We have had a good time with this summer unit study. Boys and rocks seem to go hand in hand, anyway! We always have rocks a plenty around here, that’s for sure.
The first thing that I did was download some great stuff from Teacher’s Clubhouse on this subject. Well worth the few bucks!
We had some good books around the house, and we also got a few from the library.
Usborne’s Spotter’s Guide to Rocks and Minerals
Janice VanCleave’s Rocks & Minerals
Rocks and Minerals (Eye Wonder)
Step by Step Science Rocks & Minerals
I made this to use during our study, because the Lord is my Rock, and I want Him to be theirs!
We did all the worksheets from the Teacher’s Clubhouse study. They were very helpful and fun! Here are some examples:
We did the worksheet on erosion by building a “mountain” out of sand. We added trees and boulders and used different forces of nature to show erosion happens…like wind in the picture.
We made sedimentary rocks using wheat bread and white bread. The boys love stomping on the bread between wax paper!
Explaining minerals vs. rocks was fun by making “rock cookies”. I used my own recipe and added several “minerals like chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, m&ms and raisins. They had a blast being geologists dissecting them and recording each of the minerals.
We did an acid test using vinegar.
We made fossils using fun objects like Lego guys!
We had a fun Smithsonian Rock and Gem Dig Kit that I ordered a while back. I wish I would have three of these they had so much fun! And made quite the mess!
I found a rock tumbler for $3 at a garage sale!
We went to the park and collected some neato rocks. I made these simple rock collection boxes for them that they were quite proud of.
For a treat, we had rock candy from a state park where we went camping.
Kids always enjoy painting rocks! We did that as a little art project.
A neat iPhone app we found and used was Rocks and Gems.
We also watched some very fun, yet informative videos about rocks from Discovery Education.
An easy sensory bin was fish tank gravel with hidden gems inside!
We had some great resources for identifying rocks. A poster from a friend and a chart that came with the cheap rock tumbler!
This kind of study can and will go on and on! This was over a period of a couple of weeks. Good learning fun!
Sarah's Sweeties 
Awesome!! Look at you, doing all that fun learning stuff during the summer!! : )
Sounds like lots of fun. amazes me what you come up with to teach the boys about a subject.
This is where the fun comes in for me! I love to do all the research and gather things together. I probably have more fun than anyone! :)