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Lesson Plans


Fun with rocks

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
am.hunter
Mon, 24 May 1999 09:07:20 PDT

The author, Bruce Hiscock, will be visiting our school on June 4th. One of
his books is titled "The Big Rock". The librarian had asked me to do
projects with some of the elementary students using rocks. I worked with
the kidergarten/first grade teacher to make pet rocks...they look great.
And I just found a fun project i thought I would share. I got it out of
American Girl's- "Crafts for Girls" book.

Find smooth rocks that are a good size for a paperweight. (Clean them off if
they are sandy or dirty.)
Put the rocks on a cookie sheet covered with aluminium foil.
Bake the rocks for two hours @ 200 degrees.
USING OVEN MITTS- put the rocks on newspaper and draw on the hot rocks with
wax crayons.
Leave the decorated rocks to cool overnight.
The next day, polish with a soft cloth.

I tried this myself this weekend and the results are beautiful! When the
rocks come right out of the oven, the crayons melt like crazy, drip and the
colors mix together BUT this creates some really cool effects and is a great
way to illustrate color mixing with older students.

I will be doing this on Wednesday with the 5th grade. I will post any major
problems if they occur. My biggest concern is a student getting burned but I
touched the rocks to see for myself and though hot, I think everything
should be okay.

Ann Marie
Lyme Central
Chaumont, New York

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