Family and Homeschool Activities: Rocks and Minerals

These family and homeschool activities are designed to complement the Rocks and Minerals topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Trip to the Museum

Most natural history museums have a section about rocks and minerals. Walk through the exhibit with your child. Discuss how rocks and minerals are useful and valuable. You can extend this lesson to the exhibit on fossils. How do rocks provide clues about what life was like long ago on Earth? What does your child think people in the Stone Age used rocks for? Make sure your child brings a notebook to take notes and sketch.

Rock Rules

Accompany your child on a walk and collect rocks together. Be sure to check that it is acceptable to gather rocks, since it is sometimes forbidden in certain areas. Pick up rocks of different colors and sizes. Then bring the rocks home and have your child sort them in different ways. Ask him or her to discuss their sorting rule out loud. Then you take the rocks and sort them and have your child figure out the sorting rule. After you each take several turns, your child can use the rocks to make a rock garden or a rock sculpture in your yard or in a local park or community garden.