I was so glad that this group was interested in rocks and crystals! My group last year was also into them and we had just started investigating when our school buildings were locked up and we were thrown into teaching through a computer in a pandemic. Well, this year, these kids have been showing me rocks all year and wondering about them so I brought out my huge rock, mineral and crystal collection again. I am a total rock geek and have collected them all my life! I showed them some during our whole group meeting and told them the memories that went with each one. Every rock I had told a story of someplace that I went and the people I shared the experience with.
So many math and science standards were used and practiced as they explored! We build math vocabulary by practicing our learning standard of comparing sizes and noticing which were taller/shorter, longer/shorted, and heavier/lighter.
We also sorted by attribute. Here they sorted by color, but they also sorted by size and type. They put them in groups that were similar such as crystals, geodes, lava rocks, fossils, etc. They also sorted by texture such as rough/smooth.
It took them a while to figure out what salt is! A friend looked at it through a microscope and declared they looked like crystals! We investigated further by using the iPad and found out salt is a crystal and a mineral. They thought it was weird that we put crystals on our food!
This group was very fascinated with the geodes so I put some agate out for them to explore and inspire some art! They loved putting the salt on the watercolors!
Some were interested in volcanoes so I set up an area for them to create stories and investigate volcanoes through some books.
Some kids had a rock collection but many did not so we decided to start one by making some scribble rocks! Their favorite part was washing and scrubbing the rocks they found in the dirt on our playground.
They used acrylic paints to paint designs on them.
Because of their love of geodes, I ordered some small ones on Amazon for them. We took them outside and each friend got to break their geode open with a hammer!
Every geode was filled with crystals inside!
During this inquiry, they had collected a few rocks. We kept them in a bag and at the end of the inquiry, talked about the memories/stories that these rocks had! The painted rock would remind them of their kindergarten friends who painted the rocks together. The fool’s gold would remind them of when the leprechaun visited out class room and mixed everything up, then left us the fools gold in our traps! The rose quarts would remind them of me, their kindergarten teacher, and the geode they would remember the experience of breaking them open on the playground with a hammer and the joy of finding the crystals inside! Now they all have a rock collection started that they can add to as they make more memories!
I only get a group once in a while full of rock hounds so I’m always very excited when it happens! This was a very fun investigation! Next, we investigate the sky....stay tuned!
