Rocks: Sorting by Color, Texture, and Hardness

You find four rocks. Rock A is red, Rock B is gray, Rock C is red, and Rock D is white. Which rocks belong in the same color group?

A rock feels rough and bumpy when you touch it. Which property are you observing: color, texture, or hardness?

A student scratches a rock with a fingernail, and the rock gets a scratch mark. Is the rock soft or hard? Explain your answer.

Sort these rocks by texture: smooth black rock, rough gray rock, smooth white rock, rough brown rock. Write the rocks in two groups: smooth and rough.

Mia has a tan rock that feels smooth. Liam has a tan rock that feels rough. Are the rocks the same in both color and texture? Explain.

A rock cannot be scratched by a fingernail, but it can be scratched by a penny. Choose the best hardness group: soft, medium, or hard.

Look at this sorting rule: Put all dark-colored rocks in Group 1 and all light-colored rocks in Group 2. Where should a black rock go?

You have three rocks. Rock A is smooth and white. Rock B is rough and white. Rock C is smooth and gray. Which two rocks match by texture?

A science table has these groups: red rocks, gray rocks, and white rocks. A rock is pink. Which group is it closest to, and why?

Which tool is safer for testing a rock's hardness in class: your tongue, a fingernail, or your eye? Explain.

A rock is shiny, black, and smooth. Name two properties of the rock from the sentence.

Use this rule: Put rocks that can be scratched by a fingernail in the soft group. Put rocks that cannot be scratched by a fingernail in the harder group. Rock A can be scratched. Rock B cannot be scratched. Rock C can be scratched. Which rocks go in the soft group?

A student sorts rocks into groups by size: small, medium, and large. Is this sorting by color, texture, or hardness?

Four rocks are on a tray. Two are rough and two are smooth. Write one question you could ask to sort them by hardness.

Nora wants to sort her rocks fairly. She first sorts by color, then she sorts the same rocks by texture. Why can the same rocks be sorted in more than one way?