🌊
Grade 3 Science · World 3: Wind and Water Works · Level 17
Slow Changes Over Time
See how water smooths rocks and carves canyons, like Providence Canyon.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 17
- Some changes are slow. River rocks start out sharp, but rushing water tumbles them for years until they're smooth and round.
- Weathering breaks rock down: water freezing in cracks, or roots growing into them. Erosion carries the pieces away.
- Georgia has an amazing example: Providence Canyon, in southwest Georgia. After people cleared the land for farming long ago, rainwater carved deep gullies, and they grew into a canyon.
- Its walls show stripes of red, orange, pink, and white soil. It's sometimes called Georgia's Little Grand Canyon!
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:
- S3E1.c — Make observations of the local environment to construct an explanation of how water and/or wind have made changes to soil and/or rocks over time. (Clarification statement: Examples could include ripples in dirt on a playground and a hole formed under gutters.)