Geology Unit for Upper Elementary School
Rocks are the things I find everywhere. My kids stash rocks in the pockets around their seats in the car. I find rocks in the pockets of all of my coats from my kids asking me to “please save this!” when they find a special one at the park. My kids love rocks. My daughter especially is constantly lugging around rocks or looking for the perfect smooth one or a round one.
When my twins were in fourth grade we took a deep dive into this rock obsession with a Geology Unit.
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Field Trips
For field trips, head to wherever rocks are plentiful near you! Beaches, rivers, hiking trails are some options. My kids seem to find rocks everywhere we go. Field Trips are an opportunity to see rocks, or geology in a natural environment. Observe the differences found in one area up close. Hike next to cliffs where you can see the layered rock.
Torrey Pines Beach
My daughter calls this rock beach because it’s one of the few near us that’s mostly rocks instead of sand. It was our first Geology field trip. We love Torrey Pines for a whole host of reasons, read more about this San Diego beach in this post.
Dave’s Rock Garden
We used THESE MARKERS to decorate rocks and then the following week we visited Dave’s Rock Garden in Encinitas. It’s a short walk from Moonlight Beach which also has tons of rocks all along the shore. We took pictures of different favorites, tried to identify the rocks we found from what we’ve learned in our labs and videos, and sketched a favorite in their nature journals.
Natural History Museum
Most cities have a natural history museum. Check if yours has an exhibit about geology. The San Diego Natural History Museum has a cool collection of gems. We took a field trip there to see some real life examples of the gems and minerals we have been learning about.
Annie’s Canyon and other San Diego Hikes
The ocean side cliffs along some of the beaches and hikes through canyons in San Diego offer a wonderful example of sedimentary rocks. We were able to see the layers of rock in the cliffs. It helped my kids visualize rock types on a larger scale. If you’re in San Diego, all of our favorite hikes are listed in this post.
Children’s Books to Read
Excellent books are always a part of our units. Here are some we especially loved during our Geology Unit.
Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans
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A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston
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I’m Trying to Love Rocks by Bethany Barton
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Magic School Bus Volcanoes and Earthquakes
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Rocks and Minerals by Dr. Sarah Stamps
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Geology Activities
Back at home we thoroughly explored our rock collection. We sorted, observed, identified and drew rocks. We also used a variety of activities, kits and books to help us learn more about geology.
General
- Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil and Shell Hunting guide was a huge resource for us. We went on rock hunts, learned about and identified the different types of gems and rocks, and more. We also read each chapter on the different kinds of rocks and then used their help to figure out which rocks we had in our collections. I wrote a whole post about this Outdoor School series – read here.
- Complete the Alchemy pages from our Harry Potter Curriculum from The Waldock Way
- Watched short videos on YouTube about the rock cycle, different kinds of rocks and weathering like this Crash Course video on Rocks.
- Crayon Rock Cycles (we followed the directions in this experiment on Little Bins for Little Hands) and documented the progress using the Alchemy Rock Cycle page from our Harry Potter Curriculum from Waldock Way
Minerals
Used National Geographic Mega Gemstone Dig Up kit. This was a HUGE hit with my kids. They patiently dug out each of the gems, exclaiming over each discovery and eagerly trying to identify it using our guide. We also used the National Geographic Kids Geode Kit which was also a ton of fun. Do both of these outside if you’re able to – they made a pretty big mess.
Learning about Volcanoes & Igneous Rocks
- Erupted a volcano using the National Geographic Volcano Kit.
- Baked Lava Cakes from GEOLOGY LAB
- Watched Volcano documentary videos on PBS
Learning about Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks
- We used our Rock Tumbler to clean and polish our rocks. Then we used our Rock books to identify the types of rocks we have in our collection.
- Got our hands a little messy with experiments about mud in our GEOLOGY LAB FOR KIDS book.
- Cooked layered sandwiches and conglomerates in the kitchen.
- Did a gravity art experiment where we filled a tray with paint and then dropped rocks to see what would make the biggest splatter. It was a ginormous mess but a ton of fun. Did bigger rocks splat more? Did it matter what angle we dropped them from? (see photo below)
Final Geology Celebration
We ended our Geology unit with a Rock Party with some homeschooling friends. During our party we:
- Played The Floor is Lava
- Cracked open more geodes. This was one of my kids’ favorite parts of the Geology Unit so we repeated the activity with our friends. These are the Geode Kits we used.
- Decorate smooth rocks with these markers.
- Made rock necklaces and bracelets with this kit.
- Ate rock candy.
