Rocks and Minerals
Children love rocks, minerals, and fossils. I can usually find a rock rolling around in my dryer from the latest visit to a park. Rocks and minerals can be a fun and interesting study. You can collect for a few months or years and probably not discover all the cool things to know about rocks. Rocks can be found all over the world. Actually, the solid part of the earth is a rock. You will find rocks under the soil, in the water, and even in polar ice caps. Rocks are made of a combination of minerals, and you may even have seen some famous rocks.
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Mount Rushmore National Park in South Dakota
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Garden of the Gods National Park in Colorado
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The Grand Canyon in Arizona
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Yellowstone National Park in Montana
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Yosemite National Park in California
Rock collecting is a great way to get children interested in the many types of rocks. There are many activities to incorporate into your lesson in simple ways.
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Create a collection box from a shoe box, cotton, and cardboard or purchase a plastic case with dividers.
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Take photos of rocks at the parks you visit or purchase one from the visitors center.
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Research how rocks change before going to park with large rock formations.
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Make rock candy to explain how minerals can form.
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Look at dirt samples from the parks you visit under a microscope for tiny rocks.
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Visit a rock and mineral museum.
Differences in rocks:
There are three different kinds of rocks. Sedimentary, Metamorphic and Igneous. The difference between them is how they were formed.
- Sedimentary rocks are formed by fragments of sand, shells, pebbles and other particles.
- Igneous rocks are rocks that have crystallized from a melt or magma.
- Metamorphic rocks used to be one of the other two and by a change of pressure or heat their original form changed.
Books to enhance your study:
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Experiments with Rocks and Minerals, Carol Hand
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Let’s Go Rock Collecting, Roma Gans
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Geology Rocks-A Kaleidoscope Kids Book, Cindy Bloebaum
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Rock Collecting for Kids, Dan Lynch
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mineralology4kids.org – Mineralogical Society of America
Resources for this lesson
Types of rocks worksheet
Learn about rocks and minerals activity
Learner.org rock cycle and interactive information
Mineralogy4kids.com website