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Hi everyone I am working on creating a lesson for second grade TEKS 7A.  [(7)  Earth and space. The student knows that the natural world includes earth materials. The student is expected to:(A)  observe and describe rocks by size, texture, and color;] I want to create a lesson that will keep the students engaged. I also want it to be hands on. Any recommendations?

I think this a great time to introduce children to the worlds natural resources, considering how much they love to play outside. I definitely think you should utilize the various landscapes around the school. Go on a nature walk with your kids, and have them observe, illustrate, and collect samples of nature through out the walk. You can use sand from the sandbox, to the rocks that make up the gravel, or dirt vs. clay that you can find at schools ( or you can bring in different samples). Have students bring back various samples, of different textures and materials to classify into the appropriate natural resource category. Having the students draw and label what they find helps to integrate small moments that will help then retain the information. Students should also share the similarities and differences among their illustrations. That way when they think of natural resources, they will think back to the nature walk and everyone's different illustrations. Whatever you choose, you're on the right track of having them engaged and getting dirty! Keep it up! Best of luck!

Most schools provide a rock kit for those lessons. Maybe you can have centers of different rocks where the kids get to feel and look at the rocks. You can pair them up with a partner and have them talk to each other about the texture of each rock that they pick up. It would be very interesting to hear the conversations they have. 

You may want to consider having students bring rocks from home to use. Modeling is going to play a big part in this lesson, so you may want to model how they are going to be classifying rocks before allowing them to do it individually. Hope this helps