Collecting Rocks

Young geologists discover the important role that rocks and minerals play in our everyday lives through this series of hands-on activities. Starting off with a lesson that defines the difference between plants, animals, and minerals,...

Students investigate how rocks are formed, how they are used, and how to collect them by listening to a read aloud of Roma Gans, Let's Go Collecting Rocks.. They discover background knowledge of rocks.

Students devise a rock word web and sort rocks by applying the categories they discuss.

Every kid has a rock collection! That's because rocks are unique and different. Learners discover how igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks form in an informational and visually engaging video.

Students explore their neighborhoods to collect a variety of rocks that are compared for color, texture, and size. This leads to a inquirey into the parts of the Earth and the type of rocks that conctitute its crust.

Students examine how rocks are composed of different minerals. They analyze rock samples, then examine cookies, sorting out the simulated mineral ingredients from the cookies and identifying the mineral ingredients.

Students recognize differences in the size, shape, texture, and color of different rocks. In this rocks lesson plan, students also learn and repeat back how a volcano erupts and make one out of a toilet paper tube.

Students observe and explore rocks. In this rock lesson, students listen to the story Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! and identify rocks as metamorphic, sedimentary, igneous and volcanic.  They create and identify their own rock collection.

Students discover the different shapes and sizes of rocks. They create a chart on what they already know about rocks and sort rocks by size. They place cutouts of rocks on construction paper from smallest to largest.

Students explore the physical properties of sand, soil, and rocks and sort, classify, compare, and contrast the materials found in the soil. The differences between the living and non-living parts of the soil is discussed.