Project Title:  Rock Swap

Project Beginning and Ending Dates: January 1, 2001-March 1, 2001

Project Registration: December 1-20, 2000

Project Summary:
Students will collect rocks found locally and write a brief description which includes what is the name of the rock, whether the rock is sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous, and what uses this rock has. Rocks collected and exchanged should be approximately golf ball size. 

Project Details:

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Curriculum Areas: earth science, geography, math, and language arts

Technologies Used: email 

Full Project Description: 
In this project, students are asked to collect two to three rock specimens from their local area. Each rock specimen should be about the size of a golf ball. Students should research what is the name of the rock, whether the rock is sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous, and what uses this rock has. These written descriptions will be sent along with the rock specimens to all participants in this activity. 

When mailing the rock specimens and descriptions, the rocks should be wrapped in a protective covering such as bubble wrap or in styrofoam pieces. Mailing envelopes with a bubble wrap interior are also good protection for the rocks. 

Participants are encouraged to e-mail the schools when they have received their rocks from them. Students can compare their rocks from their home with the rocks received and discuss the differences and similarities in the rocks with the other schools by e-mail. 

Number of Participants: Nadaburg Kindergarten Class

Project Registration Information
Send the following information to the Project Coordinator: 
Carol Threewit
Nadaburg Elementary
Kindergarten
PO Box 100
Wittmann, AZ
cjanet49@yahoo.com
Phone: 623-388-2321

To register, send the following information: 
Your name:
Your school's name
Your grade level
Your postal address
Your e-mail address
What rocks will you be sending: 
Lesson Link
 

Counting Objects.
Objective: The Students will use manipulative to count, order and group. 
Objective: The Students will develop an understanding of number meaning and relationships.
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We will take the students on a walk. The students are told to pick up 5 rocks. After the students return to the room, we sit in a large circle. The students are given individual graphs. They will place their rocks on a graph that has columns of five squares. The students are told to place their rocks on the graph in one column only, one rock per square. They can check their counting and see if they picked the right number of rocks. We then review attributes from the day before. 
The students are asked to arrange their rocks by different attributes. Each student takes turns explaining the reasons why they arranged their rocks in their own individual way.

Literature Study: Roxaboxen by

Arts and Crafts:
Materials:
8 by 11 inch tag board
small lima beans
pre-cut ocotillos with flaps to glue on tag board
pre-made small brown boxes
premade little people with flaps to glue on tag board

The students will create a town using small lima beans to represent the rocks in the story. They will glue the beans, boxes and ocotillos on their tag board creating their own town.

Rolling Rocks
Predictions
The students are shown an inclined plane, made with a 2 X 6, long enough to lean against the top of a chair, reaching the floor. The students are told they will go outside and pick a rock that they think might roll down the inclined plane. Have the students predict the type of rock that they think might roll best. Write down their predictions. After the students return with their rock, each one will try thier rock.
After everyone has had a turn, discuss the predictions. Circle the correct predictions. 
Introduce the word gravity and discuss the reason the rock moved down hill.
Questions:
Which rocks rolled well?
Which ones do not?
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Literature Study: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by
After reading this story, discuss wishes and occasions when people make wishes. Following the discussion the students will draw a picture of what their favorite wish would be. The students or the teacher will write down their stories.
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Lesson link

"Omah Day"
Omah likes to discuss what rocks mean to her with the students. She then gives information on rock formation and erosion. This is usually a new concept for our kindergarten students. We list all the things we know rocks are used for. Link: Uses of Rocks
Literature Study: Read and discuss Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor
Re-read the book and, with students' help, make a chart listing her 10 Rules for choosing a rock. Following the reading of this book Norma allows each one to choose a special rock to keep. 

Objectives:
Students will get to know their own rock by observing it carefully. 
Students will think of as many descriptive words as they can to describe their rock, while the teacher writes them on the white board. 
Students will weigh rocks on a balance to find the order of the rocks by weight. (Lesson link)
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Literature Study: Read and discuss Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor
Re-read the book and, with students' help, make a chart listing her 10 Rules for choosing a rock. Have students copy the list onto writing paper. Assign each student to bring in a rock. Have them take home the checklist from the book so they can follow the rules as they pick their rock. 
Lesson Link

Literature Study: Anasai and the Moss Covered Rock

Object: Students will identify rocks: hard, medium, soft. Using Moh's Hardness Scale. They will arrange them in order from the softest to the hardest.
Concept: Cardinal Numbers and Moh’s Hardness Scale 
Materials: Variety of rocks, penny, pocketknife, nail, steel file, identification charts (see 
preparation), wet cloth,colored dots or markers, 12 x 18 sheets of paper
Book: Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans

Preparation: Prepare 5 identification charts. Each chart consists of two 12 x 18 sheets of 
paper taped together the long way. The chart will have the numbers 1 -10 
evenly spaced out from beginning to end.

Procedure:
1. Gather children into one large group.
2. Hold to rocks up for the children to see. Ask the children to please tell you all the ways that they know of to identify, sort, or organize these two rocks. List these on a piece of large chart paper.
3. Next, ask the children to tell you how you can tell if one rock is harder than the other. Listen to the children’s ideas, and test any of their hypotheses. A few of these tests might include chipping the rock with some sort of tool, banging the rocks together, or tapping the rocks to hear what sound they may make. 
4. The class will be sitting in a circle. Ask students to come up with as many ways as they can think of to test the hardness of the rocks, and to put them in order from weakest to strongest. Ask them to keep their rocks in this order when they are finished so that the rest of the class can observe what everyone has done. 
5. Provide them with 10 minutes for this exploration time.
6. Have a class room discussion to see if all agree with the way the rocks are arranged
7. Ask the children what they did to sort the rocks by hardness.
8. Ask if size was important. Color? Shape? Smell? 

1 Write the following on the board:
Thumb rubbing - 1
Fingernail - 2
Penny - 3
Butter knife - 4
Nail - 6
Steel file - 8

2. Explain and demonstrate what each of the numbers mean. Also talk about safety precautions. Take turns having a child test a rock, and when they make a a mark with one tool, but the rock doesnt make a mark with the tool above it, the child is to place the rock on the number that matches the tool that marked the rock. After each test, have them use their rag to clean out any small particles that may be hiding the mark. 
3. After all of their rocks have been placed, we will have a whole group discussion. 

Questions:
Ask the children what rock was the hardest. 
How do you know that that rock was the hardest? 
What was the softest rock? How do you know? 
What was a rock that was not as soft as the softest rock, but not as hard as the hardest rock?
How do you know? 
What did the numbers on the identification chart help you to do in this experiment? 
Does anyone know what these numbers are called when they help us determine the hardness of a rock? 

4. Show a large picture of Moh’s Hardness Scale from the book, "Let’s Go Rock Collecting," by Roma Gans. 
5. Ask the children to explain why we did not have any materials in class to test number 10 on the scale.
6. Ask the children what number on the scale does chalk fall into.
7. Set up an area in the room as a center to allow the children to explore this concept further. Have a smaller scale identification chart, picture of Moh’s Hardness Scale, along with several rocks and tools to test the rocks and organize them according to strength. At center time, have children record their results. The teacher may do this by color-coding the rocks with either colored circle stickers or colored markers. The children will be provided with a piece of paper that looks like a time line. They will be provided with either colored markers or circle dots to place on their scale to represent where each rock falls on the scale.