Forces of Erosion – Earth’s Changes Over Time Science Station Sort for 4th Grade

Teachers

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Teach students about different types of Erosion with a SORT about Changes Over Time
aligned with the Next Generation Science Stations for Fourth Grade. In this station, the sort cards include different landforms. Students work to sort these landforms by what caused it: ocean, glacier, wind, or river erosion.

Fourth grade students sort landforms by how they were created: by river, glacier, ocean, or wind erosion. Over time, the land changes. This process is called erosion. In this science activity students learn about erosion that takes place over long periods of time. Students look at various landforms and determine how it was formed.

What is Included in the Forces of Erosion Sort Station

Included in the Sort about the Forces of Erosion
are:

Reading Passage in two formats
Larger table-group color sorting cards
Smaller cut and paste sort for individual students
Differentiated questions in short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice formats. Worksheet and task cards are included for some options.
Answer key

Changes Over Time Reading Passage

The optional reading passage included with the sort builds background knowledge. Students learn about different types of erosion and learn how to identify the force of erosion by the landform.

Forces of Erosion Sort for Table Groups

There are two ways to do this sort. One way is in table groups where students collaboratively look at the images on the cards and sort each landform by type: oceans, glaciers, rivers, and landforms that are formed with wind erosion.

There are different types of land changes that students will learn about in this sort. Students will decide how to sort different landforms, which have been formed by different forms of erosion over time.

This sort has colorful images that students analyze; students can think about which landform each sort card represents and the type of erosion that may have caused each.

Cut and Paste Sort Option

The second way to do the sort is a cut and paste option. Students can do both options: sort color option as a whole group and the cut and paste option individually. Or you can choose to have students do only one option.

The cut and paste option is all in black and white and a worksheet format. After reading the informational passage, students look at the images and then sort them into the correct category: winds, glaciers, rivers, and oceans.

Differentiated Responses

Like all of our science stations, differentiated responses are available for students to demonstrate their understanding. Below is an example of the Short Answer worksheet. Fill-in-the-blanks and multiple-choice task cards are also available.