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

LessonPrint · 4-ESS1-1 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading the Layers

Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.

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

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.