Rocks and Minerals

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,...

Get your classroom rocking with this four-lesson earth science unit. Through a series of shared reading activities and hands-on investigations, young geologists learn about the three types of rocks and the unique properties of each.

Students use their imaginations in order to journey to the center of the earth to find different types of minerals. They create minerals using playdough and create scientific drawings of them. Finally, students create a map to locate the...

Students review the properties of rocks and minerals. For this geology lesson, students distinguish between rocks and minerals. Students also classify the rocks as igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary.

Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...

Students discover how to use a software program known as KidPix. They create a slideshow noting the differences between rocks and minerals. They share their slides with the class.

Students examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.

Students explore the steps involved in the formation of metamorphic rock as they prepare a cookie receipe. As part of the process, sedimentary rocks are created and changed through heat to a metamorphic cookie.

Students complete a Rock Star Journal while studying the properties of their rock. They choose their own rock star, and then they are going to learn everything they can about their rock star.

First graders classify rocks, explore the properties of rocks, become "geologists," and learn what happens when rocks bump into each other.