Everybody Needs A Rock

Math/Language & Literacy

Objectives

• Students will `get to know their rock' by observing them carefully.
• Students will write down as many descriptive words as they can to describe their rock.
• Students will be able to find their own rock from a pile of ten rocks.
• Students will estimate the relative masses of rocks, compared to other rocks.
• Students will weigh rocks on a balance to find the order of the rocks by mass.

Anticipatory Set

Materials

• Everybody Needs A Rock , Byrd Baylor. Macmillan Publishing Company. New York, NY, 1974.
• Rock for each student
• Balances
• Gram Masses
• Paper
• Pencils

Procedure

1. Have the students choose a rock from a pile in the middle of the room.
2. Have the students sit in a circle and start observing their rocks.
3. Go around the circle and have each child use one word to describe their rock, go first to model the process.
4. Send them back to their table groups.
5. Have the students write a list of as many words as they can to describe their rocks, encourage them to get to know their rocks as well as they can. Let them know that they will need to be able to find their rock in a pile of many other rocks, label rocks in some way, such as table color to insure that each student get their own rock back.
6. Have the students place their rocks in a big pile.
7. Have the students find their rock from the pile.
8. Define mass and model how to estimate it, and how to find mass with a gram balance.
9. Dismiss students to their table groups.
10. Have the students feel all of the rocks at their table group.
11. Have the students rank them in order of least to greatest mass.
12. After the students have ranked the rocks by mass, have them use the gram balances to find the mass of the rocks and record them.

Evaluation

1. Are students observing their rocks carefully? Are they looking for descriptive, identifying details?
2. Are students using varied, descriptive, identifying words to describe their rocks?
3. Are the students having trouble finding their own rock? Did they get to know their rock well enough so that they find their rock with ease?
4. Are students using logical procedures to predict the rank of rocks by masses? Are they holding a rock in each hand, seeing which feels heavier? Are they basing possible mass on physical appearance?
5. Are students able to manipulate the balance? Are they finding accurate masses? Can they order the rocks by these masses?