4.ESS1.1: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in…
Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
The Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science (2026) outcome 4.ESS1.1 (Earth and Space Sciences) for Grade 4 says: “Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.” This Fieldbook unit teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials and a printable teacher guide and student sheet for every lesson. Official wording: Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science (2026).
Restless Earth: Fossils, Soils, Volcanoes and Plates Grades 4–7 · partly supports this outcome
Press model fossils and read a cliff of layers, shake a jar of soil and watch it sort itself by grain size, plot real volcanoes and earthquakes on a world map to find the edges of Earth's plates, then move model plates and test a building on a shake table. Four hands-on lessons that build on Rocks and Erosion.
- How do fossils form, and what can they tell us? 55–70 min
Teams press shells and leaves into clay to make a mould and a salt-dough cast, build a cliff of coloured layers with a different model fossil in each, and swap cliffs to work out which layer is oldest. They then read a cliff of real fossils and explain that a place once under the sea is now dry land.
Printable practice for 4.ESS1.1
- Restless Earth: Fossils, Soils, Volcanoes and Plates workbook included with the unit
2 readings, 1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.
Need just this outcome? Build a custom pack from these pages, with its answer key, in about a minute. Custom packs come with All-access and school licences.
Compared with NGSS: 4-ESS1-1.
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