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Grade 4 · Rocks, Minerals, and Geological Processes · Rocks, Minerals, and Earth History

Journey Through the Rock Cycle

Rocks are mixtures of minerals that can change from one group to another. The rock cycle connects slow and rapid geological processes.

Visual model

See how the ideas connect

Look · connect · explain
Start at the centre. Follow each line and explain how that idea belongs to Rocks, Minerals, and Earth History.

For students

Notice, predict, explain

Choose one part of the model. Predict how it connects to another part, then use the lesson evidence to explain your thinking.

For teachers

Pause for science talk

Show the model before the explanation. Ask “What do you notice?” and “What might change?” Then revisit student ideas after the worked example.

The big idea

Rock groups describe how rocks form

Igneous rock forms when melted material cools, sedimentary rock forms when sediments become compacted and cemented, and metamorphic rock forms when existing rock changes under heat and pressure without fully melting.

Work it through

Transform one piece of granite

  1. Step 1 Granite exposed at the surface can weather into smaller mineral and rock particles.
  2. Step 2 Erosion transports the sediments, which may be deposited, compacted, and cemented into sedimentary rock.
  3. Step 3 Burial, heat, and pressure can transform that rock into metamorphic rock.
  4. Step 4 If rock melts and later cools and crystallizes, it becomes igneous rock again.