We’ve been doing a little bit of geology around here – just a smattering here and there. We did a little rock identification at the beach last week, and that inspired a more formal set up at home this week.
My jumping off point was this rock identification flow chart. Everything’s funnier when it mentions poop… You can download it as part of a whole earth science unit at science mom.
To go along with the flow chart, I created an experiment sheet. I then set up tables in the kitchen with all the items needed for the girls to explore. I set out some of the beach rocks, plus some others from our rock kit. The experiment sheet asks the girls to do a few more steps beyond the flow chart, and provides a space for FunGirl to do some research on her specific rock too. We’re finding that Rocks from DK is a really great resource for looking up our guesses.
As the week went on, the girls wanted more so I added some minerals – and added a new flow chart! The favorites to experiment with so far are a stick of chalk (gypsum), desert rose (gypsum again) and pumice. They haven’t seen the magnetite yet, which will be exciting and we have quite a heated discussion going at the moment on whether a particular sample is meteorite or pyrite.
If you’d like to set up an experiment station you can grab my free experiment sheet here!
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