinetic and potential energy. It’s easy to use and students love reviewing using these task cards! You can even do a whole-class activity with them since they’re created in Google Slides.
Looking for an Energy Unit?
All of these books will go great with the Energy Unit that I offer. It includes everything you and your students will need to actively engage in this unit! You will have access to video links, lesson presentations, student journals, teacher guide, and everything else in between!
You can check out this video to learn more about what’s included inside. You can also read more about the units in this blog post.
Want to Save This List of Picture Books for 4th Grade Energy?
