The second graders finished up their unit on Sound a few weeks ago. We had a lot of fun building musical instruments together – a lot of creativity!
We are now into a unit on Rocks and Minerals. We’re learning about where rocks come from and what they are made of. We’ve been looking at the school’s collection of minerals and trying to identify the unknown ones in guidebooks. In the next few weeks we’ll be breaking open geodes and trying our hand at making crystals! Students are encouraged to bring in special rocks and minerals from home that they would like to share with the class.
Comparing rocks
Looking at shape, size, color and texture
Students learned about a scientist named Moh who long ago devised a scale that looked at the hardness of rocks – Moh’s Hardness Scale. Using our fingernails, pennies and nails, students were able to see how hard 6 minerals were and put them in order from softest to hardest. When we went back and compared our findings to Moh’s, we discovered that we had been correct! The softest mineral on earth is talc, the hardest is diamond.
Moh's Hardness Scale
