Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 2, “Earth Science Rocks!” (1st-2nd)
Hello all! Today was ROCK DAY! Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic (with some Minerals thrown in!). We started the day by revisiting the “rock piles” from yesterday and reviewing the observations the kids had made about them. I also added my rocks from my own collection to the piles BEFORE giving the students the names of the types of rocks or discussing how they are formed. We continued to closely observe the rocks. The students then had to guess which of the 3 piles was formed primarily by lava or magma. I’ve attached a photo of their guess! They couldn’t explain why they thought this yet—but they were correct! Ask them if they had a favorite rock!
We then had more formal lessons about the characteristics of Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary Rocks with several activities-drawing diagrams, analyzing more rocks, and short videos and quizzes. The kids also did “Rock Improv,” where they acted out magma or lava turning into rock. It was pretty entertaining. The kids should be able to tell you how all 3 are formed!
After lunch, we had our usual “brain break” where I put photos of mountains that are volcanoes in column A, and mountains that are NOT volcanoes in column B. I told them nothing about the photos but asked them why I had sorted them into column A and column B. I like these inductive reasoning exercises and use them often. It feels like a game to them, but they are really using the reasoning parts of their brains!
The remainder of the afternoon was spent doing a series of erosion experiments. We shook hard candies in water and jars to demonstrate water erosion, shook sugar cubes in plastic eggs to demonstrate wind erosion, put chalk in vinegar to demonstrate acid erosion, and sanded wood, rocks with sandpaper, and a metal file to demonstrate friction. In these exercises, the students “thought like scientists” and had to make hypotheses, draw conclusions, and describe observations. Many of these steps are new to the kids, and they all did an excellent job.
It was a big day with even bigger words and concepts. Their brains may be full!
