Identifying Minerals

Have students trace each path on the rock cycle with a finger as they name the process. On the mineral sheet, cross out minerals in the table as each test rules them out.

Identify five mystery minerals from luster, streak and hardness tests using the Mohs scale. The directions on the page read: Use the box and the table to name samples 1 to 5. Then answer question 6. 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 rocks and minerals. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Cooling turns magma into igneous rock. Weathering, erosion, compaction and cementation can make sedimentary rock, and heat and pressure can change igneous or sedimentary rock into metamorphic rock. Melting turns metamorphic rock back into magma.

A tool scratches a mineral only if the tool is harder than the mineral. The sheet gives the Mohs scale and four tools: fingernail 2.5, copper coin 3.5, steel nail 5.5 and streak plate 6.5.

Crystals, a glassy look and gas holes point to igneous rock. Visible layers, cemented grains and fossils point to sedimentary rock. Bands of light and dark minerals point to metamorphic rock.