Education Department Condensed Lesson Plan Template

Outcomes and Indicators: Grade 4 Science

Essential Question:
What is the difference between
weathering and erosion?
Outcome:
Erosion and Weathering: Students will be expected to
describe ways in which soil is formed from rocks and
demonstrate and describe the effects of wind, water, and
ice on the landscape. (301-4, 301-5)

Indicators:
Investigate how rocks change (COM, CT)
Investigate erosion (COM, CT)

Differentiation:

Process:
 Providing students who are sensitive to noise with noise cancelling headphones.
 Having extra materials for those students who feel uncomfortable when working in
groups.
Product:
 Allowing students to draw or speak about their answers for the worksheet if they have
severe difficulties with writing.

Assessment:
Erosion worksheet based on today’s activity.

Learning Experience / Lesson Outline

Hook/Opening/Lesson Intro:
Read the story “Cracking Up” by Jacqui Bailey.

Body & Consolidation:

Body:
We will start with a small lesson that explains to students what weathering, and erosion is.
Gather students in small groups to start the activity. Hand out the erosion worksheet and ask the
students to record their hypothesis for question number one. After the students complete the
hypothesis question, the teacher can begin the activity.
Each group will receive a mason jar with five sugar cubes in it. One sugar cube will have the
edges coloured with a marker; this cube will be used as the control variable for the experiment.
Students can compare other cubes to the one with marker on it, to see if all the cubes are
eroding.
The students will shake the cubes three different times. For each stage the students will shake
the jar twenty-five times, for a total of seventy-five shakes. The students will record what the
sugar cubes look like after each stage of shaking on their worksheet, for question number two.
While students are shaking the jars, we will ask prompting questions such as:
What happened to the sugar cubes the more you kept shaking them?
Did any of the sugar cubes stay the same through all stages of shaking?
How does this activity relate to the erosion and weathering of rocks in real life?
Once the students have completed this activity, they can continue to complete their erosion
worksheet.

Consolidation:
Once everyone has completed their worksheet, regroup the class in a circle to discuss what was
learned about erosion.

Closure:
Thank you for your participation class! Next class, we will be exploring the properties of rocks
found here in our local area! Get ready to get your thinking caps on and compare different types
of rocks!

Resources & Materials Needed:

Sugar cubes
Marker
Mason jars
Erosion worksheet
The book “Cracking Up” by Jacqui Bailey

Contingency Plans, Extension Activities & Notes:

If some groups finish their activity before others, a word search will be available to keep them
engaged until the rest of the class is done. The word search contains vocabulary words based off
today’s lesson.

Erosion Worksheet
 1. What is your hypothesis for this experiment?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

2. Draw what your sugar cube looks like after each stage of shaking:

Stage 1: Stage 2: Stage 3:

3. Was your hypothesis correct? When explaining your answer, think

about today's sugar cube shaking activity.

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___________________________________________________________

4. Do you think the same thing would happen if we shook rocks

instead of the sugar cubes?

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5. Where could we see examples of erosion and weathering here in

Cape Breton?

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___________________________________________________________

6. What is the difference between weathering and erosion?

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___________________________________________________________

7. If a storm or high waves washes the sand out to sea, is this an

example of weathering or erosion?

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