Rock Day Activity

What a great experience for first graders and hands on learning of rocks and rock cycles. I am fascinated with how they developed a plan for students to better understand the meaning of dif... See More

What a great experience for first graders and hands on learning of rocks and rock cycles. I am fascinated with how they developed a plan for students to better understand the meaning of difficult vocabulary. It also provokes some level of parent involvement and active engagement with students and their learning. The activities that they provide for students utilize a variety of different learning styles in order to incorporate learning for all students.

Students actively (and physically) build knowledg

What a fun way to learn about rocks for first graders! The article describes a series of activities and lessons that students completed culminating in a "rock day" where they spent the entir... See More

What a fun way to learn about rocks for first graders! The article describes a series of activities and lessons that students completed culminating in a "rock day" where they spent the entire day reviewing the information they had learned looking at models and physically modeling how molecules and particles move to create different types of rocks. While not all the concepts were "scientifically" accurate, based on student assessments they were completely developmentally appropriate. The authors admit this took time and parental assistance to pull off, but it sounds like a very worthwhile experience for both teachers and students and I recommend elementary teacher take a look (and middle level teachers might note some of the kinesthetic activities they might also modify and use as well, especially teachers of special needs or ELL students)