Rocky Beach Field Trip with Fourth Graders
Rocks, Sedimentary Rocks in particular, are one of the parts of the Fourth Grade Science Curriculum in California. As part of their study of Earth and Space Science, fourth graders are supposed to learn about landscapes, how the earth forms and changes, and use sedimentary rocks to interpret the history of changes in the physical landscape.
This is a not a stretch for us. My twins have been collecting rocks since they were tiny. My daughter in particular loves finding unique rocks. They were both eager to start learning more about the kinds of rocks and what sedimentary rocks can tell us.
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Before the Field Trip
For my kids the interest was already there. We have several excellent rock books (more about those below) and they have their already growing collections. Before our field trip to the “rocky beach” (their name for it) we pulled out our favorite rock books and looked at their collections a little more closely with magnifying glasses.
We also read the portion of Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman about how rocks are formed and how the different forms of rocks are interrelated. I’m kind of obsessed with this entire series of books. They are beautiful and have a great overview of a huge range of topics.
When we left the house (early in the morning to ensure a mostly empty beach since we’re still trying to stay as physically distant as possible) I encouraged them to look around the beach and see how many different, unique rocks they could find.
The Field Trip – Torrey Pines State Beach
Torrey Pines is one of my favorite beaches near San Diego. It is beautiful and usually not super crowded. The nearby hiking trails also offer a beautiful view of the coast. You can read about hiking in Torrey Pines with Kids in this post.
For today’s purposes though we love Torrey Pines because of the rocks.
My kids eagerly explored the rocks along the shore. Running over to show me new cool ones that they had found. We took pictures of their favorites and kept just a couple.
Then, of course, they had to play in the water for a while before we came home.
After the Field Trip
That afternoon, we settled down on a blanket in the backyard to look more closely at all of our rocks. We pulled out these two books:
Rocks, Minerals, and Gems by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith
which has GORGEOUS photos and a huge layout. It is a great visual catalog of the different kinds of rocks.
Rocks and Minerals from Usborne
which is more of a pocket sized guide to rocks and minerals. It has a great deal of information about each rocks in it’s compact format.
Then we tried to sort our rock collections into the three main kinds of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. This was super challenging (even for me) but my kids loved trying to figure out where each one would fit. Although I’m sure some ended up in the wrong groups, I loved hearing them apply everything we had read about the rocks to their problem solving.
What’s Next?
Obviously that isn’t all we’re going to cover while learning about rocks. We are planning to learn more through videos, some experiments, and a more in depth look at the sedimentary rocks in particular.
We are particularly excited to dive into our Crystals, Rocks, and Minerals Kit from Thames and Kosmos. It has 16 experiments from making different colored crystals to learning about minerals by testing for properties such as iron and sulfur. There are two activities about rocks and understanding how they are formed which is where we will begin.
Stay tuned!
