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Layers of the Earth

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This MatchCard provides hands on activities and earths layers worksheet.

Homeschool Curriculum Download Arrow Earth's Layers Worksheet

Learn About the Earth's Layers

Objective: Identify the layers of the earth and describe their consistency.

Getting Started

Show the students a globe. Ask them what they believe they would find if they could dig their way right through the center of the earth.

Inner Core

If we could start at the very center of the earth, we would be at the inner core.

The inner core is solid, due to the intense inward pressure.

It is 1000 kilometers in radius (2000 in diameter.)

Outer Core

Moving out from the inner core, we come to the outer core.

The outer core is a hot, burning liquid.

It is 2000 kilometers from edge to edge.

Mantle

The mantle is the next outermost layer. It is the largest layer, 3000 kilometers in depth.

The mantle is a thick, syrupy liquid. Students are often familiar with it when they think of lava from an earthquake.

Crust

The crust is the outer layer. It is merely a thin layer of approximately 50 kilometers covering the mantle. Of course, the thickness of the crusts differs from one place on the earth to another.

Make a Model of the Earth

Each student can build their own model of the earth. There are a variety of materials that can be used for this. Modeling clay is a simple an inexpensive media.

These four colors may be helpful:

Black - inner core
Red - outer core
Orange - mantle
Blue - crust

This model uses one millimeter to represent one kilometer. The student should be aware that 10 millimeters is the same as one centimeter.

Inner Core
Use the black clay to make a ball with a one centimeter radius (two centimeter diameter.) This is a little smaller than a one inch ball.

Outer Core
Now add a one centimeter blanket of red clay around the black ball. You now will have a two layer ball that is 3 centimeters in radius and 6 centimeters in diameter.

Mantle
With the orange clay, build a two centimeter layer around the red layer. The model is now 6 centimeters in radius and 12 in diameter.

Crust
Now we want to add a 0.5 millimeter crust to the top of our model. One millimeter is about the thickness of a dime. You will probably need to roll the clay with a rolling pin to get it this thin.

Download and Use the Layers of the Earth MatchCard

This is MatchCard #2 of the Geology Unit Study. You can DOWNLOAD the Layers of the Earth MatchCard HERE.

The 1st page is the students' worksheet. They match the terms and description with the diagram of the Earth's layers.

The 2nd page is the Instructor's Guide with the correct answers.

The 3rd page has the Information Pieces. Student's cut them apart and place them in the correct place on their copy of the Matchcard (first page.)

For more information on how to use the Matchcards, see the MatchCard Science Instructor's Guide.

More information on this interactive unit study is below.

MatchCard Science

The activities and illustration above are from MatchCard Science, a homeschool science unit study. For the complete Geology Unit Study follow this link. This unit study provides: