Study of the Earth

We have been spending some time studying rocks and minerals, oh year-- and dinosaurs too! To start off our study we were asked the following questions. Here are some of our responses...

What is the Earth made out of?

Rocks and minerals, hot lava and rock, dirt, crystal, molten rock, plants, minerals 

How has the Earth changed?

Since the Pangia, the Earth has spread out, the earth changes from dark to day, it changed because the dinosaurs died.

What do you want to learn about rocks?

What color did rocks take in pre-historic times? Are rocks made out of volcanos? Are they alive? What do rocks have inside of them? 

What are rocks made out of? 

Coal, molten, dirt 

We learned about the layers of the earth and built a mini-Earth representation. We were stunned when we cut down the enter of the Earth to expose the layers. Ask us if we remember them. (Inner core, outer core, mantle, crust)

We also learned about the rock cycle and made rock cycle bracelets to help us understand the process of how rocks are formed and how they change over time. Check out this interactive site with your child. We looked at it together in school. 

 We also had a chance to get our hands on lots of rocks and minerals during our unit. We were intrigued by the beauty and unique qualities that each rock possessed. We talked about the different properties of rocks- color, size, texture and worked to sort rocks and document our observations. We will also learn about the Mohs scale that tests the hardness of minerals. Did you know diamond is on the top of the hardness scale? Unfortunately I do not have any diamonds to explore....  but we have lots of other minerals like talc, feldspar, and fluorite :) 

Photos to come of our recent dinosaur dig soon!