Rocking and Rolling with Earth Science

My class’ new unit is focused on Earth Science.  We’ve gotten off to a great start and the kids are super excited to be working on science after our start in social studies/ health.

 

First, we used our Constructive and Destructive forces Internet Scavenger Hunt to begin gathering information about how rocks are formed and how they break apart.

 

 

 

 

Next, we used a KWL chart to put together what we knew and what we wanted to know.  The students came up with some really great questions like:

 

 

Can all of the land disappear?

How are continents formed?

How do rocks and plates move?

How does water change rocks?

How do volcanoes erupt?

The students came up with a list of 15 questions total, and then transferred their top 5 questions onto our Questioning chart. We stop periodically and see if we can answer some of our questions.

 

 

 

We have read the book How Mountains are Made and watched two Magic School Bus Videos – Blows it’s Top and Rocks and Rolls.  We also used the app the Rock Cycle to read a story from a rock’s point of view.

 

Now, my students are working on their Earth’s Materials Glog project.  They are using books like Rocks and Minerals and Usborne Geographical Encyclopedia, as well as websites like http://www.kidsgeo.com/geology-for-kids/ and kid-friendly search engines like www.factmonster.com to find information about a material they chose.  My students have chosen: clay, gold, granite, diamond, pearl, ruby and sapphire.  They should be finished with their research by the end of this week and then they will use http://edu.glogster.com to create a glog about their material.

During Thanksgiving week, we will be completing some cool hands-on erosion activities with sugar cubes and we will create candy rocks.  Then, to finish off our unit, the students will write stories about the “rock brothers” who choose different paths.  One brother changed slowly and the other changed quickly.

What are you studying in science right now?