Cross-Curricular Connections
Art
Drama - Have students in groups recreate the Rock cycle without words using actions.
Art - Gypsum Painting, Natural Mineral dyes and paints. Painting with minerals
Sketching with minerals - Use art grade Graphite or Carbon to sketch
Pottery - Using minerals to make pots for ages. https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/archaeology/piecing-it-all-together2
Cave Art: Check out the video on the playlist here. Then have students create rock art of a story on their own using sidewalk chalk and pavement/concrete (a rock!)
Social Studies
Strand A: How have peoples of the past used Rocks and Minerals in their Societies?
First Nations and Inuit - Hot rocks for cooking, sweat lodges, tools (tomahawks, fur scrapers, mortar and pestle, arrowheads, fire bow-drill), painting. Set out pictures or actual objects in student groups and have them come up with a consensus on how it may have been used by early societies. See slide deck here for more games/Activities
Cave Art: Check out the video on the playlist here. Then have students create rock art of a story on their own using sidewalk chalk and pavement/concrete (a rock!)
Habitats: Different habitats have different minerals. For example The Anishinabe/Cree lived on the Canadian Shield, while the Wendat peoples lived on the Limestone areas in the south. How did their lifestyles reflect the habitats they lived in? Look at their Shelters, the way they gathered food, and the stone tools they used. Use this resource to explore.
Strand B: Physical Regions of Canada
Rocks and Minerals in Canada Interactive Webmap
Rocks and Mineral Mining Locations Across Canada Poster
Math
Fractions: Fill a glass jar (a mineral) with coloured glass beads (also a mineral) or actual minerals (quartz, feldspar and hornblende are good examples you can collect). Each of the 2-4 colours can represent a mineral in a rock. Have the students count the number of each colour inside and make a fraction representing the proportion of each "colour mineral" in the jar. Afterwards try to guess the fractional amount of each minerals in granite or gneiss.
Data Management: Collect data on 3 or 4 minerals you eat in your food every day for a week. Multiply the number of servings by the mineral content and display this in a bar graph. (Eg. 4g Sodium (Halite) per serving x 3 servings= 12 g sodium in the week.
(To be updated with more...)
Careers exploration
Science
Pulleys and Gears: They are made from minerals (usually iron, carbon, plastic (oil), or aluminum.
Habitats: Different habitats have different minerals. For example The Anishinabe/Cree lived on the Canadian Shield, while the Wendat peoples lived on the Limestone areas in the south. How did their lifestyles reflect the habitats they lived in? Look at their Shelters, the way they gathered food, and the stone tools they used. Use this resource to explore.
Light and Sound: Explore how to make different sounds using rocks. Many rocks and minerals are used to make things we use for light and sound everyday. List the minerals inside one of those devices (eg. TV - LCD- quartz crystals, copper wires, gold, etc.) Some minerals block light, some transmit light (glass), and some will fluoresce. Inquire with real examples if possible or visit the links above.
Phys-Ed
Rock Games: Check out these Rock Games for Students that you can set up in the classroom or outside. Most of these games require just a few pebbles or rocks!
Active Game: Collect moon rocks with this active Phys-Ed game. Link.
Health Inquiry: Look up some minerals that are in the food we eat. How much Iron are you getting? Or potassium? Look up the Nutrition information from a box at home to inquire. Which ones are minerals?
Kinesthetic Rock Cycle Game: Have students play as Sedimentary, Igneous or Metamorphic Rocks. If they are igneous, their symbol is having their hands out like an airplane. If they are Igneous they play with their arms crossed. All others are metamorphic and try to tag one of the two other rock types. When tagged they become metamorphic too. Have 2-4 players be Erosion and weathering with two different colour pinnies. They can tag anyone in the game. One colour pinnied person when they tag changes people to sedimentary rock, the other turns them into Igneous.
Literacy
Rock Story Activity
Have the students explore some traditional First Nations and Inuit Stories on Rocks and Minerals.
Have them create their own story about a rock they found. You can have them create a fictional story with a moral, or you can have them make a realistic story based on the rock type and evidence if you are at the end of your unit. Click here for more details.