The Rock Cycle
Aligned to MS-ESS2-1 — Next Generation Science Standards.
What this lesson teaches
Rock is constantly recycled. Heat from Earth's interior and energy from the Sun drive a cycle in which any rock can be melted, cooled, buried, squeezed, or worn down and turned into another type. The three rock families — igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic — are stages in this never-ending loop, not permanent categories.
Worked example
Trace one grain of granite: rain and ice break it off a mountain (weathering), a river carries it to the sea where it settles and cements into sandstone (sedimentary), deep burial and heat squeeze it into hard quartzite (metamorphic), and if it sinks deep enough it melts to magma and cools again as new igneous rock.
Practice questions
- Draw the rock cycle as a loop and label where heat and where the Sun's energy each drive a step.
- Use crayon shavings: press them for 'sedimentary,' warm them slightly for 'metamorphic,' and melt them for 'igneous.'
- Pick a rock outside and write a short story tracing where it might have been and where it could go next.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
El ciclo de las rocas
La roca se recicla constantemente. El calor del interior de la Tierra y la energía del Sol impulsan un ciclo en el que cualquier roca puede fundirse, enfriarse, enterrarse, comprimirse o desgastarse y convertirse en otro tipo. Las tres familias de rocas —ígneas, sedimentarias y metamórficas— son etapas de este ciclo interminable, no categorías permanentes.
Ejemplo: Sigue un grano de granito: la lluvia y el hielo lo desprenden de una montaña (meteorización), un río lo lleva al mar donde se asienta y se cementa formando arenisca (sedimentaria), el enterramiento profundo y el calor lo transforman en cuarcita dura (metamórfica), y si se hunde lo suficiente se funde en magma y se enfría de nuevo como roca ígnea.
More Earth & Space Science lessons
Teach this lesson today
An AI tutor that guides with questions instead of just giving answers — all K–12 core subjects, every child in the family.
Start free — no card required