Grade 4 Science: Rocks, Minerals, and Earth Processes
Free Grade 4 Science unit on Rocks, Minerals, and Earth Processes: 10 lessons in order. Includes practice questions and answer keys.
10 lessons in this unit
Rocks and minerals
Learn that rocks are made of minerals, name common minerals and rock types, and use simple tests to tell minerals apart.
Lesson 2Rock properties
Learn to test and compare rock properties: hardness, permeability, density and appearance, and link them to uses.
Lesson 3Rock formation introduction
Learn that rocks form in three ways: igneous from cooled molten rock, sedimentary from layers of pressed sediment, and metamorphic from rock changed by heat and pressure.
Lesson 4Weathering
Learn that weathering breaks rocks into smaller pieces through ice, water, wind, roots and temperature changes, and investigate the effect of freezing and shaking.
Lesson 5Erosion
Learn that erosion is the wearing away and carrying of rock and soil by water, wind and ice, and deposition is where it is dropped, and model a river carrying sediment.
Lesson 6Soil formation
Learn how soil forms slowly from weathered rock mixed with dead plants and animals, and describe soil layers (horizons).
Lesson 7Landforms
Learn to name and describe major landforms such as mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, rivers, deserts and coasts, and explain how some of them form.
Lesson 8Water and land changes
Learn how floods, rivers, waves and rain change the land quickly or slowly, compare slow and fast changes, and describe how people respond.
Lesson 9Natural resources
Learn that natural resources such as water, soil, minerals, forests and fuels come from Earth, which are renewable and which are not, and why we should use them wisely.
Lesson 10Earth conservation
Learn how people can conserve soil, water, forests and minerals through actions like terracing, planting, saving water and recycling, and design a class conservation plan.