6.

Layers of the Crust

Subject/ Grade Level: Science/ Grade 4
Time: 1 and Hours (2 classes)
NB Elementary Science Curricula:
GCO: Students will be expected to:
204-3 state a prediction and a hypothesis based on an observed pattern of events
205-5 make observations and collect information relevant to a given question or problem
SCO: Students will be expected to:
301-7 describe natural phenomena that cause rapid and significant changes to
the landscape
NGSS Standards:
4-ESS1-1: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers for
changes in a landscape over time to support an explanation for changes in a landscape.
Social Studies NB Curriculum:
SCO:
4.3.1: Examine major physical features of the world
4.3.2: Describe the main characteristics of rivers, islands, mountains, and oceans.
NB Language Arts Curriculum:
GCO: Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and
other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision and effectiveness.
SCO: Students will be expected to:
Use technology with increasing proficiency in writing and other forms of representing
Lesson Objective: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify the different parts
of the Earths Crust. Students will also be able to identify different types of rocks that contain
records of Earths history- specifically within the Fundy Biosphere.
Differentiation: All students will be taking part in the same lesson. This is a fun and engaging
lesson that will include a word-search, and an opportunity to reflect on the Bay of Fundy Field
Trip.

Materials/Resources/Technology:
Smartboard Activity- Identifying parts of the Earths Crust
Earths Crust- Identification sheet (Appendix J)
Earths Crust word-search (Appendix K)
Pencils and erasers
Students will need their science notepads

 Class computers/ Booked computer lab

Game loaded on computers: http://world-geography-games.com/earth.html
Technology Component:
Students will use the Smartboard to fill in the blanks during an activity.
Students will use computers and online resources to play a game and assess their own
knowledge of what they have learned about the Earths crust.
Students will be working with the iPads to develop a podcast about the Earths crust.
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ENGAGEMENT (10 minutes)

The teacher will identify on the board the vocabulary that they will be using for this unit:
Mantle
Outer Core
Crust
Inner Core
2. The teacher will ask the students some questions:
What is the Earths Crust made up of?
Can someone tell me what types of rock there is?
3. The teacher will open the Smartboard activity and students will have the opportunity to
come up to the board to fill in the blank spaces of the different parts of the Earths Crust.
EXPLORATION (25 minutes)
The teacher will start with identifying different types of rocks with the students. Part of the
field trip to the Bay of Fundy was to focus on the types of rock located in that area. The
teacher will have different examples of types of rocks for students to observe and draw in their
notepad. They will label what it looks like (color), and what type of rock it is.
Students are going to be given their own copy of the parts of Earths Crust (Appendix J) that
they will fill out to keep inside of their science notepads.
Students will then be given a word-search (Appendix K) that includes many of the new
vocabulary that they will be working on for this part of the unit.
Students will be taken to the computer lab to complete an online game/identification activity
on what they have learned throughout the class. Students will go to the following link to
complete a, layers of the crust identification game: http://world-geographygames.com/earth.html.

EXPLANATION (10 minutes)

The teacher will bring the students back together and the class with have a grand conversation
on what they learned from the lesson. They will talk about what they learned about different
types of rocks and reflect on the field trip they took earlier on in the unit. The teacher will also
ask students how they feel about the different features of the Earths Crust.
ELABORATION
Students will be given a project to design and develop a podcast that focuses on the parts of the

Earths crust. Their classmates will listen to the podcast at the end of the unit.
EVALUATION
For this activity, there was two types of evaluation used:
The teacher would collect the worksheets to use as a type of formative assessment. This would
show the teacher whether each student understood the task as well as how they worked as a
group.
The teacher will look at the score that students got on their online game to determine whether
or not lessons need to be altered.
For the podcast, the teacher will use a rubric to evaluate the students work.

Lesson Evaluation and Revision:

How did the lesson work over all?
What things would we changes?
What things could we expand on?
What things do we need to make sure we keep?