Play School: Rocks

To continue our Earth Science unit, we learned about rocks this week.

Concepts: Where do rocks come from? How are rocks made? What kinds of rocks are on our Earth?

Books: Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace; Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin; A Gift from the Sea by Kate Banks; I am a Rock by Jean Marzollo; and Cool Rocks: Creating Fun and Fascinating Collections! by Tracy Kompelien

Activities: We started out the week by making (or attempting to make) rock candy using this recipe. It's been sitting on top of the fridge for 5 days and there are a few crystals starting to grow--or maybe it's just the syrup hardening on the stick. I can't really tell. I might have to just buy the girls some rock candy.

We also went for a rock walk with Tempe's magnifying glass and a canvas bag to collect small rocks and pebbles along the way. Helena was really into this. She spent a long time looking at the large rock in our friend's front yard (the one in the picture) with the magnifying glass, and when I finally pried her away, she ran down the sidewalk saying "Let's examine another one!" The girls were interested to see little rocks embedded in the sidewalk, rocks used to make houses (brick), and rocks used to make walls. Rocks are all around us!

Sensory bin: I meant to fill the sensory bin with rocks from the yard and the magnifying glass, but the girls loved the Gak from last week so much that I left it in.

Letter of the Day: C is for Caterpiller. She's a little tearful in this picture because she and Helena got in a fight over who got to hold the letter.

Next week we conclude our Earth Science unit with a lesson about the Ocean!