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4th grade · Science · Unit 11 of 14

Wind, Water, Ice

How land wears away

What your child practices

Children learn how wind, water and ice change the landscape, how soil forms from rocks, and which natural events cause sudden changes.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.12 · weathering and erosion by water, ice, wind and plants, one at a time

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Weathering breaks rock into smaller pieces. Erosion carries the pieces away.
  2. Water freezing in a crack expands and makes the crack bigger.
  3. Wind, water and ice can all carry rock and soil.
  4. Bare soil washes away more easily than soil held by plant roots.

Example: Water freezes and thaws in a rock crack all winter. What happens to the crack? Freezing water expands and pushes the crack open. Doing this again and again widens it. Answer: it gets bigger

Wind, Water, Ice in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 11 of 14 in 4th grade Science, after Weather and the Water Cycle and before Earth Maps & Hazards.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What does a fast river do to its banks over time?

    • wears them away and carries bits downstream
    • freezes them solid all year
    • turns them into mountains
    • builds them taller with no change

  2. Question 2

    What is weathering?

    • the melting of rock into liquid
    • the breaking of rock into smaller pieces
    • the carrying of rock pieces to a new place
    • the growing of new rock underground

  3. Question 3

    PEI’s soil is reddish. What gives it that color?

    • fallen red leaves only
    • iron in the rock it came from
    • red paint from long ago
    • dye from the ocean

  4. Question 4

    What can strong wind do to a sandy dune?

    • move the sand to a new place
    • make every grain heavier
    • stop the sand from ever moving
    • turn the sand into solid rock

  5. Question 5

    How does freezing water help break a rock?

    • It freezes in cracks and pushes them wider
    • It makes the rock heavier so it sinks
    • It paints lines on the rock
    • It melts the rock into liquid

  6. Question 6

    Why do the layers in a rock help scientists?

    • They give clues about how Earth looked in the past
    • They show how many people live nearby
    • They make the rock easy to paint
    • They predict next week’s weather

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