Studying the 3 Kinds of Rocks for Classical Conversations

This week in Classical Conversations Science we are studying the three primary types of rocks – sedimentary metamorphic, and igneous. Here’s what we are doing for this simple study of rocks this week.

Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards – We are using the Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards from Classical Conversation to read about the basic definitions of the rock types as well as pictures and a description of the rocks.

Types of Rocks song – We listened to a rock cycle song on You Tube called Types of Rocks song. It has a fun explanation of the rock cycle.

Three Main Types of Rocks videos – We watched some You Tube and Discovery Streaming (DS) videos on the 3 main types of rocks including Rock Types for kids by Make Me a Genius, Three Types of Rocks explanation, and Geologists Notebook: 3 Rocks (DS).

Explanation – You can also get a great explanation of the rock cycle over at Earth Science Explorer.

Videos – We are watching The Magic School Bus: Rocks and Rolls on Discovery Streaming, which goes into more details about the rock cycle and the Earth but does talk about the basic types of rocks and the rock cycle on Earth. The kids always love Magic School Bus. Additionally, we picked up a copy the Rock ‘n Learn Earth Science video at the library which goes through the layers of the earth, rocks and the rock cycle, and volcanoes, which we will be studying for a couple of weeks coming up.

Here’s how we go through the week with our Science:

Monday – We watch the Magic School Bus video, Magic School Bus: Rocks and Rolls, and go through the science sentence during memory work practice.

Tuesday – This is our Classical Conversations day so we are there going over the science sentence and doing science experiments. This week we are demonstrating a mineral streak test with porcelain tile and core sampling with modeling clay. As always, we use VanCleave’s 201 Awesome Magical, Bizarre & Incredible Experiments.

Wednesday – We review the science sentence during memory work time. Our copywork sentence is Science related. This week’s copywork sentence is:

Geologists know Florence Bascom (1862-1945) as “the first woman geologist in this country.

Thursday – We discuss the Classical Acts and Facts Card, read the back and look at the pictures and look at additional samples of the types of rocks we have in our collection (my daughter’s a rock collector) and refer to pictures we have in our 4-H books and on the Internet as well. We review the science sentence.

Friday – We watch the Magic School Bus: Rocks and Rolls episode again as well as the Earth Science: Rock ‘N Learn and go over the Classical Conversation science sentence. What a fun week of studying the 3 kinds of rocks.

Here’s a sample of the Rock N Learn: Earth Science video, in case you haven’t seen Rock ‘n Learn before. (They are awesome!)