The season for learning

Just couldn't resist one more Grinch picture!   This might seem like a 'fun' project (and it was) but the real reason that it was done was to continue to work on fine motor and planning skills.  There was a lot of cutting, then placing and planning before glue was applied.  Each turns out a little different as each child puts their own spin on how the Grinch will look!  Thanks to the "Glyph Girls" for sharing this wonderful pattern with me!

We tried a 'hands on' approach to remembering the way the three different rocks are created in the earth.  The first is igneous, which is created by heat.  Using the heat of our hands, we tried to melt the mineral bits, into a new rock form.

Once it was cooled, a new 'rock' was formed.

We tried this with three different types of 'mineral bits'.  We noticed that some of the mineral bits seemed to be easier to melt than others.  Some stayed a bit more crumbly, like the rocks we may find underground.  It was an opportunity to find out that depending on the composition of the minerals, the rocks would have different qualities.

 Sedimentary Rocks are recognized because they appear in layers.  If the students put the three different 'rocks' that they created one on top of the other, they could see the layers as they formed.

Here are the sheets they will be using to create their own little geological guide for the three rock types.  We are going to do a 'hands on' tomorrow for metamorphic,  the root of which is morph which means to change.  Heat, time and pressure are needed to change rocks.  One example  would be limestone which is a sedimentary rock that becomes marble under the right conditions.

The notes that we referred to on the whiteboard...you might note the Power Rangers reference, as they morph into their new characters!