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Reading the Layers is a free printable Grade 4 science worksheet on using rock layers and fossils as evidence of landscape change, aligned to Common Core standard 4-ESS1-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 16 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Reading the Layers

4-ESS1-1

NameDate

Read the drawing, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

Layers in the Railway Cutting

A drawing the class made of the rock face beside the railway, from top to bottom. FROM THE TOP DOWN Top layer: soil with modern roots Next: sandstone with ripple marks Next: grey mudstone with sea shells Next: coal with fern fossils Bottom: hard rock with no fossils at all The layers lie flat and one on top of the other.

  1. 1. What does the mudstone with sea shells suggest?
  2. 2. What is in the layer with sea shells?
  3. 3. What is in the coal layer?
  4. 4. What claim does this drawing support?
2.Layers lie flat, one on top of another. Which is oldest?
  • A.The top layer
  • B.The bottom layer, laid down first
  • C.They are all the same age
3.The bottom layer has no fossils at all. What does that suggest?
  • A.It is the youngest
  • B.Fossils were removed
  • C.It formed before those organisms lived here, or in conditions that preserved nothing
4.Sea shells sit below a soil layer with modern roots. What changed?
  • A.The place went from sea to dry land over a long time
  • B.Nothing changed
  • C.The roots grew into the sea
5.What would you expect below the lowest layer in the cutting?
  • A.Modern soil
  • B.The same soil as the top
  • C.Rock older still, formed before everything above it
6.A coal layer holds fern fossils. What was here then?
  • A.A swampy forest of plants that later formed coal
  • B.A desert
  • C.An ocean floor
7.Why does the ORDER of the layers matter as evidence?
  • A.Order is not evidence
  • B.It makes the drawing neat
  • C.It shows which conditions came first and which came later

LessonPrint · 4-ESS1-1 · Set 16 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading the Layers

Set 16. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. This place was once under the sea. 2. Grey mudstone with sea shells. 3. Fern fossils. 4. The landscape here changed over time, from sea to swamp forest to dry land.
  2. 2.The bottom layer, laid down first
  3. 3.It formed before those organisms lived here, or in conditions that preserved nothing
  4. 4.The place went from sea to dry land over a long time
  5. 5.Rock older still, formed before everything above it
  6. 6.A swampy forest of plants that later formed coal
  7. 7.It shows which conditions came first and which came later

More practice for 4-ESS1-1

Use rock layers and fossils as evidence that a landscape changed.

Teaching this next? Reading the Layers is the 55-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 4-ESS1-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.