Minerals: Introductory Activities

It worked out, one year, that I had to be away from school on the first day of my mineral unit.  I wanted to get started on minerals, and not fill the day with unrelated fluff, so I came up with these activities, which were simple for a sub to implement, but still related to the topic at hand.

Know/Want to Know

This is a pretty classic activity, in which students record the things they already know about the topic and they things they'd like to learn during the course of the unit.  This can be used for any topic, science or non-science.  Maybe not the most exciting, but a good starting point. 

Mineral/Rock ABCs

I challenged my students to find a mineral or rock that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  I left a bunch of books around that they could use.  It got them looking at pictures of minerals and at least a little familiar with the names of some of them.

Mineral/Rock Scavenger Hunt

I challenged the students to spend some time looking around the classroom and to list as many things as they could find that were made of/from rocks and minerals.