Week 31 Day 3

Book choices for today:

Jump into Science: Rocks and Minerals   Steve Tomecek
Rocks and Minerals   Edward R, Ricciuti
Rocks & Minerals   Melvin Berger
Let’s Go Rock Collecting   Roma Gans

Science: (first circle)

Need for lesson – A variety of rocks with a magnifying glass. A chocolate cookie, small amount of flour, sugar, chocolate chips, and butter.

Science 71
We learned about the layers of the Earth. The Earth has a layer called the crust. The crust is made up of rocks and minerals. The rocks you see around you – the mountains, canyons, and riverbeds are all made of minerals. A rock is made up of two or more minerals. We can think about it like this cookie. Here are the things that together, make a cookie: flour, sugar, chocolate chips, and butter. The cookie is like a rock, and these ingredients are like the minerals. You need minerals to make rock, but you don’t need a rock to make minerals. So all rocks are made of minerals.
There are about 3000 different minerals in the world. Minerals are made of chemicals and organized into 8 different groups. Minerals that can fashioned into various shapes for jewelry are called gemstones. Rocks are also organized into groups. There are three different types or groups of rocks. They are organized into groups because of how they were formed or made. The three types of rocks are Igneous Rocks, Sedimentary Rocks, and Metamorphic Rocks.
Igneous means made from fire or heat. When volcanoes erupt and the liquid lava comes out, it cools and turns into solid rock. This is how Igneous rocks are formed.
Sedimentary rocks are formed when over time things like the rain, wind, and melting snow cause big mountains to crumble a little bit at a time. These little broken bits of rocks end up in streams and rivers that flow down from the mountains. Over time these broken bits of rock turn into sand. Then these layers and layers of sand and mud at the bottom of lakes and oceans turn into rocks, called Sedimentary rocks.
Metamorphic rocks are those that have changed. When the Earth’s crust moves it causes rocks to get squeezed so hard that the heat makes the rock change. So Metamorphic rocks are igneous and sedimentary rocks that have changed because of great heat or pressure. Marble is an example of a rock that changed from being sedimentary to now being a metamorphic rock!

Art:

Painted Rocks – Children can have fun painting rocks. They can make them look like animals, or paint their names, flowers, etc.

Songs/Poems:

Rocks (tune – Frere Jacques)
Rocks in my pockets,
Rocks in my pockets,
Big and small,
Big and small,
Shiny little pebbles,
Shiny little pebbles,
Found them all, found them all.

Geography: (second circle)

Need for lesson – Story below read with an Australian accent!

I asked my husband to write a little story that takes place in Australia. I also had him record himself reading it into my phone with an Australian accent. The children really enjoyed listening to it! Before we listened to the recording, I told the children to listen for words that they haven’t heard before. We discussed the story and what those words mean. Remind them of how in Australia, we learned that they have different names for things such as boys are called blokes and girls are called sheilas.

Here is the story:

My Australian cobber loved having a barbie. He’d gather chook, snags, and slats. He would then toss them next to his billy on top of the fire. A family of roo gathered, upon which he’d grizzle, being knackered by their constant presence. Just as he saw the postie come deliver his mail, he was attacked by a mossie and ran away!