Homeschool Learning: Layers of the Earth

Alex has been very excited to learn about the layers of the earth. He loves to dig and with every deep hole he asks me how close he came to the next layer. I was excited to introduce this topic because there are so many fun ways to discover and learn about the layers of the earth. I found so many fun & FREE ways to introduce and learn about the layers of the earth, I was excited to get started!

We started with a trip to our local library where we checked out at least ten books. I am often on the receiving end of odd looks from the librarians when we show up at the counter ready to check out our 40 or more books. I am always reassuring that all of the books get read (they really do!). Alex’s top pick for learning about the layers of the earth was The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth (we love Ms. Frizzle!)

We read a few of our books that introduced the layers of the earth and then stopped briefly at the computer to watch a few quick videos.

My kids really liked this one:

and who doesn’t like a song? (Warning, it really will get stuck in your head!)

I printed this image from English Online to help my kids visualize the layers of the earth and to serve as a reference for the upcoming activities.

After books and computer we were ready to do some hands on learning so we cut out our layers fo the earth glued them together.

I had a few hard-boiled eggs in the fridge so I let each kid open their own ‘earth’. They were all able to point out the layers of the earth on their egg. Ava especially like this activity and reminds me of it every time she eats a hard-boiled egg!

It was lunchtime and we headed to the kitchen for yet another food activity to emphasize and help my children learn about the layers of the earth, a pizza!

While the pizza was cooking Ava and Audrey enjoyed free painting the earth.

After lunch I brought out the play dough and each child built their own earth.

Once they were done creating their earth they dissected it and enjoyed seeing the very apparent layers of their earth.

Here is a layers of the earth printable that I found over at Pinterest:

I printed two sets of these Layers of the Earth Nomenclature Cards and we enjoyed several game of memory with them.

Learning about the layers the earth was fun, easy, delicious and FREE! We had a great time learning the layers of the earth, next up for science is rocks and minerals! If you have any activities for either subject I would be thrilled if you would leave them in the comments.

To see all of our lesson ideas (with links) please click here.