Earth Science Activities: Earthquakes, Plate Movement and Mountain Making

Last week I explained how we made an Earthquake Shake Table and shared a quick video on how we made ours.  We first tested it with marshmallow structures.  A couple days later, we made “brick” structures out of sugar cubes and peanut butter.  We put on the documentary, Deadliest Earthquakes, and set to work.

We all built our structures and then brought out our shake table to test them out!

The most exciting structure we tested was ED’s. The first time they pulled the shake table, one brick fell off the top. With the second earthquake, the entire wall fell down!

As we finished up our unit we talked about the plate movements again.  We reviewed the three types of plate boundaries:

1. divergent boundary — plates move apart. Most divergent boundaries are found in the ocean such as the mid-ocean ridges.
2. convergent boundary — occurs where plates push together
3. transform boundary — occurs where plates scrape past each other.

We pulled out our Earth science notebook pages and went over those again. We also talked convection currents and talked about the experiment we did in November showing plate movement:

Then we went over the four types of mountains. We talked quite a bit about fold mountains again.  This was one of the activities we did. On a deep plate, we added a small bit of water and placed two graham crackers on top. Slowly, we pressed the two graham crackers together with slow-but-steady pressure:

This Earth science activity can also be done with towels. Just be sure to press them together slowly, not quickly. When we compared these to a picture of the Alps, the kids could really understand how the two tectonic plates converging could make mountains rise (and fold too).

We finished out the unit making sure we had finished all of our Earth Science notebook pages. These pages are available in the 75+ Page Earth Science Packet.

One last thing before I go. I thought I should share some of the books we used for this part of our Earth Science Unit:

We especially liked the books below. These are affiliate links:

• Geology Rocks
• How the Earth Works: 60 Fun Activities for exploring Volcanoes, Fossils, Earthquakes and More
• Janice VanCleave’s Earthquakes
• Earth-Shaking Science Projects about Planet Earth (Rockin’ Earth Science Experiments)

Don’t miss our 150+ page Earth Science Packet!! You will find the Earth Science Packet and other earth science units here or in our Store!

Learn how to make a earthquake shake table, more than a dozen hands-on activities on the layers of the earth, volcanoes, earthquakes, plate movement and more!

Topics include: Solar System, Layers of the Earth, Earth’s Axis and the Seasons, Latitude and Longitude, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, 4 Types of Mountains

Earth Science Packet

Be sure to check out the Earth Science BUNDLE options at this page, down below, or in our Store!Our units are pdf dowloads!

Purchase the Earth Science Packet

Cost: $9.99

Don’t forget to check your PayPal email address for the pdf download link.You will also receive an email from SendOwl (the delivery service I use) which will give you a link to download. (Check the email linked to your PayPal account.) Of course, if you have any issues just email me at — liesl at homeschoolden dot com.  You can also reach me by using the contact form. ~Liesl

Hope you enjoy this unit! 🙂 ~Liesl

And one last set of pictures of what is included! 🙂

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Earth Science BUNDLE Options

There are several Earth Science BUNDLE options which include the Earth Science Packet above. These units can also be purchased separately.

Our packets are pdf digital downloads.

See the Earth Science Page for more details (and lots more pictures)!

We did several units that all relate to each other. For younger students, there is a Where I Live Activity packet (My galaxy, solar system, planet, continent, country, state, town, and home!).  One year, we went on to talk about the Layers of the Atmosphere. We also talked about Earth’s magnetosphere (and did fun activities related to magnets). After we talked about the layers of the atmosphere we did a unit about clouds and weather… and learned about global and local winds, weather fronts, the jet stream, monsoons, el Niño or la Niña, and more. Note: These packets are also available separately in Our Store.

There are various Earth Science BUNDLE options below:

Earth Science BUNDLE 1

Purchase the Layers of the Atmosphere Packet ($6.99) and the Earth Science Packet ($9.99) together in a BUNDLE with the option below.

Layers of the Atmosphere Unit (50+ pages) – Quick Preview

Click here to find out more about the Layers of the Atmosphere Packet. It is well over 50 pages and has lots of hands-on activity ideas, worksheets, interactive notebook pages and more.

Our Layers of the Atmosphere Packet introduces kids to some of the basics about Earth’s atmosphere. It starts with a review of Earth’s systems: the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere and spends  time learning about the different layers of the atmosphere (the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere). It has sorting cards and interactive notebook projects on objects & phenomena in the atmosphere. Students will learn about the Sun’s harmful rays — what they are (EM radiation) and how we are kept safe. Finally, this packet touches on satellites and the GPS system.

Purchase the Earth Science BUNDLE 1 with the link below:

Earth Science BUNDLE 1

$14.99

Don’t forget to check your PayPal email address for the pdf download link.

Visit our Store for other packets in science, history, math, spelling and more!

Earth Science BUNDLE of 5

$34.99 Earth Science BUNDLE of 5 (Earth Science Unit, Layers of the Atmosphere Unit, Magnetism & the Magnetosphere, Weather Unit) – After we studied the Layers of the Atmosphere and the Magnetosphere, we did a big unit on the weather talking about where weather occurs, weather fronts, global and local winds, jet streams, monsoons, natural disasters etc. This bundle also includes a 100+page geology unit on Rocks and Minerals.

Again, see this Earth Science page for lots more pictures or to purchase these units separately.

$54.99 Earth Science & Physical Science BUNDLE of 10 (Save over $10 with this Bundle) 1) Earth Science Unit, 2) Layers of the Atmosphere Unit, 3) Magnetism & the Magnetosphere, 4) Weather & Natural Disasters Unit, 5) Rocks and Minerals Unit 6) Water Cycle Unit, 7) Where I Live Activity Packet – My galaxy, solar system, planet, continent, country, state, town, and home! 8) Environmental Studies: Trash and Recycling Unit; 9) Energy Packet: Kinetic vs. Potential Energy, Types and Sources of Energy, Renewable and Non-renewable Resources, Fossil Fuels, the Carbon Cycle 10) Simple Machines

FYI: The Electricity & Circuits Packet is included in the Chemistry Bundle

Be sure to check your PayPal email address for the download link.

These packets are also sold separately in Our Store.

• Visit the Earth Science Page for more details about the Earth Science BUNDLES. (All the units are sold separately as well.)
• Visit this post for more information about the Layers of the Atmosphere Packet.
• Visit this post for more information about the Magnetism Unit.
• Visit this post for more information about the Rocks and Minerals Unit.

• Visit this post for more information about the Weather Unit.

Layers of the Atmosphere Packet 

You will find this packet here at the Earth Science Page and more in our Store!

You Might Be Interested in These Related Posts:

• Learning about the Solar System – Including the hands-on kit the kids loved assembling and painting.
• Earth Science: Timeline of Earth Activity – A Montessori activity that is meant to impress kids with the enormity of time on Earth.
• Earth’s Geologic Timeline – Earth’s history separated by eons in a way the kids could really understand
• Earth Science – Layers of the Earth Activity
• Learning about Latitude and Longitude, Using a Compass
• Earth Science: Plate Movement Hands-On Activities
• Tissue Paper Volcano – Create a 3-D volcano image. The kids LOVED this craft
• Hands-On Volcano Activities: Gelatin Volcan0 & Paper Mache Volcano – We learned SO much from the gelatin volcano activity. I highly recommend doing this for understanding how lava flows as it does.
• Making a Shake Table for our Earthquake Studies – This post has a short video on how we made our shake table

• Earth Science Activities: Earthquakes, Plate Movement, Mountain Formation, the 4 Types of Mountains 

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  You might want to join our free Homeschool Den Chat Facebook group.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well.

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Happy Homeschooling!

~Liesl

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.