Grade 4 · Science · Unit 5 of 6
Rocks & Minerals
Rock types, mineral properties and how we use them.
What your child practises
Grade 4 science sorts rocks into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic, and tests minerals for hardness, lustre and streak. Ask your child to sort a few rocks from outside by colour and texture, and to name one way people use minerals.
Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum curriculum outcome: Knowledge (by Grade 6) · describing and comparing rocks and minerals by their properties, how rocks form, and how people use them
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Which rock is so full of air holes that it can float on water?
- granite
- marble
- slate
- pumice
pumice
Hint: It forms from frothy lava.
Question 2
In which kind of rock are fossils most often found?
- melted rock
- sedimentary rock
- lava
- igneous rock
sedimentary rock
Hint: Shells and bones get buried in layers of mud and sand.
Question 3
Which kind of rock forms from layers of sand, mud or shells pressed together?
- sedimentary rock
- igneous rock
- lava rock
- metamorphic rock
sedimentary rock
Hint: Sediment is the bits that settle in layers.
Question 4
Which is a good way to sort rocks?
- by the day they were found
- by colour, texture or hardness
- by how much they cost
- by who found them
by colour, texture or hardness
Hint: Sort by properties you can observe.
Question 5
On the Mohs scale, which mineral is the softest?
- topaz
- diamond
- talc
- quartz
talc
Hint: It is number 1 on the scale.
Question 6
Which property describes a mineral that breaks along smooth, flat surfaces?
- lustre
- streak
- magnetism
- cleavage
cleavage
Hint: Mica peels into thin flat sheets.