Rock and Roll August 1-5 2011

We spent the week rocking and rolling!

We counted and sorted all kinds of rocks and minerals. We talked about their characteristics and used words like- big, little, rough, smooth, shiny, dull, and so on.

We had fun drawing, coloring and writing with rock crayons. They're great for "little hands" to control.

We talked about how we live on a great big rock called earth. We recreated an earthquake (several actually!) by placing two large pieces of cardboard next to each other on top of some pillows. We each built a building with blocks and then the earth began to rumble (we shook the cardboard pieces and pulled at them to make a crack in the earth). All of our structures fell. We built structures again, this time paying closer attention to how they were built. We made stronger foundations creating more stability for them. When another earthquake occurred, they withstood much more and some even stayed standing.

Using an oatmeal container, we dipped some small rocks in paint and dropped them in. We added a piece of paper and got busy rocking and rolling the container. The products were quite interesting.

We sat in a big circle to play a rock game. One person sat in the middle with his/her eyes closed, as those in the circle sang and passed a rock from one to another.  When the song was over, the person in the middle had to guess who might be holding the rock. 

  
Rock, rock, how you wander,
From one place and to the other.
Is it fair, is it fair,
To keep poor ____________ sitting there?

We read a book called, A Gift from the Sea by Kate Banks.

It's about a boy who found a special rock but didn't realize how very special it really was. The book told the history of the rock from way back during the time of the dinosaurs. We went on a rock hunt, looking for our own rock. We took turns telling the history of our rocks knowing that our rocks are very special as well.


So, I think it came from the sky.
Like from a meteor.
It fell all the way down from the sky.

Mine spewed from a volcano.
It feels soft.
 Then it was in the ocean.
 I will keep mine in a rock "speeler".

It came from a cave.
It's a praying rock, like my other one is.
I'll put it on the windowsill on the
inside of the window.
It started out small and grew bigger.

Mine came from a volcano.



Mine came from a white cave.
And white isn't even a color.
It's a playing rock.
Maybe. I don't know.
It's always been little.
 I'm going to hold it.
 It's just a holding rock.

 We brought them back to our play yard and washed them in a tub of soapy water so that we could see all of the colors and textures in our rocks.

We finished up our rocking and rolling week with a trip to the Phoenix Gold Mine. We went inside the mine and saw all kinds of different minerals- even some gold. We got to pan for gold in a small creek by the side of the road, but only for a short time, because it started to rain. This is something we'll be sure and do again real soon.