This 3-page 4th grade science sheet puts the whole rock cycle on one diagram. Five numbered boxes stand for magma, igneous rock, sediment, sedimentary rock and metamorphic rock, and five numbered arrows stand for the processes between them. Students fill a two-part table from two word banks, then answer four questions in full sentences. The last page is an answer key with all ten labels and model answers, including two routes for how a sedimentary rock can become igneous.
“Name the stages of the rock cycle: magma, igneous rock, sediment, sedimentary rock and metamorphic rock.”
Boxes 1 to 5 on page 1 and question 1 on page 2.
“Describe the processes that change one kind of rock into another.”
Arrows 6 to 10 on page 1 and questions 2 and 3 on page 2.
“Explain that a rock can follow more than one route through the cycle.”
Question 4 asks whether a sedimentary rock can become igneous, and how.
A circular diagram with boxes numbered 1 to 5 and arrows numbered 6 to 10. Students write the rock stages from one word bank and processes such as cooling, melting and heat and pressure from the other, in a table under the diagram.
Four questions with writing lines. Students say what forms when magma cools, what turns rock into sediment, which two things change rock into metamorphic rock, and whether a sedimentary rock can become igneous.
The ten labels in order and a model sentence for each question. Question 4 gives the long route through metamorphic rock and the direct melt.
End of a rock unit
Use it to check the whole cycle in one sitting. The ten blanks show quickly who knows the order of the stages and who only knows the rock names.
Trace the loop
Have students trace the arrows with a finger and say each step aloud before they write. Arrow 10, melting, is the one that closes the loop, so point to it.
Question 4 talk
Take question 4 as a class talk before students write. The key accepts the long route through metamorphic rock and the direct melt, so both count.
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