Fun with Rocks and Sand at Bowdoin Central School

I am prepping to do a "Fun with Rocks and Sand" presentation with several aged 4 to 8 year olds at Bowdoin Central School tomorrow. I am psyched! It will be so much fun. I bought a book titled, "If You Find a Rock." Shannon, my elementary school teacher extraordinaire buddy, will read the book aloud to the kids and I will show them the rocks that are mentioned as the story goes along.

We will then go outside, don some sized small safety glasses, and break open some geodes, use limestone to draw on the sidewalk, and use a Native American pounder rock to grind oats into flour. Finally, we'll go inside to paint memory rocks, fill plastic dolphin necklaces with layers of colored sand (using homemade paper funnels by Drew;-), have a rock stacking area, and look at pretty rocks and minerals with our magnifiers. We'll also shine a UV light onto some fluorescent rocks (and my running shoes!) HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I AM EXCITED !!!

By the way, Drew collected lots of flat rocks from a nearby creek. I gave them all a good scrubbing so they were somewhat clean and dry for the activity. I also included some river rocks (seen in the basket above) for stacking as well. Neighbor Shannon also donated a big bag of river rocks that she gathered from Nova Scotia. They are much more variable in color. Those will be used for our rock painting area.