Rocks and Rock Cycle

How could you incorporate this into your class? All kids love rocks and they are everywhere.

Comments

  1. Almost all of these videos were helpful and would enhance my rocks & minerals unit. The second video "Three Types of Rocks & Rock Cycle" was the exception. It was informative but slow paced and dry. Bill Nye is a rock star and combine repitition, humor, and hands on learning. "The Rock Cycle" and "Geology Kitchen" both did great jobs demonstrating how rocks are formed by using crayons in the first video and food products in the second. These are examples kids can connect with and perhaps try themselves. I also enjoyed "Our World: The Rock Cycle". I will use this in my class because it goes beyond the 3 types of rocks and gets students to think about rocks in space. There are 3 types of rocks on the moon as well as on Earth - how exciting!

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    1. I am glad you found these helpful. When I was teaching the Rock Cycle we would make Sedimentary Sandwiches and Metamorphic rocks.We used colored marshmallows on wax paper, folded the wax paper over ,heated them in a microwave so they became soft then the kids got to step on the wax paper and applied pressure and the Metamorphic Rock was formed by heat and pressure. They loved doing it. We also sorted rocks into the 3 types.

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    2. I am glad you found this helpful. Kids do enjoy discussing the 3 types of rocks and the rock cycle. I used to have them sort the rocks into the 3 groups then they would have to explain why they picked that group.

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    3. totally agree with the demo videos.

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  2. Lauren-

    I do not teach rocks in kindergarten but these lessons could be helpful in demonstrating another cycle. We focus on several life cycles (pumpkin, apple, seasons).

    History of Rocks video is great. I love how she demonstrated the experiment and made sure to reflect back to the actual rocks. I would have to do it for my kids, because the burners would be too dangerous. I think the children could easily grasp the three types of rocks; sediment-metamorphic-igneous, using this video and experiment.

    This year we did a kindness rock project as an entire school. I could easily have the children identify the type of rock they have before they decorate and place in in a hiding spot. A simple and developmentally appropriate way to incorporate additional science into our social studies curriculum (social thinking).

    Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You could take the kids on a rock hunt around the schoolyard to find rocks. You could have the kids sort them by size, shape and color.

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  3. Lauren already noted that Rocks are not part of our Kindergarten curriculum. She did note a GREAT opportunity to talk about rock types as we worked on our Kindness Rocks project as part of our Social Thinking curriculum!! Kudos, Lauren.

    I did view all 5 the videos to gauge the effectiveness of the content delivery for our young students. I think Bill Nye is so good because he is unbridled crazy about his material. He presented rock formation and the three rock types clearly and coupled it with good live footage of rock formation.

    Tessa’s Fun Science Demo depicting crayon shavings as minerals and layering/ heating them to illustrate various rock formations made it very easy to understand. Fun to watch.

    Geology Kitchen was received my lowest rating.
    It was harder to follow and not as developmentally appropriate for Kindergarten.

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    1. I am glad you can bring in the rocks under your Social Thinking curriculum. Gather the rocks in a rock hunt around the school grounds.

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  4. Although I love Bill Nye, I thought that his video was too fast and would confuse not only the kiddos on IEPs, but the group of ELL students we have this year. I put myself in their place and felt kind of overwhelmed. Although "Free School" was slow and deliberate, I liked the visuals and examples that accompanied them. I actually love the "Rock Detective" The quiz at the end would reinforce student's understanding of Igneous, Sedimentary, and Igneous rocks! "Geology Kitchen" would have been more effective if it wasn't as long, and included more visuals related to what he was "cooking" Lauren, I love that you have done a kindness rock project! Identifying the type of rock would be great!









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    1. Would it be possible to show Geology Kitchen in a couple of parts?

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  5. I enjoyed the second video Fire school. I really enjoyed the great description of each rock type and how they were formed in the rock cycle. Another video I enjoyed was the rock cycle demo with the crayons. I am a real demo junkie, I feel kids can understand so much more by examples. Kids could really relate to this video , because it was very simple and easy to understand. Another, video I enjoyed was the lunar rock one (Our world the rock). I love how they made the connection from our rock cycle to the Lunar rock cycle. The Lunar basalt and how it was formed by something similar to lava, Anorthosite and how thoughts rocks were formed on the moon when it was cooling. Another rock formed on the moon is lunar Breccia from meteorites hitting the moon. I feel this video does not really go into any of the 6th grade standards but was a great fun fact video to show the kids if I have time.

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  6. You could always have them watch it at home for homework and write a summary of what they thought.

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  7. Hazel
    I agree with my colleagues that this videos would be most appropriate.
    These videos will be very helpful when we discuss the layers of the earth. The kids could make the connections with the layers of the earth and kind of rocks formed in each layer. They certainly make learning more interesting. Bill Nye is my favorite and gets my students really excited about learning. The ‘Three types of Rocks’ video were spoken slowly (opposite of Bill Nye), but got the point across with the new vocabulary. I think this would be helpful for my ELL students. The NASA video would give my students excited as well since I have some possible astronauts in my class. The Geology Kitchen was interesting and brings everyday things that kids can relate to and compare them to the type of rocks and their formation. Rocks are all around us and these videos would be great assets to have to explore the differences and similarities of rocks since “a rock is not just a rock” as noted in ‘Rock Detective’. I know myself, when I go to the beach I love collecting rocks so these videos can make simple sense of rocks and the changes they go through. I would use all of these videos in my teaching.

    Just as an aside, love that there are women featured in the some of the videos!

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    1. Rocks are certainly everywhere and easy to come by. Just have the kids bring rocks in from home and compare the differences. I am glad you found the videos helpful.

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