I visited and was invited into Mrs. Moore's 3rd Grade Science Class as they engaged in a hands-on Science Activity! The children were so excited to tell me what they did, why they were doing it and how they completed the activity. Numerous hands "flew-up" when I said, "someone tell me what you all have been working on." Not only were they excited about the assignment, Mrs. Moore was very involved and engaged as well. I asked her to give me a deeper description of the activity so that I could share with all!
"We have been studying rocks and minerals for a couple of
weeks now. We started out reading about the Earth’s layers and what they are
made up of. We found out that the mantle of the Earth is where our igneous and
metamorphic rocks come from. We made a model of the Earth’s layers to go in our
Science binder.
The students each brought in a rock from home. I read them
the book, If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian. In this book it talks
about the different types of rocks we see every day (skipping, walking,
sitting, climbing, wishing, memory, crossing, chalk, etc.) and they had to try
and figure out what kind of rock that they had brought in to school from home.
In our Science books we read in chapter 7 about how rocks
are identified by their properties. We discussed what the word properties meant
and read examples of how rocks can be described. The students then got to
observe their rocks with Loupes. They then described their rocks by the way
they looked and felt and drew what they looked like up close.
I read the book Rocks: Hard, soft, smooth and rough
and the students had rocks, that I distributed out, in their hands. While I
read the story, the students decided if the properties that I was describing
identified their rock. While reading the story we stopped to identify the
different types of rocks (Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic) and how
they are formed."
Students studied the layers of Sedimentary rocks by creating their very own rock! They used pudding, graham crackers, chocolate chips and marshmallows to create their edible rock!!
