Yesterday and today was our first real look at rocks – our first major topic of the school year. I developed a new activity as part the staff development for the science office I am a part of. It’s called “One of These Things is not Like the Others” – a total take off of Sesame Street.
I had nine groups of 3-4 items. In the groups, one was different from the other three. For instance, a group of three igneous rocks would have a fourth metamorphic rock. Now, we hadn’t discussed anything to do with rocks yet. As students visited each station, they had to make observations about each of the items, decide which one didn’t belong, and explain why. It was interesting hearing the conversations evolve as students visited more stations. Initially, most the comparisons had to do with color. However, later, they started discussing textures, and towards the end, they were even talking about the types of rocks and getting more specific with terminology.
The buzz in the room was amazing. Kids were excited to look, feel, experience the rocks. I really like this activity. I think it worked really well, and I definitely plan on doing it again. It’s so exciting when the engagement is so real, you can almost feel it in the room!
