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Rock Cycle
Learn the Basics
Tectonic Plates Video shows how tectonic plates work and how continents move. After watching the videos, let's get into some hands-on-activities and come back to the videos later.
Hands-on Activities
Week One
The very best way to get started is to put a rock in the students hands. If you start with this activity here, it starts their imaginations going. Then after that you can talk about how the rocks got formed.
(1) One Rock For this activity, students need to have one rock. It would be best if you asked the students to find a rock and bring it in. The more colorful, the better. Tell them that they will be manipulating the rock and will use as nail file on it, drop it in some vinegar.... that sort of thing. So, any rock they find IN A NATURAL LOCATION should be fine. I don't want anyone buying a rock at the dollar store, or taking something that their grandfather found in New Mexico in 1941. Walk down the street and pick up a rock. Or better yet, hike somewhere and bring back a rock. Everyone needs a naturally occurring rock to do this activity. The teacher need some vinegar, some cups to float the rocks in, a nail file, a copper penny, a few magnets and your diamond wedding ring.....
(Now you got to understand that I'm a geology nut so I don't have a lot of directions on this worksheet because I just spew all the weird information I know at students. When I finish developing this unit I will have some better directions.)
(2) Now, watch this video Rock Cycle Video It not only shows the rock cycle on earth, but on the moon. And, of course, a worksheet, to go with the video!
(3) Now, that each kid has a rock, loves their rock and has bonded for life.... You can find out it's type... Click here for a quick reference sheet for students to identify more precisely.
Rock Cycle with Crayons Shavings Honestly, spend the day before this activity, shredding up all the old crayons that you got laying around your room. Kids have a grand old time shaving them down with old cheese graters. I know one parent volunteered to do it for me before and she just threw a bunch of crayons in her food processor. After you have a pound or two of shaped crayons, you are ready to do this activity. It really does help students understand the rock cycle. It is best to have the crayons sorted by color. Then just follow along from this lesson plan.
Salt Dough Dinosaur Dig. This does require some teacher prep, but maybe you got a willing parent will set it up for you. And then you bring it in class and teach about digging up dinosaur bones. It's really good to be hands-on, but make sure the kids have enough toothbrushes to do the archaeological dig right.
Also, there is a cute paper activity to teach kids how dinosaurs become fossils. Click here or on the images to the right.
Making anything into a magnet It's easy to make anything into a magnet, like a pair of scissors, or a paper clip. All you have to do is rub a magnet in the same direction multiple times. The more you do it, the stronger the magnet. Here is quick video to show how. I like to have students make paperclips and scissors magnetic. Then, we try with other metals, like coins and notice that some metals can not be made magnetic, some metals are naturally magnetic and in fact, our entire geosphere is magnetic.
Homemade Compass With a few simple materials, students can see that the entire world we sit on is one giant magnet. A cork, a sewing needle, water and done! This link will show you how.
Partner Talk! This is a Give one/ Get one activity to get the kids talking. Click here for the handy dandy worksheet, but basically the kids go walking around the room, asking the same question to twelve different kids in class. Great for Language Learners, great to get kids up and talking, and gets lots of creative answers!
Build a Volcano
Week Two
Day One: Research some volcanoes. First we watch this video on Pompeii. Then, we look at a map of the tectonic plates and guess where the world's most active volcanos are located. I use this worksheet for students to sign up for a volcano. We spend just the first day Googling volcanos to find one we like.
Day Two: Research your volcano. I use this worksheet to help organize the information they are collecting. When they finish, they can color, cut and glue this template for a quick model.
Day Three: We do a whole class model of a volcano using baking soda and vinegar, or Coke and Mentos if you like. It is a brief lesson on acids and bases and we connect the chemistry and the building pressure to volcano. This is just a modeled demonstration. I tell the students they will do it themselves on their own volcanos.
Day Four: Now, we get to watching a bunch of videos!
Ted Ed Volcano Talk for kids (5:33)
This video is great because it does talk about cause and effects and students can use this video to finish their research notes.
Iceland's Volcano erupting (6:08)
This video is a catalyst for kids chatting, talking, etc. It's basically a movie of the eruption over instrumental music. Cool, if you like visuals.
Documentary on Mega Eruptions (50:46)
Underwater Volcanoes (1:50)
Day Five: This is where we take about a week break to start gathering supplies in order to make the volcano out of paper machê. We need a few bags of flour, lots of newspaper, cardboard, like paper towel rolls, tape, lots and lots of tape, ... well, click here for the full thing... We actually take a break for a few weeks to get enough time to gather all these supplies. During this break we work on our informative writing essays about volcanos.
Week Three (while we wait for students to bring in materials)
This is where we start the reading and writing part of this. We read a bunch of articles and our science textbook about volcanoes and the geosphere. Then, start our writing informative on our volcanos. Click here to be re-directed to the Informative Writing page about Science Writing.
Week Four
Now, back to the building of the volcano! Students get together with their team and start planning! Use this packet to help with that! As students start building, I made this rubric.
Want to go further? There is a volcano in Iceland that has black lava, pure jet black lava. Which means the nearby rocks and sand are also jet black. Look at this beach of jet black sand. Who wants to go to Iceland?
Want to go further? There is a volcano in Iceland that has black lava, pure jet black lava. Which means the nearby rocks and sand are also jet black. Look at this beach of jet black sand. Who wants to go to Iceland?
They came out looking great!
Students erupted them on Open House. Each kidhad an orange label, like this one.
Geological Time Line
&
Time Fillers
Now, to understand the modern world, you got top understand where we came from. And you must understand where we are in the whole scheme of things. Was the Wooly Mammoth before or after sharks? When was the last ice age? This is the time for students to put everything on the geological time line. Use the video (and matching worksheet) below to introduce the idea of Geological Time.
But, honestly, lots of things in this sections I use through my unit, but never in the same spot. Teaching is full of a weird ten minutes here, a time void after a fire drill there - it's just the nature of the game. This is what this section is for: Time killers, extensions, review. enrichment.... :)
Extinct Animals
(And their modern counterparts)
This is a nice relaxing video with a nice relaxing soundtrack… To get your class very excited about prehistoric animals. It shows a man walking so students can see the ratio of the size of different prehistoric creatures.
This also has a nice relaxing soundtrack… And it shows students the living and the extinct animals as a comparison… So it would compare a shark and a megalodon, a woolly mammoth and a modern-day elephant. Very informative, very relaxing, very little language required.
Interesting Videos
and here is my six year old nephew, Jayden, holding a megaladon tooth!
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