Rock Models

Colleagues,

My students created a granite rock models after investigating properties and classifications of rocks. I used students from a summer program to complete the model; therefore, they were in grades 4-7. I began the lesson by holding a rock in my hand and had students to guess what I had in my hand, only allowing them to ask yes/no questions. After the students guessed that I was holding a rock, we then wrote different descriptions of rocks. Next, the students traced and colored their rock, before repeating this process after dipping their rock into water. They recorded the differences in the wet and dry rock and described the texture. After the completion of this recording, the students then placed their rock in a pile and challenged themselves to find it amongst the other rocks

After we had classified rocks and recorded data, the students made a model granite rock. Students were given a patterns page in which they had to label and color each shape. They realized that each shape represented a mineral crystal. After coloring and labeling the patterns, the students cut out the shapes and compared their model to a real piece of granite. The only challenge was the different age groups because of the summer program, but we had fun and ended the lesson with ways that the students could model a granite rock. They had ideas from using construction  paper and rhinestones to cupcakes, icing, sprinkles and saran wrap for the marble effect.