Making Rocks and Fossils

This week we are continuing our study on Rocks.  We did two lab activities.  We made Model Rocks and made our own Fossils!

Model Rocks

To make a model rock we added a spoonful of sand, a spoonful of gravel, and a spoonful of glue into a cup and mixed.  Then the students put the glob on wax paper and when it dries, they will have their own homemade rock!

Making Fossils

To make a fossil the students flattened out a piece of clay.  I gave them a shell or a plastic dinosaur bone to press into the clay.  They pulled the piece out and filled the indention with white glue.  When it dried, we peeled the glue off and they had a fossil mold!

Since we have learned about different rocks and minerals and how they are formed, we played a game.  I have a True or False book about Rocks and Minerals.  We divided into groups and kept score.  The class loved it!  This is the book below and it went along very well with everything we have been studying!

Minerals and Rocks

The past few weeks our class has been studying Rocks and Minerals.  First we learned three ways scientists determine what type of mineral it is:  color from the outside, color it makes when given a streak test, and the hardness of the mineral.

We did a Hardness Lab first.  The students made three columns labeled Fingernail, Penny, and Steel Nail.  They used all three ways to scrape each mineral to determine if it could be scratched.  They learned there were a few minerals that were very fragile and scraped off easily with their fingernail, but there were also ones that were extremely hard and even a steel nail could not scrape through it!

The next day we did a Streak Test Lab.  Each student was able to make a streak across a piece of tile and record what color the mineral left behind.  We had lots of fun with both labs.

This past week we learned the three types of rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic.  They sang a Rock Cycle song to the tune of "We Will Rock You!"  We will definitely try to sing that song again this next week as we will learn about Fossils.  Stay tuned!!!