Grade 6 · Science · Lesson 26

Rocks, Minerals and Cycles

Rocks may seem unchanging, but the ground under your feet is part of a slow, never-ending recycling system called the rock cycle. Every rock you can pick up has a story — it was once melted, buried, squeezed, washed down a river, or pressed deep below a mountain. Geologists sort rocks into three big families based on HOW they formed: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

What this lesson teaches

1Describe the three rock families and how each one forms
2Order the stages of the rock cycle from magma back to magma
3Sort common rocks into igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic
4Explain how minerals combine to make rocks

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