Creative ways for elementary students to learn about rocks and minerals.
A colorful and interesting bulletin board is a useful tool for elementary school teachers. Students of all ages can learn from the contents of a well designed bulletin board. There are three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Rocks are also composed of thousands of minerals. A creative bulletin board can easily explain the different types of rocks and their mineral composition.
How Different Types of Rocks are Formed
Divide the bulletin board into three parts. Place a photograph or drawing of the regions of the earth where each type of rock is found and how it was formed.
Take, for example, a bulletin board on igneous rocks. Igneous rocks are formed from molten lava. Place an illustration of a volcano at the top of the first section and images of the three different types of igneous rocks underneath the volcano in layers of earth. Place the different types of igneous rocks in their respective layers; extrusive in the top layer of earth, intrusive rocks in the middle layer, and plutonic rocks in the bottom layer.
Next up are sedimentary rocks, which are formed from the minerals on the surface of the earth. They are formed from the minerals found in mud and clay at the bottom of lakes, inland seas and oceans. A picture of an inland sea or the ocean floor with layers can illustrate where the rocks are formed. Place a picture of a canyon, like the Grand Canyon, to illustrate where sedimentary rocks can be found today.
Finally, consider a display on metamorphic rocks. Metamorphic rocks are formed when sedimentary and igneous rocks are changed by heat, pressure, strain and water underground. Illustrate in section 3 of the bulletin board a collision of two tectonic plates where the rocks undergo changes due to heat, pressure, and strain. Place before and after pictures of the rocks beneath the picture of the tectonic plates colliding.
Interactive Mineral and Rock Bulletin Board
Set up a single bulletin board divided into three sections: igneous rocks; sedimentary rocks; and metamorphic rocks. Include a brief description of the appearance of each type of rock and a photograph of a typical rock from each category. Have the students complete the bulletin board. Divide the class into three groups and ask the students to bring in small rocks from the category they are assigned. They can find them on the play yard or even in their own back yards. The class will help identify the rock. Hot glue the rock to an index card with the name of the rock and a list of minerals the rocks contains, and then affix it to the bulletin board in the proper category. This is a simple, but effective, bulletin board as a teaching supplement to earth science lessons.
Hardness of Minerals
Set up a bulletin board to illustrate the hardness of minerals from the softest minerals like talc to the hardest mineral known, which is a diamond. The title of the bulletin board can help students learn the Mohs hardness scale. In order of softness to hardness the example minerals are (1) talc; (2) gypsum; (3) calcite; (4) fluorite; (5) apatite; (6) orthoclase; (7) quartz; (8) topaz; (9) corundum; and (10) diamond.
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