This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 4th grade Science content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 4th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

This resource website provides background content information and resources that are helpful to teachers when planning instruction about minerals, rocks, and the rock cycle.

Students will identify properties that can be used to classify rocks by observing and studying them. Students will work in groups of 4-6 at a station which includes fifteen rocks for classification, hand lenses, and writing utensils.A student task card and a rubric are included with this activity.

In this activity, students practice identification of minerals with very distinct characteristics. They will practice with the properties one uses in mineral identification. They will also learn how to use a simple identification chart. The worksheet at the end can be done either by first identifying the minerals and then doing the worksheet or by skipping the actual identification and simply using the Mineral Identification Chart to fill in the worksheet.

This website explains how to identify minerals by describing each test in detail. Students can click on the test to read about how it works and view photographs examples of each test.

Students will identify minerals by observing and testing the physical properties of each mineral.

In this interactive activity, students are tasked with identifying minerals based on data collected from a series of tests. A "virtual" scientific lab allows students to investigate the properties of the given samples.

Students will compare and rank several mineral samples by hardness as classified through a simple scratch test. They will then match their results to a bar graph that shows the hardness values of four named minerals to identify the samples. This task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations, collect, organize, and analyze and make conclusions from data.

Minerals and Mineral GroupsGiving us credit when you use our content and technology is not just important for legal reasons. When you provide attribution to CK-12 Foundation, you support the ability of our non-profit organization to make great educational experiences available to students around the world.Our Creative Commons License welcomes you to use our content and technology when you give us attribution. If you have any questions about our policies, contact us at support@ck12.org

In this activity, students will learn that minerals have specific characteristics that can be used to identify them and learn the uses of a few common minerals.

This webpage has information about each mineral in Moh's hardness scale and students can click on photographic examples of each one to learn about it. Also included are links to ages describing the other identification tests such as color, streak, light, luster, and cleavage.

Students will use the properties of luster, streak, cleavage, fracture, hardness and density to identify minerals. Students will participate in a class discussion and conduct research using several websites to learn about identifying minerals. In groups of two, students will use the information they researched to identify two mystery minerals. A student rubric is included for assessing student's lab work.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science.

Students will investigate the "hardness" characteristics of minerals. They will scratch the samples with fingernails, pennies, and nails and then classify the mineral sample according to the Mohs Hardness Scale.

In this slide show, students learn about minerals and their physical properties such as luster, streak, color, hardness and structure. The slide show has many pictures to represent the various properties of minerals.

In this activity, students will learn that rocks are made up of one or more minerals.

Stdents learn how to identify a mineral using a cleavage test. Students will break minerals such as calcite, muscovite, halcite, chert, flint or quartz using a hammer and observe the resultant cleavage or fracture to identify the mineral.