Rockin' Rocks Workshop

Year 3 have had the most fantastic day today learning everything there is to know about rocks! It's been a little while since we studied Rocks in Science so we had to think all of the way back to term one to remember how igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks are made, as well as all about earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis!

We started the day looking at a variety of rocks under a microscope and noticing that some had crystals in them, some had layers and some were powdery. We had to think about some of the different properties of rock, such as permeability, hardness and appearance. We categorised these based on their different properties and we learned the names for some of these fantastic rocks.

Then we had some time to experiment with soil. We looked at soil under a microscope and had to try and work out what it is made up of. Turns out - it's lots of dead things, yuck!

We experimented with making sedimentary rock with layers of sediment and water, building it up over time. We talked about how igneous rocks are made when lava from a volcano cools, and how metamorphic rocks are made when heat and pressure act on other rocks. We even had a go at making our own 'metamorphic rocks' using wax, turning our white wax 'rocks' into a weird-looking, flat, green, metamorphic rock - wow!

Finally, we got to see some explosions! We had a volcano from a different place around the world and we learned whether it was dormant, extinct or active based on how high the lids popped. Some of them were so active they popped ten times! Some were so powerful they even hit the ceiling!

We have had an absolutely fantastic day and we are so grateful to Mr Bonner for sharing his wealth of rocks expertise with us today!