Rocks

Long time, no post.  What was going to be a week away from the computer turned into a month away from the blog.  My blogging muscles are a little flabby, so stick with me as I get back into the swing of things with a post about....rocks.

Teachers often struggle to come up with exciting new activities for their students.  Often, we out-think ourselves and, like the parents who buy their child an extravagant present only to find the kid more interested in the box the gift came in, we can be disappointed when an activity we spent a lot of time preparing doesn't go as well as we had expected. 

Of course, those experiences shouldn't deter anyone from making that activity better and giving it another shot, or taking the time to develop another one like it.  The process of designing those activities is inherently meaningful and fulfilling to most teachers, and they're usually worth it in the end.

However, it helps to have a collection of very simple activities ready to go...and you'll often find that these activities can be the most rewarding.

One such activity that works great with very young learners is bringing a bag of rocks to class.  Yes, that's right, a bag of rocks.  Kids love them.  My students often come to school with a bag of rocks to show me, and I've received rocks as heartfelt presents on many occasions.   

So, the next time you're out at the park or just going for a walk, pick up some rocks.  They don't have to be anything particularly special, but look for some variation.  Bring the rocks to class with you in a bag and have the kids gather around as you share your rock collection with them.  Before you take the rocks out of the bag, let them feel the bag and guess what's inside.  Talk about how heavy the bag is.  Then slowly take out the rocks one by one.  Talk about each of them.  Pass them around the circle.  It's great for for enriching descriptive vocabulary (colors, patterns, textures, size, weight, comparatives, etc.) and the children, even your most rambunctious kids, will be totally drawn in.  Passing the rocks around makes it a very tactile activity, and at the end of the lesson, you can let each child select one rock to keep for themselves. 

It's very simple, elicits a lot of excitement and great communication from the kids, and all it takes is picking up some rocks the next time you go for a walk.

Comments

[Mama Lisa]

Cool idea! I love collecting rocks and my daughter loves looking at them. It reminds me to look for them along with shells when we go to the beach.

-Mama Lisa

[Devon]

Thanks Lisa! Yep, shells are definitely another good one. Leaves in the fall. Acorns, buttons, sticks, pine cones... lots of good ones. Rocks work espeically well because they are so easily accessible and you can easily find great variety of texture, size, weight, etc.

[Grayson]

Bring stones to class? That idea "rocks!"