2nd science lesson: more planning=more fun!

The second Rocks and Minerals lesson L and I did went really well! We are having as much fun as our students exploring!


First, we are working with a really great group of kids! They listen, they are very engaged and excited about the material. When we entered the class we were first introduced to Stephanie--a young female students large (at least a few pounds!) pet rock(!), happily swaddled in a bevy of fleece blankets! The students are so enthusiastic and interested in learning! It's absolutely wonderful to work with them!

And, we have a very supportive teacher that we are working with too. She has helped inspire the students by initing them all to choose a pet rock for the duration of the unit! One student even brought in a large collection as loaner pets in case any student needed to borrow one.

Most importantly we learned from our previous experience: we realized that 45m goes by really quickly and that we don't need to pack the time with activities...instead we need to focus on allowing the students maximum time to interact with their specimens in hands-on exploration.
We also planned more this time...we created a script so we would know *exactly* what we were doing, what we would need and who would be leading that portion of the lesson or discussion. This helped streamline our presentation and lesson A LOT....and best of all it made it so much more fun!

Solid planning is really essential to creating a "golden" lesson we learned.

The students are really excited about working with rocks and we are looking forward to next week's challenge of combining 2 lessons while introducing minerals!

"Friends, Please Back Away from Mr. G and Ms. D...."

L and I knew our first lesson on gneiss, granite and conglomerate was a total success when, as we were wrapping up, excited 4th graders literally swarmed around us with several pocket geology handbooks, a mineral encyclopedia and all sorts of interesting specimens from their own rock collections. The students were so excited to share with us that Ms. B commanded, "Friends, now move back from Mr. G and Ms. D so they can leave the classroom now..."

Yep, we were super popular during our first teaching experience. It was wonderful fun and we both laughed since we started off feeling rather stressed out about our lesson plan, our equipment and being 0bserved. If teaching is going to be like this it's going to be both CHALLENGING but also super AMAZING!

The students were so enthusiastic about learning and they were equally fastidious in following directions and listening as we presented information. It really was a phenomenal experience as far as classroom management and positive interactions with the students go. (although, I would LOVE to see how those same kids start to behave when Ms. B is gone and they have a substitute--my hunch is they may be a bit more rambunctious!)

We began our lesson with a short brainpop movie on the rock cycle (disclaimer: since I cant link right to BrainPop I linked to a cool activity about magma on their site instead)

After we viewed the movie about the rock cycle we sang the rock cycle song. OK! Actually it was this rock song and Leah led off AMAZINGLY!!! Seriously, you must hear her sing!!! Everyone clapped afterward and one of the male students admiringly exclaimed,"professional!" It was a great way to start our lesson.

After that fun introduction to the unit we went back to the carpeted area of Ms. B's room and talked about what scientists do. First, we talked about what type of science studies the earth and rocks. Then we talked about making observations of physical properties. Lastly, we talked about lab safety and the importance of showing respect to lab equipment, our specimens and the importance of hand-washing.

During the next part of the lesson had student share some of the questions they had about rocks and what they would like to learn while studying this unit on rocks. We also did a class brainstorm on what they already knew about rocks. They were well informed, especially when it came to making calls about igneous, sedementary and metamorphic rocks! After we talked we got to the heart of the lesson by passing out 3 live rock specimens for them to observe. As L and I surveyed what groups were coming up we also realized we should've left a lot more time for students, since the time for our lesson was nearly over! We gave the students a 2 minute warning and then quickly did a wrap, leaving plenty of excitement for our appearance next Monday, when we'll study 12 specimens!

L and I are determined to streamline our class presentation in order to maximize the time for students to make and record their observations while sorting their geologic specimens according to their properties. After this first lesson I know that with proper planning we will ROCK our next lesson for Ms. B's 4th grade class!!!

PS. Teachers Amusement Center has tons of really funny science-y jokes and stuff!
And, unrelated, but good is: 10 Creative Ways to Teach Math
but I think it relates to nearly all subjects)

Useful Resources for Preparing to Teach Rocks and Minerals Unit

Last week Leah and I met up to work on our first lesson plan for teaching 4th graders the Rocks and Minerals kit.

I'm a big fan of video and multimedia educational resources, so I found these websites helpful and enjoyable:

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has a wealth of nicely designed and accessible information on rocks. Lots of this content is appealing to a wide range of ages--its museum quality! SMNH also has a function that combines their units with state standards! (I'll definitely be using this feature again!)


Bill Nye the science guy on minerals and soil: Bill's a bit fast paced, but he makes learning fun and the coolness factor is probably pretty high with 9-10 year olds. Bill also calls his viewers 'scientists' which is definitely cool! Here he is again on volcanoes and the earth's crust. And ftw with a rock video on rocks! Rocks Rock Harder (its meta and informative!)



After plenty of google searching I discovered thousands of websites providing educational material on rocks and minerals (I also read them all, so I feel pretty confident in teaching fourth graders about rocks and minerals!). There was massive variety, and naturally some sites were better than others. Here are some that I thought were pretty good:

Click-able slide show of basic rock & mineral specimens Simplicity and clean design along with good information make this site a nice resource! The pictures make it appealing for younger ages and the information is scientifically accurate and precise.

Obsidian is volcanic glass - a rock rather than a mineral, it is a mixture of cryptocrystalline grains of silica minerals in a glass-like suspension, a super-cooled liquid.

Chart detailing the rock cycle Lots of information presented graphically. This makes a nice addition to something more fun, like a rock video about the rock cycle.

You are my density: an activity for kids based on the density of rocks. Lots of other resources on the earth sciences on this site too.

Ask a geologist from the US Geological Survey!--anyone can email them a question and they'll answer it! (as long as youre not spam)...make sure to read this faq before emailing a question! (they provide concise answers to questions like what the difference is between a rock and mineral)

The BBC does a flash animation on basic rock experimentation, suitable for younger ages.

There are loads of online and analog resources for teaching students about rocks and minerals. I hope I can inspire them with all this information!

PS. Just found this link of Top Ten New Teacher Mistakes
I will working hard to avoid all of these mistakes!

And interesting ways to increase student engagement --these are from Dylan Williams in a recent BBC documentary. Excellent strategies that I will surely test out!