Wednesday, August 17, 2005

The Rock Samples Arrived

The last of our homeschooling materials arrived today: 50 samples (2 of each) of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. I also ordered white streak plates. Grace was asleep at the time I opened the package and sorted out all of the packets. When she awoke she came down to the office and immediately inquired about the rocks on my desk, asking if she could have a closer look in the bags.

Grace and Jack are two kids that will go under the deck and "collect" freezer bags full of smooth white stones that we laid down for landscaping. So, I knew multicolored and shaped rocks would peak Grace's interest. You got to love the ease of homeschooling when it is the children that ask you for a lesson.

Grace and I sat down together and I showed her the names of the rocks on the bags, and also demonstrated that some rocks made a streak on the streak plate, while others didn't. This instantly became and invitation to go through half of the rocks and discover which rocks made streaks. She noticed that Gypsum and Talc where "soft" and streaked the plate. She also picked up on the name of the rock "Magnetite" (no cues from me) asking if she could see if would stick on the fridge.

The "plan" was to just do sedimentary rocks, of which there are about 8 samples. This would tie in well with our freshwater fish study. However, Grace has been so interested in volcanos and magma over the last couple of weeks that it may end up we do an overview of all the rocks.

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