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6th grade · Science · Unit 17 of 17

The Rock Cycle

How igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form and change.

What your child practices

Practices how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form and change into one another through melting, cooling, weathering, compaction, heat and pressure, with Texas examples such as the pink granite of Enchanted Rock and the limestone of the Hill Country.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.10(C) · how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form and change in the rock cycle

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Igneous rock, like granite, forms from cooled magma or lava.
  2. Sedimentary rock, like limestone, forms from pressed layers of sediment and shells.
  3. Metamorphic rock forms when heat and pressure change rock.
  4. Heat inside Earth drives plate motion. The sun drives weathering and the water cycle.

Example: What drives the movement of Earth's plates? The sun drives weathering, not plates. Plates move because of heat from deep inside Earth. Answer: heat from inside Earth

The Rock Cycle in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 17 of 17 in 6th grade Science, after Kinds of Organisms.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    The limestone under much of the Texas Hill Country formed from…

    • melted glaciers
    • shells and sediment on an ancient sea floor
    • volcanic ash only
    • cooled lava

  2. Question 2

    When one plate slides under another, it is called…

    • convection
    • deposition
    • erosion
    • subduction

  3. Question 3

    Sandstone forms when sand grains are…

    • blown away
    • frozen
    • pressed and cemented together
    • melted

  4. Question 4

    The Himalayas are still rising because…

    • rain builds them
    • glaciers are adding ice
    • lava flows there
    • two continental plates are colliding

  5. Question 5

    The San Andreas Fault is where plates…

    • dive under
    • stack up
    • slide past each other
    • pull apart

  6. Question 6

    Which process is very fast?

    • Plates drifting
    • An earthquake
    • Canyon formation
    • Erosion of a mountain range

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