Deserts for Kids - World's 10 Fascinating Deserts

Join me on an exciting journey to discover the breathtaking beauty of the ten most fascinating deserts around the world. From the vast expanse of the Sahara in Africa to the colorful sand dunes of the Atacama in South America, we'll delve into the history, geography, and ecology of each desert. We'll learn about the unique flora and fauna that thrive in these arid landscapes and the traditional cultures that have adapted to these challenging environments. Together, we'll gain a deeper appreciation for the wonders of our planet and the incredible resilience of life in the harshest conditions.

Study of Rocks and Minerals for Kids (with FREE Cards)

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Oh here we are again, my son’s favourite topic: rocks! Last year we worked on identifying the types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.  This year, I added minerals to our studies, to advance our learning about the Rock Cycle.
This years’ objectives for  Rock Cycle study:

1. Review the classification of rocks
2. Identify the characteristics of rocks
3. Identify the characteristics of minerals
4. Difference between rocks and minerals
5. Products of rocks and minerals

Materials used:

• Igneous rock collection
• Metamorphic rock collection
• Sedimentary rock collection 
• Minerals collection.    
• Digital microscope (optional) Was used to examine and take magnified digital pictures of the surface of rocks and minerals. This device can become handy in taking magnified digital pictures of tiny insects, objects, or any creatures.
• Rock and Fossil Hunter Book  A really good book that provides a table of rocks and minerals, with lots of experiments and activities.

This is how we worked on each rock.  I created learning cards for each collection, the links are at the end of this post.
  Comparing rocks and minerals
Comparing Pyrite (fools’ gold and real gold)
Colours of minerals.  Trying to draw and identify the colours of each mineral.


Rocks vs Minerals.  Combined a few igneous, metamorphic and minerals then have Mavi sort them according to:  minerals, rocks and “not sure”.  Mavi had so much fun here!
  Looking closely.  We used our digital microscope (husband provided this) to have a closer look at our rocks and to check for some crystal formations :)

Metamorphic

 Igneous

 Minerals

Get your FREE printable files from the links below:

• Igneous Rocks
• Metamorphic Rocks

You can also purchase an entire pack of rock materials (I suggest this!).  If you have a budget, it's better to get them all at once so you can pull out a prolific rock study.  Any of these two would be perfect!

• Rock and Fossil Collection
• Earth Science Collection

Geological Time Scale with Safari Toobs

Last year, I was able to purchase the Cambrian and Prehistoric Life Toobs from Amazon because it was on sale.  I’ve always wanted to have them so we can use the figures in our Geological Time lesson. Remember the first time Mavi and I had the lesson at home? It was a hit! He love it so much! His interest came to light when he started reading the Universe Trilogy:

Born with a Bang

Lava to Life

Mammals who Morph

After which he started to do his own “timeline” by connecting the dots in the stories (based on the books).  Because we didn’t have the appropriate figures, our representation of the timeline is incomplete.  And finally, these toobs were on sale and we just have to finish what we started!

So here are the additional toobs that we used (aside from the dinosaur toobs)":

The Cambrian Toob. Loooove them! They are so colourful and the details! OMG!

The Prehistoric Life Miniatures.  Love this well!  Too bad it doesn’t have enough animal figures on it though. But we love it anyway.

So here are my boys, Mavi putting things in action.  I made the paper mat. I simply added the label on the side.

And Vito, taking away the items from the mat and destroying everything that Mavi has created LOL.

Ahhh… here it is! I finally got the chance to snap a photo of Mavi’s work while the little one is napping.

Pictures below how Mavi would research each of the figures.  Yes I’m beginning to teach him to do research using the web.  He’s getting there, he loves reading out loud his discoveries (soon I’ll teach him how to take down notes!).  I told him we can do research in books and in the internet nowadays.  I also made labels for each figures.  They are actually etched on each but it so difficult to read. 

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Study of Rocks for Kids

Mavi has always been fascinated with rocks.  He's been obsessed with rocks and dinosaurs since he discovered Dinosaur Train.  We have piles of rocks in our backyard that he had collected for some time now and he considered them his precious collection.  We've already had our experiment on Rock Cycle and it was a hit.

Thus, I had an idea to do this activity to feed his interest.  I purchased a set of Igneous Rocks and Metamorphic Rocks (I did not get the Sedimentary Rocks but here's the link for your reference), collected more rocks from the seaside and borrowed books from the library to complete our rock study.

Modeling Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks

It's difficult to explain to a 5 year old how rocks are formed.  Good thing, we read this book Rocks and Minerals (Investigations) , it showed us how to make igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in ways that a child can easily grasp the concept.

Igneous Rocks.  These rocks are formed when hot molten rocks, magma or lava are cooled into solid.  Here melt the sugar and let it solidify. 

Heat brown sugar with little water on it into high temperature. Mix the sugar and water while it is heating.  Allow it to boil for a while, but don't burn it (turn into black).  When it is piping hot, pour the mixture into a cool baking try.  I placed our sugar mixture into a chilled baking paper. After a few minutes, the sugar will turn into a glassy and brittle toffee.  This process is similar to how igneous rocks are formed and their characteristics which are glassy or smooth and grainy.

My son can't get enough so we made a second version. This time, we poured the boiling sugar mixture in a bowl filled with cold water.

Sedimentary Rocks.  These rocks are formed as small particles of sand, minerals, shells, mud or any matter accumulate at the bottom of the seas, lakes or in deserts. 

  

A multi-layer of sandwich is like a strata rock.  The first layer is a slice of bread, and each filing is laid on top with more slices of bread.

We prepared two sandwiches here, and Mavi's version is the one with sausage and cheese. Notice the differences in the thickness and colors of layers.  Similar to the characteristic of a sedimentary rock.

Metamorphic Rocks.  Metamorphic means "change".  These are formed when igneous or sedimentary rocks are subjected to high temperatures or are crushed by high pressures underground.  So to create our metamorphic rocks, we used our sedimentary rock models and added pressure (Mavi) and heat (mine) on them.

            

We enjoyed our snacks that afternoon.  It was a fun preparing the sandwiches and a good way to learn.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!

Introducing the Layers of the Earth to Preschoolers (with Free Printable)

This topic is somewhat advanced for my 4 year old.  But you see last week, he watched an episode of  The Backyardigans about the “Old Gushie” a volcano which is about to erupt.  The Backyardigan friends traveled down into the Earth to stop a boulder from plugging Old Gushie before it can break the Earth into half.

That’s how we ended up learning about the Earth’s layers as he was so curious of where the hot liquid lava from the volcano came from.  Materials I used were the Layers of the Earth Nomenclature Cards which I downloaded from The Helpful Garden, Layers of the Earth fact book which I made and can be downloaded for FREE (see link below) and an illustration of the Earth’s layers (colored papers).