Rock and Roll

We spent the week rocking and rolling! We started off with a book called Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor. This book would help us as we explore the rocks all around us and help us choose a very special rock of our very own. 

We counted and sorted all kinds of rocks and minerals. We talked about their characteristics and made a list of descriptive words like- big, little, rough, smooth, shiny, dull, sparkly...

We used those same descriptive words when we played "I Spy" with our rocks. One of us described a rock in our collection and the rest of us had to guess which rock was being described. 

 

 

We read The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth by Joanna Cole 

and talked about how we live on a great big rock called earth. We recreated an earthquake (several actually!) by placing a board on top of some pillows. We each built a building with blocks and then the earth began to rumble. We shook the board and pulled at it 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.

After reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, 

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 magic rock from one to another.  When the song was over, the person in the middle had to guess who might be holding the magic 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 went on a rock hunt to add to our rock collection and to help us with our activities for the rest of the week.

After reading If You Find a Rock, by Peggy Christian,

we scrubbed all of our found rocks with toothbrushes and each picked one special one.

One of our favorite activities this week was painting rocks. We dropped our rocks in a salad spinner, added some acrylic paint and started spinning. The results were amazing! We'll add them to our fairy garden.

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 took turns describing our rocks and telling a bit about their history.

I think my rock came from Mars. 

It’s a little bit white.

It’s smooth on the bottom and rough on the top.

I think it just dropped all the say down to Earth and into the jungle.

I don’t know why.

We put it in the stroller and took it back to Ms. Susan’s house. 

My Rock

I think it came from a tree.

It just rolled down. 

It’s rough on the bottom but not rough on the top.

It’s kind of a little bit black and gray. 

My Rock

I think it came from the moon.

It fell all the way down to Earth.

It feels like smooth.

It looks black and a little bit of white.