Sixth Grade
Worksheets
The Painted Desert
Ashkii stood silently. The desert was big around him. It stretched as far as he could see. The desert seemed magical to Ashkii. The Spaniards had called it "el desierto pintado, which means "the painted desert." His people, the Navajo, and the Hopis had lived here for more than one thousand years.
The desert is made up of layers of minerals and rocks. The winds and rain have carved dunes. The dunes have bands of gray, red, orange, and yellow. At sunrise and sunset, the dunes glow and appear to be violet, blue, red, and gold. The desert seems to be alive.
All around Ashkii were fossils of a coniferous forest. The fossils had taken millions of years to reach their present form. Wind, water, and soil erosion continue to change the desert. They expose new layers formed during even earlier times. They scatter the sediment and expose dinosaur tracks.
