Everybody Needs a Rock

That's the title of a favorite book by Byrd Baylor, and I believe it's true. Everybody needs a rock . . . . some of us need two or ten or two hundred!

Of course, what lesson is complete without a fieldtrip with Ms. Frizzle and her class? We read The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth as we reviewed the layers of the earth and studied sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.

Cooperative science teams then acted as mineral detectives, working together to identify a mystery mineral, using a series of mineral tests.

They observed the mineral's color, smell, and luster.

A flashlight helped to determine whether the mineral was transparent, translucent, or opaque.

Next, the mineral was carefully dragged along a white tile and then a black tile to find the color of the streak.

Young geologists tested the mineral's hardness first by attempting to scratch it with a fingernail, then a nail, a penny, and a tile.

The mineral was checked for properties of magnetism and fluorescence.

The mineral's mass and volume were measured and recorded.

Finally, our mineral detectives had gathered enough information to guess at the mystery mineral's identity!

Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop is a great literature tie-in for classification of rocks and minerals.

Thanks to generous DonorsChoose donors for the funding to purchase our mineral test kits, as well as Fossils and Rocks, Gems, & Minerals field guides!