👩‍🏫 Teacher’s Guide

Objective
Students will differentiate weathering and erosion and explain how they reshape landforms.

Vocabulary
landform, weathering, erosion, gravity, sediment, deposit

Teaching Notes

• Start with a quick demo or model to visualize the concept.
• Pre-teach key vocabulary with gestures or sketches.
• Prompt students to predict, observe, and explain in full sentences.
• Check for understanding using either/or and short-answer prompts.

🧒 Student Worksheet

Concept and Helping Material

Definition. Weathering breaks rock; erosion moves it. Together they change landscapes over time.
Helping ideas and samples:

• Try a quick sort, draw-and-label, or compare-and-contrast.
• Name one place you see this idea at home or at school.
• Safety: follow teacher directions and handle materials carefully.

Vocabulary and Definition

• — a natural feature of Earth’s surface
• — breaking down of rock by wind or water
• — moving of rock and soil by water, wind, ice, or gravity
• — force pulling objects toward Earth
• — small pieces of rock and minerals
• — to lay down material carried by wind, water, or ice

Words to Learn

, , , , ,

Sentences to Fill In

1. Waves that smooth rocks are an example of .
2. A river carrying sand downstream shows .
3. Small pieces of rock are called .
4. When sediment is laid down it is .
5. A canyon is a kind of .

Hands-On Experiment or Activities

What You Need: simple classroom items.
What You Do: Sand vs. soil: build small towers of dry and wet sand/soil; test with wind (fan) and water spray to see which resists erosion.
Think and Talk: What changed? What stayed the same?

Reflection

• Which materials resisted wind and water best? Why?
• Where have you seen weathering or erosion near your home?