Rock Week

This week, we have been learning about rocks, soil and fossils.

On Wednesday, we started to look at a few rocks like slate, sandstone and limestone. Then, we got the stones and looked at them with a magnifying glass. After that, we sketched the rocks really carefully.

Us sketching

Later that day, both of us did some experiments on a few different types of rock. We tested the hardness of the rocks: chalk was the softest and the hardest was granite.

Order of hardness

Next, we tested the permeability of each rock. Finally, we put all the rocks in acid, to see if they were made from the bones and shells of dead animals.

Rock in acid

After lunch, we looked at different fossils. We learnt about how fossils are made.

Different fossils

Then, we made our own fossils using Play-Doh and plaster of paris.

Pouring in plaster of paris
Pouring the plaster of paris
The finished fossils – the shells aren’t there, but it looks like they are

On Thursday, we went on a walk, and we collected different types of rocks and soils. We used a key to see what rocks we had found.

The key that we used
The rocks we found
Some more rocks that we found

Next, we shook the soils up with water, to see what they were made up of.

The three soils

Finally, we put the soil into a funnel with some water, to see which was the best at soaking up water and which was the best at letting it through.

Pouring in water