DAY ONE: Orientation Day – What are Rocks?
Welcome to our “Rocking Rock Research! – An Amazing DIY at Home Camp” series. For Day 1, we kept this very light and focused more on introducing what exactly is a rock. We had quite a bit of a fun intro day with fun crafts, experiments, and food crafts / snacks. Read through to check out some ideas.
WEEKLONG PROJECT
For our weeklong project, we asked our kids to look out for rocks on their outings and build a rock collection. Though we all knew they wouldn’t find most of the minerals or gems we’d learn about, they still had fun picking them up.
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
We had a pretty cool food craft / snack of the day as we followed a Youtube Video from Geology Kitchen: #3: Clastic Sedimentary Rocks. Who doesn’t love learning WHILE eating ice cream 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important.
For our intro to camp day, we chose a book called The Rock Factory: The Story of Rocks and Stones by Jacqui Bailey. It’s a mostly non-fiction book with tons of pictures and even a few experiments 🙂
Since it’s non-fiction, we asked the kids to write down a few facts that they learned or enjoyed!
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: ROCK, CYCLE, MINERALS
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices.
- Imagine you found a magic rock who could talk! If you asked the rock what types of things it’s seen in its past, what would you think it would say?
CRAFT
After picking up all those rocks, you can put them to good use by painting them! If you didn’t find any large ones, you can also supplement with a Rock Painting Kit.
STEM ACTIVITY
For our STEM activity, we picked up a Rock Science Kit. The rocks are a bit small (less than an inch) but they’re split up into categories and are numbered, so it’s easy for kids to match the name and type to the actual rock. It’s a good activity kit for studying rocks.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home play / summer camp guide! If you enjoyed this article, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other at home play / summer guides: DIY Summer Camps.
Happy Learning!
