Finding different types of rocks in everyday life is a great way to start this topic, children could do a trail in the local area and do some rock spotting! If you can’t get out and about then this short clip from BBC shows a good selection of rocks in a variety of forms. How many can you name?
Use hand magnifiers or even microscopes to look closely at different types of rocks and making observations and drawings. If not, then there are a number of Zoomed-in images of different types of rock on Explorify. Can you tell what this mysterious material is? Try asking children to describe the colours, shapes and textures that they can see as they think about the image.
Be a rock detective in this series of lesson plans each focussing on a different way of working scientifically including: sorting and naming rocks, testing hardness and other properties, carrying out tests on soil samples and observing how rocks are used around the school.
Finding out about the work of scientists past and present is very much part of the curriculum. In this unit children listen to a monologue based on Mary Anning’s life story. This is a lovely cross curricular approach to learning about scientists and their work, which help children to develop an understanding of the human face of science.
This video presented by Professor Alice Roberts is full of useful information for teachers planning work around fossils. The animation explains how an ammonite becomes fossilised over time, as well as practical ideas for the classroom.
Learn about the structure of different types of rock by making models of them using chocolate. Learn about the three main types of rock on Earth and make edible analogues to help explain how they form.
This bumper pack of activities provides lots of ideas for teaching of rocks and fossils to the classroom all set around the Jurassic coast. Big Jurassic Classroom resources support the teaching of rocks, fossils and evolution, bringing the wonder of the Jurassic Coast to your classroom.