🔬 4th Grade Science · Unit 6
Earth's Changing Surface
21 short narrated lessons in 4 chapters, each with pictures, a quiz with a hint and a second try, and an explanation for every answer.
Standards: 4-ESS2-1 4-ESS1-1 4-ESS2-2
What your child will learn
Weathering
- Big Rocks, Little Rocks: WeatheringExplain that weathering is the breaking of rocks into smaller pieces.
- Ice: The Rock SplitterDescribe how water freezing in cracks can split rocks apart.
- Wind and Roots: Rock BreakersExplain how blowing sand and growing plant roots wear down and break rocks.
- Shake It Up: Testing WeatheringPlan a test that measures how shaking or water wears down rocks over time.
- Rock Breakers: A Weathering Review ReviewReview how water, ice, wind and living things weather rocks.
Erosion and deposition
- On the Move: ErosionExplain that erosion is the carrying away of rock and soil by water, wind or ice.
- Carved by Water: Rivers Shape LandDescribe how flowing water carves valleys and canyons over time.
- Ice and Air: Glaciers and WindExplain how moving glaciers and wind move rock and sand to new places.
- Dropped and Piled: Deposition Builds LandDescribe how sediment dropped by water and wind builds new landforms like deltas and dunes.
- Carried Away and Dropped Off: Erosion and Deposition Review ReviewReview how erosion carries earth materials away and deposition drops them in new places.
Rock layers and fossils
- Stripes in the Rock: Layers of RockExplain that rock forms in layers, with older layers usually below younger ones.
- Stories in Stone: FossilsDescribe how fossils in rock layers show what living things were like long ago.
- Rock Detectives: Clues to Past EnvironmentsUse fossils like seashells on a mountain to infer that the land was once under water.
- Earth's Changing Face: Landscapes Change Over TimeExplain how rock layers and fossils give evidence that Earth's landscape has changed over time.
- Rock Detective Review: Layers and Fossils ReviewReview how rock layers and fossils give evidence of how Earth's surface has changed over time.
Mapping Earth's features
- Reading a MapUse a map key, compass rose and scale to read information on a map.
- Mountains, Oceans and TrenchesIdentify major landforms and ocean-floor features on a map.
- Patterns on the MapDescribe patterns in where mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes are found on Earth.
- Plate EdgesExplain that many mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes happen along the edges of Earth's plates.
- Mapping Earth's Features Review ReviewReview how maps show Earth's features and the patterns in where mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes occur.
- Unit 6 Test: Earth's Changing SurfaceShow what you learned in the whole unit (Weathering, Erosion and deposition, Rock layers and fossils, Mapping Earth's features) by answering mixed questions.
Try a question from this unit
From the lesson “Big Rocks, Little Rocks: Weathering”
What is weathering?
Show the answer
The slow breaking of rock into smaller pieces. Weathering is the slow breaking of rock into smaller pieces, like boulders becoming pebbles and sand.
Hint kids see after a wrong try: “Think about how a big rock becomes sand.”
Key words
- weathering
- freeze
- crack
- wind
- roots
- measure
- observe
- erosion
- canyon
- valley
- glacier
- deposition
- sediment
- rock layer
- fossil
- infer
- environment
- evidence
- landscape
- map key
- compass rose
- landform
- trench
- pattern
Try these lessons in Kids Shelf
Narrated lessons, pictures and quizzes for every grade from K to 8. Works offline.
