Igneous Rock Activities

This past week, we spent a lot of time delving into the three different types of rocks.  The first day we looked closely at some of the different igneous rocks.

We started by reading about igneous rocks from a couple of books and filling in the boxes on our chart. (More about that free packet at this post about the Three Types of Rocks.)

We then pulled out a rock chart that I had gotten at oriental trading a number of years ago.  We found all the igneous rock cards and put them into the chart. Then we brought out some of the igneous rock chips from our rock collection and tried to identify them with the information from our chart and from the pictures we had on hand. The kids were SO engaged!!

I pulled out the obsidian (the big piece in LD’s hand below) that I had found when I was a little girl (when I was 5!! Can you believe I still have that?!) and LD ran off to his room to show us the obsidian he had found when we were in Colorado a couple of years ago. They identified the granite, basalt, obsidian, and pumice.

Of course, we had to test whether our pumice would float in water. It did!

The last thing we did that day (though a bit later in the day), was to crack open some geodes. The girls got these kits from their cousins for Christmas (Thanks B and Z!), but we saved them because we knew we’d be doing this unit. We read how geodes form and then went at them with a hammer!  Fun stuff!

You may be interested in these previous posts related to our rock unit. All have some free downloads:

• Rocks and Mineral Packet (26 pages of various activities)
• Free Montessori 3-Part Cards — Famous Rocks Around the World
• Three Types of Rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rock Packet

New Rocks and Minerals Unit!

The material above was made many years ago when my kids were quite little. I have made a huge new 100+ page Rocks and Minerals Unit if you are interested! See details here or at the Earth Science BUNDLES page.

New! (Jan. 2021)  I have a bran new Rocks and Minerals Packet available. This new geology unit is more that 100-pages.  See details here.

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  You might want to join our free Homeschool Den Chat Facebook group.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well. Here is a quick glance at some of our other science and history units:Again, if you are interested in joining our Homeschool Den Newsletter, feel free to subscribe here.

The Welcome Series includes 5 packed emails… with tips on homeschooling, keeping motivated, finding various resources and freebies tucked away on the blog and more!

Plus, you’ll be the first to hear about new packets (generally offered at a discount when they are first released), seasonal resources and more!

Happy Homeschooling! ~Liesl