👩‍🏫 Teacher’s Guide

Objective
Students will recognize Earth’s plates, plate boundaries, and how earthquakes are measured.

Vocabulary
plate, mantle, boundary, fault, collide, seismometer, magnitude, duration

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. Plates move on the mantle and interact at boundaries; sudden movement causes earthquakes measured by magnitude and effects.
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

• — large section of Earth’s crust
• — layer of hot rock beneath the crust
• — edge where plates meet
• — break where rock blocks move
• — to crash together
• — tool that records ground motion
• — measure of earthquake energy
• — how long an earthquake lasts

Words to Learn

, , , , , , ,

Sentences to Fill In

1. Earth’s crust is broken into large .
2. Plates ride on the hot .
3. Earthquakes often occur at plate .
4. A break where rocks move is a .
5. Scientists record shaking with a .

Hands-On Experiment or Activities

What You Need: simple classroom items.
What You Do: Gelatin shake test: build two toothpick-and-marshmallow ‘buildings’ on gelatin—compare wide, cross-braced vs. tall, narrow during shaking.
Think and Talk: What changed? What stayed the same?

Reflection

• Why are shorter buildings often more stable in quakes?
• How does cross-bracing help a structure?