Seven questions on this four-page recap look back at a 4th grade lesson on changing landscapes, aligned to NGSS 4-ESS1-1 and 4-ESS2-1. Students name the oldest rock layer and explain a sea shell fossil found at the top of a dry mountain. They describe how the Grand Canyon's layers and the Colorado River tell its story. A short biography of a landscape uses a four-word bank: weathering, erosion, deposit, and fossil. The answer key includes a model biography.
4-ESS1-1
“Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.”
Questions 1, 3, and 4, on the oldest layer, the mountaintop sea shell fossil, and the Grand Canyon's rock walls.
4-ESS2-1
“Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.”
Question 2 on what causes erosion, and the weathering and erosion words in the Part 3 biography.
Three questions ask which layer of a tall cliff is usually oldest, what two things cause erosion, and what a sea shell fossil on a mountaintop says about the past.
Question 4 asks how the canyon's rock layers and the Colorado River at the bottom work together to tell its story.
Students write the life story of a place such as the Mississippi River or a mountain range. Two sentence starters help them begin, including Long ago, this place was...
Two reflection questions ask for the most surprising thing learned and one question the student would investigate as a geologist.
Lesson close
Use Parts 1 and 2 in the last part of your landscapes lesson. Save the biography for writing time the next day.
Science writing
Part 3 works as a short writing piece. Ask students to use all four words from the bank, as the model biography does.
Next-lesson planning
Read the answers to question 7 before you plan the next lesson. They give you a list of what students still want to find out.
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