Choose Your Own Adventure: Rock Cycle

Choose Your Own Adventure Style: Rock Cycle Wheel (free download) Students find images or draw pictures on their wheel. They fasten the two circles together and ride the rock cycle. They spin clockwise and counterclockwise, choosing their own adventure!

After kids have fun riding the rock cycle, then invite them outside for a fun game of rock cycle tag! Free printable here!

Cookie Rocks and Mining

2 activities, Science and Economics:

1. Cookie Rocks - This experiment is inspired by Kinderpond's "C is for Cookie." Have all students sit around a large table. Give each kid a cookie. Then, have them destroy it! 

Weathering
First, have them experiment with a toothpick. Next, give them an ice cube to see the effects of ice on a cookie. They'll use the cube to chop at the cookie. Then, hand out an eyedropper to represent rain. Kids squirt water on the cookie. Note: You could even use a spray bottle.

Erosion
Once their finished demolishing their cookie, pass out straws. Have kids blow (wind) their cookie crumbles (rock fragments) toward the center of the table. Then, sweep their crumbs into a pile. 

Deposition
Add a couple drops of water to their crumbs (if needed) and squish them all together.


2. Cookie Mining Economics -  Check out the Museum of Science and Industry's Cookie Mining Project. Kids excavate chocolate chips from a cookie; but, first they have to purchase the materials they need and stay within their price range!

energy resources (renewable vs. non-renewable) - You can also use this activity to explore . Kids get a soft and hard chocolate chip cookie (which represent 2 landsites). Can they dig out coal without harming the landsite? Which site was easier to retrieve the coal? Visit Third Grade Thinkers for instructions!

Rocks and Weathering

screenshot of BBC Rocks and Weathering

BBC's Rocks and Weathering: cool, interactive, animated site, that I discovered over at one of my favorite EDTech blogs: Free Technology for Teachers. Rocks and weathering lets kids examine sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks up close and personal, teaching them how they form. Click here to check it out!

SWEET Rock Lab!

photo via to the square inch

To the Square Inch came up with a geology lab for kids to construct candy models of rocks!  

Rock Recipes:
Metamorphic: Take wheat and white bread, slice them into quarters. Next, stack them, alternating the bread (wheat, white).  Then, press down on the stack.

Sedimentary: Spread a layer of frosting on a graham cracker. Then add a thin layer of  "sediment" - sprinkles, swedish fish, and fruity pebbles. You repeat the process 2 times.

Igneous- Melt chocolate chips, pour on wax paper, and let harden.

Visit her site for the recording sheet and other cool science lab ideas!

Mechanical and Chemical Weathering

Mechanical Weathering Experiment via Mini Me Geology
materials:

Plastic Wrap

Clay

Water

1. Moisten the clay with a little bit of water

2. Divide the clay into two equal pieces and roll it into a ball or form into a square.

3. Wrap both pieces of clay in plastic wrap.

4. Place one piece of clay into the freezer overnight and leave the other piece out at room temperature. 

5. The next day, take the clay out of the freezer and unwrap both pieces. 

"Do the clay pieces look different?  If so, how?  Hint:  the clay from the freezer should have the some cracks.  Examine the clay with a hand magnifier to get a closer look at the cracks."

"Then, wrap each clay piece back up and put the one piece back into the freezer and repeat for several days.  Observe the clay pieces each day and see how the cracks change over time."  

For more great rock experiments, visit Mini Me Geology!

Chemical Weathering Experiment: Fizz Acid Test on Limestone via ehow
How does acid rain effects rocks? Put a piece of limestone in a cup of vinegar and watch it bubble. "Sediment will form at the bottom of the cup representing the erosion of rock." 

Lego Weathering: Erosion / Deposition

Beakers and Bumblebees made up an awesome, active lego relay race that reinforces the weathering process!
1. First, 2 teams build a lego landform
2. Next, a member from each team pulls a piece off of the landform (weathering) and brings it to the other side (erosion) to start building a new landform (deposition)!
3. Kids continue taking turns transporting pieces from one side of the room to the other until their original landform is completely weathered away!

River Erosion Lab

How does the flow of water effect land? Does the slope of the land make an impact on erosion? Try this experiment from Science Matters. Click here for a photo tutorial.

Soap Erosion

via science matters

Science Matters placed a bar of soap on a sponge and let it sit in the sink to demonstrate erosion. Click the link for instructions and more creative experiments on weathering.

Crayon Rock Cycle

Featured Above:
Flying Fox Academy conducted a really cool experiment to show "how the same minerals can be changed into different types of rock depending on how they are formed." Click here to see how they made sedimentary and metamorphic crayons!

Momma Owl's Lab did an extension on the above experiment. Also, check out MJKSCI for more awesome rock cycle activities with crayons!

Erosion Science Lab

photo via National Resources Conservation Center

"How does rain shape the Earth?" Have kids examine natural soil with a magnifying glass. Ask them what they think the soil is made of- (weathered rock particles: sand, silt, clay, rock and decomposing leaves/ organisms). Is all dirt the same? 

This experiment will demonstrate runoff and how soil is affected by water - EROSION. Kids will also see how vegetation helps keep soil together. Examine the water you collected in your jars (or pans). Describe it, what collected in the water?
materials:
- 2 aluminum pans
- 2 jars (or 2 more pans)
- Natural soil (from a garden or your yard)
- Soil with grass growing on it
- Watering can
- Books or something that will create a slope

directions:
1. 2 Pans- Add soil in one and soil/grass in the other. 
2. Create your slopes and angle your pans.
3. Pour water over each pan. While pouring, have someone hold a jar to collect the water (or place empty pans underneath angled ones before you pour).