Weathering and Erosion Teaching Resources

Browse printable weathering and erosion worksheets, digital activities and more teaching resources to bring this science topic to life in the classroom.

This teacher-created collection of resources is aligned to the NGSS curriculum and includes a mix of differentiated and editable options to help you save time on your lesson plans. Each printable and digital resource has been carefully reviewed by a member of our teacher team to ensure it's ready to be used in your classroom!

New to teaching about weathering and erosion, or just looking for some fresh ways to engage your students on the topics? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!

What Is Erosion? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Let's kick things off with a definition that will help you explain these concepts to your students.

Erosion is the process of wearing away or moving pieces of rock, soil or other materials from one place to another. Imagine a river washing rocks off the river's edge and carrying them away with it, and you're picturing erosion happening.

What Causes Erosion?

There are a host of different causes of erosion in nature, from wind to ice to water. Let's take a look at how the different causes affect our environment.

Water Erosion

When moving water — such as the flow of a river or ocean waves — wears away the soil and rocks along its path, it's called water erosion. This can happen when the water flow is too strong, or when there are heavy rains that cause flooding.

Wind Erosion

When strong winds blow over exposed soil and rocks, carrying away loose particles and causing abrasion to surfaces, we call it wind erosion. This will often happen in areas with little vegetation or when there are large areas of exposed soil, like in deserts.

Ice Erosion

Another form of erosion occurs when glaciers or frozen water in mountains or polar regions move and carve out valleys and other geological features. This can happen when snow and ice accumulate and compress over time, forming large masses of ice that move slowly downhill.

Human-Caused Erosion

Human activities are another cause of erosion in nature. Activities such as deforestation, mining and construction can all contribute to the erosion of soil by removing vegetation and changing the natural landscape, which can increase the amount of soil and rocks that are exposed to erosion-causing forces.

What Is Weathering? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Like erosion, weathering deals with rocks and soil and can involve water, but the two natural processes are distinctly different.

Weathering is the process of breaking down rocks and other materials into smaller pieces. This can happen because of things like wind, rain or even how plants grow in an area over time. Imagine a big rock outside that's been there for a long time. Over time, it might start to crack and break apart because of weathering.

Types of Weathering

There are different types of weathering that occur in nature, and each has an impact on our planet.

Mechanical Weathering or Physical Weathering

When rocks or other materials break down because of physical forces or things that bump into them, it's called mechanical weathering or physical weathering.

Wind, water and ice can all cause rocks to break down and change over time. Sometimes this happens because of natural events, like when waves crash against a rocky shore or due to freezing and thawing.

Other times mechanical weathering is due to human activity, like drilling into rocks or using heavy machinery to dig.

Chemical Weathering

Chemical weathering is a process in which rocks or other materials break down because of chemicals that interact with them.

For example, water, acids and other chemicals in the environment can cause rocks to break down and change over time. This can happen in nature, like when rainwater reacts with certain types of rocks, or it can happen because of human activity, like when we use chemicals to clean buildings or roads.

Sometimes chemical weathering is caused by a mix of natural and manmade chemicals. For example, acid rain is a mixture of water and pollution.

Biological Weathering

Biological weathering is a type of weathering that can involve both physical and chemical processes. Caused by living organisms like plants and animals, this type of weathering often changes the chemical composition of the rock or other material being weathered. For example, tree roots can grow into cracks in rocks and break them apart physically, while bacteria and other microorganisms can produce acids that dissolve the rock chemically.

What Is Deposition? A Kid-Friendly Definition

While erosion may dominate much of your science lesson plans, sediment and particles aren't always being worn away. In fact, sometimes they're going to build up in a particular place.

Teaching students about deposition? Here's a kid-friendly definition that can help!

Sediment and particle deposition is when tiny pieces of rocks, sand, and dirt, called sediment and particles, settle down in a place and stay there.

Think about what would happen if you poured sand or dirt into a jar and didn't turn the jar over to dump it out. The sand or dirt would settle at the bottom of the jar.

The same settling or depositing happens in rivers and lakes too. As the water flows, it picks up tiny pieces of rocks, sand and dirt and carries them along. But when the water slows down or stops moving, the sediment and particles settle down at the bottom of the river or lake, just like in the jar!

Over time, more and more sediment and particles can build up and create new landforms like beaches, deltas or islands!