Fast and Slow Changes to the Land

Use a peach or an egg as a model of Earth's layers before the first page. Keep a world map or globe nearby for the map and volcano pages so your child can find the real places. Check each page with the answer key.

Sort changes to the land like landslides and canyons into fast and slow. A fast change to the land happens in minutes, hours or days. A slow change takes thousands or millions of years. The directions on the page read: Read the story. Then, write each change from the Word Bank in the Fast or Slow column and answer the questions. The answer key shows every answer.

Yes, both. We made it for 4th Grade Earth's surface, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Earth's four layers are the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. The crust is the thin rock we live on. Under it is the mantle, the thickest layer, made of hot rock that flows very slowly. The outer core is liquid metal and the inner core is solid metal and the hottest layer.

Most of both happen at plate boundaries, where Earth's giant plates meet and move. Many boundaries circle the Pacific Ocean, which is why that ring is called the Ring of Fire.

A fast change happens in minutes, hours or days, like a landslide, an earthquake or a volcano erupting. A slow change takes thousands or millions of years, like a river carving a canyon or waves wearing away a cliff.

Yes. All five Earth's surface sheets have an answer key that shows every answer, including sample answers for the questions children explain in their own words.