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Hello!  I am a student teacher and am making a lesson plan for the Rock Cycle.  I have a couple a resources for the lesson plan itself but, I am having trouble with the length of the lesson plan. I tend to make the lesson plan longer so the students have more time to explore and have opportunity for group discussion. This a 6th grade class and is only 45 min. How can I still have the hand-on activity within this period of time? Any suggestions?

Hello Stefanie! My name is Karina, and I too am a student teacher! You must feel very excited to be constructing a lesson plan over the Rock Cycle! For one I can say that time management is a big thing to keep in mind when developing a lesson. I do not know if you have ever heard of the 5E Lesson Plan. But, if you have yet to hear about it, it is basically an instructional tool that teachers who are teaching a science lesson can use to guarantee that students will grasp the new information presented to them successfully. Additionally, it helps teachers' to make sure they have sufficient time for an engagement phase, an exploration phase, an explanation phase, an elaborate phase, and finally a evaluative phase. In your case I believe it will be helpful for you to use as a guide and as an assurance that you have sufficient time for your hand-on activity. Also, what I would do is practice presenting my lesson and timing it to assure that I have sufficient time. I hope this helps! Best of luck!

Hello Stefanie- Here is an activity that you may be able to incorporate into your lesson on the Rock Cycle. I saw it modeled once at a teacher workshop and plan on using it this summer with the campers I work with at Camp Watonka. http://www.exo.net/~emuller/activities/Crayon-Rock-Cycle.pdf

45 minutes is kind of tight for a lesson as well as a hands-on activity. I typically have a whole group discussion first and pass around rock samples and then the next day I do an activity with it. The crayon rock cycle listed above is one that my kids really enjoy. One suggestion for the "shaving" tool is that I've found a hand pencil sharpener works the best.

This is a great idea! I also like the idea of students creating a model of the rock cycle using materials in the class. They could tell the characteristics of each major group of rocks, how each type of rock forms, and how these groups fit into the rock cycle.

Hi Stefanie, High-five for student teaching! I am a student teacher as well. I had the same issue when planning my lesson on the ladybug cycle. I was stressing over the time because my class only dedicates 45mins to Science as well. My professor told us it was okay to split the lesson between days. You could teach the engage and explore one day and the explain, elaborate and evaluate another day. I don't think it would be ideal to rush it. Goodluck on your lesson!

Hi,

I teach 6th and 8th grade science.  What I find with the 6th graders is that their vocabulary knowledge is lacking.  I like to start a unit or even a lesson with students up and engaged by using a good old card sort....vocabulary words on one set of cards and definitions or pictures on the other set for them to work in groups and match.  You can walk around the classroom and check or engage with each group.  You can time this activity or let them work until all groups have the correct matches.  As you go through the lesson the students will be cataloging their knowledge based on the pictures/definitions presented at the beginning of the class.  I like to finish the class period or begin the next period with the exact same card sort.  This reinforces what they have learned.  Kids are competitive at this age and enjoy this activity. I go over the correct matches out loud at the end and allow the students to 'check' their answers.  This allows me to make sure all students have the correct information.  They love standing up and being engaged.  I use these activities often and before midterms or finals we use them as content review.  

Amy

This is late to this board, but I thought I'd throw this idea out there anyway because I've found it so successful-

Play-Doh! It is an incredible way to help students tell a story, explain a concept, and learn or demonstrate knowledge. (1) Give each student a small container of play-doh, (2) present a slide, picture, or hand sample that indicates a part of the cycle and ask students to share what they know (think,pair,share) and then create a representation with their play doh (3) move through each phase of the cycle with a similar process until all parts have been explained and modeled. (4) Pass out a die to each group. Have the groups roll the die and have a key on the board corresponding each roll of the die to a phase in the rock cycle. (5) Each team rolls the die and creates that phase- as time allows groups can share out. Walk around the room and listen in for misconceptions or great modeling- fix or praise! An extension would be to have students in the room create their phase of the rock cycle  and then find someone else in the room who has a phase near theirs in the rock cycle. This is a great activity for any age Pre-100+. Just be sure not to overuse play-doh as a learning tool or it loses its power to be novel and exciting.

Happy sciencing!

Debbie

Here's a great resource (at least I think so, since I authored THE ROCK HOUND story!).  Seriously, you will find super teacher and student resources FREE! Go to http://earthscienceissues.net/ (Issues in Earth and Space Science).  They publish earth science-related stories twice a year suitable for middle or high school with teacher resources to accompany them.  Russ Colson, the publisher, is a professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead, and has authored 'Learning to Read the Earth and Sky: Explorations Supporting the NGSS, Grades 6–12' (available in the NSTA bookstore). 

My story has  5-E learning model activities, and is aligned to the NGSS.  (http://earthscienceissues.net/Fiction/The_Rock_Hound-Young.pdf ) Enjoy and please give me some feedback ([email protected] ).  Also check out my blog--you will find lots of activities there for grades K--8 and reviews of science related kids literature.

In one of my classes we did this really fun activity with the rock cycle.  It was where there were a bunch of different stations, and each student started at a certian part of the rock cycle.  Then they would role a die and (depending of the probably of something happening EX: heating slowly or heating quickly) where ever they go next was part of the process.  The students will see that most rocks dont make it above ground and see what is common and uncommon for a rock to become.  They will see that the rock can be a different  thing and that over time it changes.  This is a very fun experiment that really makes a difference in the hands on learning for the students.

In one of my classes we did this really fun activity with the rock cycle.  It was where there were a bunch of different stations, and each student started at a certian part of the rock cycle.  Then they would role a die and (depending of the probably of something happening EX: heating slowly or heating quickly) where ever they go next was part of the process.  The students will see that most rocks dont make it above ground and see what is common and uncommon for a rock to become.  They will see that the rock can be a different  thing and that over time it changes.  This is a very fun experiment that really makes a difference in the hands on learning for the students.

Stefanie,

It would be difficult to teach a rock cycle lesson in just 45min with a hands-on activity and discussion.  You can introduce a phenomenon (short clip of video, image, etc) to engage students in exploring the why of rock formation with guided open questions and observations.  Then add in the hands-on activity later.

Stefani, Knowing the amount of content that the students already understand is a major key to the lesson. If the students already understand what is going on within the lesson, then you can have them watch a short video clip to refresh their memory. After the video, you can go on and continue the 45min. hands-on activity and discussion.

Hi Stefanie!

I integrate a lot of science articles with my reading instruction. That could save you some time there. 

Hey!

So, I would recommend using Google Earth if you are able to pull it up in front of your students. By doing this you could show different areas of the world and therefore different rock formations. You could also find different places where the rocks are at one section of the Rock Cycle. Looking near Hawaii or by any other type of active volcano, could give your students a fun exploring style lesson, while also showing them the basics of the cycle!

Hope it works out and good luck either way!

Hello! I would suggest to begin the lesson by asking some questions that'll allow you to see what prior knowledge do students have on the rock cycle. This can help speed up the process of the lesson and pick on what they do not know yet :)

We have taught this lesson multiple times either in our college classes or in the actual classroom. We have found that teaching the rock cycle can easily be done in that amount of time and you also have time to give the students manipulatives such as different types of rocks to help be developmentally responsive to the students needs.

Hello. I am currently and Early Childhood/ Elementary Education major. When teaching about the Rock Cycle, it can be easier to spread out the lesson into three days. For the first day, students can learn about Igneous rocks. For the second day, students will learn about Sedimentary rocks. For the third day, students will learn about Metamorphic rocks. Each of the lessons can contain basic background information on the types of the rock, how can students identify the different types of rocks followed by an activity where students will be given several rocks to observe and determine what type of rock is it based on the characteristics and differences taught within the lesson. With the lesson spread out, it will allow the students more time to fully comprehend the rock cycle. 

I love what you said about students remembering better as they start to figure it out themselves! This is a great teaching strategy and will help students especially with this type of low risk science.

When I teach my middle school science class, the hands-on activity is the opportunity for students to directly experience the natural phenomena that is being studied. In my lessons, the concepts essential for student understanding are introduced early on in the lesson, which if in the middle of a unit may even just be a warm-up question set to engage student thinking on the topic. The hands-on activity often directly follows. The students will then build a model or engage with a model to facilitate their understanding of hands-on activity which may be a natural phenomenon. Following modeling, students may have group level discussions and then a whole class discussion which I lead by asking questions of the students.

Have you planned a model to facilitate student understanding of the hands-on activity?

Hello! I'm a student at the University of Northern Iowa and I acutally participated in my Level 3 field experience in a 6th grade science class that was studying the rock cycle! Their class periods were only about 30 minutes long so I understand the difficulty of integrating meaningful experiences on a time crunch. When I taught, I conducted an experiment where the students put small granite rocks in a plastic jar and shook for one minute with a partner. This was a great quick experiement to do with the students that they enjoyed. I then had them observe and discuss how the rock formed the sand from the abrasion that happened within the jar. With productive questioning and talk moves, I was able to turn this quick experiement into a great learning experience! Let me know if you have any questions!

Hi Stephanie, learning the rock cycle was one of the most interesting things to me at that age. To save some time, the class before you teach the lesson or whenever you see them, try and get some insight on what  excatly the students know about the cycle. Aftwards you can go from there. Another thing you can do is spread the work out amongst the class. Introduce the rock cycle during a 5-10 minute introduction. Put them into groups and give each group a part of the cycle and tell them to write the name and a discription on what that part of the cycle is. One by one from beggining to end make them stand up for 2 to 3 minutes as a group and give a disciption on what their part of the cycle is. Hope this works goodluck. 

A short video for the class to watch that describes a summary of the rock cycle would provide more time for hands-on activities. This would help them retain previous knowledge about rocks and teach them new information quickly to provide more time elsewhere. 

Hi Stefanie, for such a short period of time for a lesson I think it's a great idea to show the students a short video of the rock cycle to just refresh their memory. If the kids are struggling with the vocabulary you could always play a game later on. But for your lesson plan something that I enjoyed doing hands-on with the rock cycle was always the starburst exeperiment. The lab is shown here https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/starburst-rock-cycle/. There are multiple ways to do this lab but this is the one I have attached. If the kids need more time later you can always go back and help with more of the undestanding of the cycle and refer back to the lab as the kids will have a fun visual to go back to. 

Hello, Stephanie! I saw someone mentioning using the 5E lesson plan, I can tell you that it is a very interesting and great way of creating a lesson and it also allows for the students to explore on an investigable questions and make the lesson hands on and student-centered. It also allows you to assess students in more creative ways and check for improvement (I recomment a pre and post assessment) through their lesson, and having them act as scientsts definitely makes the lesson more interesting for them, the kids feel independent and responsible. The rock cycle is always fun! i would show them a cool video to engage them and set them on with a quesiton that allows them to explore the topic. 

Hey there Stephanie! 

In October I did a hands on activity for the Rock Cycle with my 8th graders that they loved and I'm sure could be adapted for 6th grade! We started by watching a video that explained how sedimentary rock and igneous rock is made (we skipped metamorphic due to a lack of materials). After the video each student recieved wax paper and 3 Starburst, all differnt colors. Together we then made sedimentary rock by stacking the Starburst on top of each other and pushed them together. We then demonstrated igneous rock by warming our hands up by rubbing them together for friction, and smashed the layers together till they flatted out and mixed together! After we let the students eat their Starburst. Along with this activity we had the students complete a lab sheet and record a drawing of their 'rocks' 

Hope this helps and good luck!