3rd Grade · Science · MS-ESS2-1, 3-ESS2-2, 5-ESS1-2
Earth Science Lesson Plan for 3rd Grade
A ready-to-teach earth science lesson for 3rd Grade. Everything below is classroom-tested structure: an objective, a 45-minute sequence, a way to check who got it, and 4 printable practice pages.
Approximately 45 minutes
Learning objective
- Identify and describe the physical properties of rocks and minerals including hardness, luster, and color
- Classify rocks as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic and explain how each type forms
- Describe the rock cycle and explain how rocks change from one type to another over time
Materials
- Layers of the earth
- Volcanoes
- Earth's biomes
- Earth, moon and sun
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Ask the question (5 min)
Open with a question about earth science that students cannot answer yet. Take predictions and record them without correcting anything. Wrong predictions are the point: you will come back to them.
2. Explore (12 min)
Students investigate earth science through a hands-on activity, a demonstration, or a set of images. Their job is to notice and describe, not to be right yet.
3. Explain (10 min)
Now give the vocabulary and the explanation for earth science. Tie it directly back to what students just observed and to the predictions on the board. Name which predictions held up.
4. Independent practice (you do) (13 min)
Hand out "Layers of the earth". Students record what they learned and answer the questions independently. Circulate and press for "how do you know?"
5. Extend the thinking (5 min)
Ask where else earth science shows up outside the classroom. Collect two or three examples and leave the question open for tomorrow.
Check for understanding
Ask students to explain earth science to a partner in one sentence, then write that sentence down. Collect the sentences: they show you exactly which part of the idea did not land.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild earth science with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own earth science problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand earth science.
Skills covered in this lesson
Rocks and minerals · Layers of the earth · Erosion · Volcanoes and earthquakes · Earth's biomes · Earth moon and sun
