Layers of the Earth

Work through the sheets in order so students know the layers before they meet moving plates. Have them mark the matching fossils on the map before they write about the evidence.

Label the crust, mantle and both core layers, then fill in each layer's thickness and temperature. The directions on the page read: Read the text. Label the layers, fill in the table, and answer the questions. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade Earth science, 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 with Earth's layers and plate tectonics. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

At a divergent boundary two plates move apart, at a convergent boundary two plates push together, and at a transform boundary two plates slide past each other. Students classify real places such as the Andes Mountains and the San Andreas Fault.

Most scientists rejected it because he could not explain what force moved the continents. In the 1950s and 1960s, mapping of the ocean floor found ridges and seafloor spreading, which showed how continents could move.

The layers above press on it so hard that the metal cannot melt. The sheet lists the inner core at about 5,000 to 6,000 °C.