Geology+Learning+Experience+2


 * Rocks and Minerals, Learning Experience 2 continued (From Insights, See the end of L.E. 2)**
 * Learning Experience 2 cont.**
 * __Day One__**

Materials:
 * Rock collections in small containers, one per pair
 * //Properties of Rocks// anchor chart

Learning Targets:
 * 1) I can observe and describe properties of rocks and minerals. This means I can talk about their size, shape, color, and texture.
 * 2) I can revise my sketch to make it look even more like a real rock.

Procedure:
 * 1) Review what geology is.
 * 2) Hand out small containers of mixed rocks, one per pair. Ask students to explore the rocks with their partner and to notice the **properties** (how they look and feel).
 * 3) Use this sentence starter: //I have a rock that is...// (so they come up with adjectives).
 * 4) Start a list of properties of rocks, as kids share what they came up with. The list can have 5 headings: shape, size, color, texture, and other. List words that fall into each category under the proper headings. As one student adds a word, say "If you have a rock that is //bumpy// (etc), hold it up." If there are words you think are missing from the list, say them yourself. "Does anyone have a rock that is...?"
 * 5) //Make sure they use the sentence starter, "I have a rock that is..."//
 * 6) Ask about temperature (warm or cold)
 * 7) Weight (heavy, light)
 * 8) Color
 * 9) Texture (Hard / soft / smooth / bumpy / rough)
 * 10) Shape
 * 11) Size
 * 12) After you have developed the word bank, have kids go to seats to do final drafts of rock sketches from yesterday / add color. (You may need to do a quick demonstration on the ELMO of how to blend colors with colored pencils.)
 * 13) Sharing: feedback to a partner: what did they do well in their sketch? (return to the list of criteria from yesterday)

__**Day TWO**__

Learning targets:
 * 1) I can observe and describe properties of rocks and minerals. This means I can talk about their size, shape, color, and texture.

Materials:
 * 1) Students' own rocks from previous days
 * 2) Index cards in 5 colors, cut in half

Model writing only one word, large, on their index cards.
 * 1) Model how to use the index cards to write at least one descriptive word for each property of their own rocks (size, shape, color, texture). (They can also do "other" if they want to.) Size goes on one color index card; shape goes on another, etc. Students need to come up with at least one word for each property.
 * 1) Send students to their own desks with their own rock. They must come up with at least one word for each of the four properties. After they do 4 words, challenge them to come up with as many as they can. They write words having to do with shape on green cards, words having to do with size on red cards, etc.
 * 2) These will be displayed with final draft sketches of their rocks, hanging from below them.
 * 3) Final sharing option: share with a partner and find a way your rock is the same and different from their rock. __Sentence frame__: Both of these rocks are //blank//. This rock is //blank// but this rock is //blank.//
 * 4) Go back to our trays of Rocks, Not Rocks, and Not Sure. Talk about objects that they weren’t sure were a rock or not – why do you think it could be a rock? What makes you think it’s not? How could we find out? Does our list of properties help in any way? What is the same about all the rocks we looked at?

Bonus work for people who finish: list the properties of a different rock. [|properties of rocks Bonus.doc]