A Rockin' Start to the Week

 Lesson 14, Day 1, Science

After reading and math we got started with science. I showed them pictures in a book first, then I went straight to the first website that showed us the rock cycle. Be sure to click all the prompts as directed the site is really nice for visual learners.  

Our rock experiment started with them checking if their items floated. We couldn't find real marble so I used toy marbles- thankfully they mimic the same effect. :)

Tony recorded his predictions on his Rock Experiment sheet, which by the way, Y/ N answers are sufficient.

Checked with the website provided in the Lesson Plans. 

Followed up with a song that I made up and this game. It wasn't in the plans, but it was so easy I thought, "Why not?" It just came to me and I loved the simplicity it drove home. 

Can you tell someone didn't buy a rock kit? 

Those are fabulous too, but if you don't have one... use legos, or blocks!

Then I would switch up the legos and ask him to place the cards in front of the correct one. Even my 3 year old participated.

Onto making our homemade rocks... I hate spending money on anything I can buy, so I found a great glue recipe here. If you decide to make it, be sure you strain it before you use it. It only needs a minute to thicken... not 5 like the recipe suggest.

 Another tip is I would moisten the paper before ripping. It was so much easier to rip once wet with the glue mixture. 

 Then he got his hands in there and really made it compact.

 I placed it in the freezer, and pulled it out a few hours later. As it warmed up it started to melt. Then I thought a great idea would be to just "cook it". Ten minutes later the house was smelling this awful smell and I opened the door. Smoke every where. Moral of the story... if you do this just wait and let it harden in the container overnight. :)

An alternative activity would be to make a fun rock activity they can eat. I think we'll try this tomorrow if we have time.

Since Lucy napped and I didn't want to clean, we went on to make the rock candy... 

I was surprised at how easy it was. The only thing that took the longest was placing the sticks on the straws. If you do that ahead of time, your total time for this should be about 10-15 min.

We colored it and added vanilla to it. I'll let you know if it turns out. :)

Covered with coffee filters and wha la!

Now we wait for about a week...