Rock Kits for Kids

by Peggy Hazelwood. Making rock kits for kids is a great way to introduce geology and rock identification to children. You can make your own or buy rock kits already made.

To begin, consider the age of the student when choosing a rock kit. Beginning rock hounds (that's what people who love to look for rocks, stones, and minerals are called, in case you're not a rock hound yourself and not familiar with this term) can get interested in learning more with a simple assortment of rocks.

More advanced rock hounds and geology buffs will want a way to display and organize their rock collection. Books that help identify specific rocks is another great tool for any rock kit.

Rocks and Minerals

An Instant Collection

American Educational Classroom Collection of Rocks and Minerals

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Hand Sewn Pouch with Rock Speciimens

Make a Personalized Rock Kit

Rock kit -- Hand sewn pouch with rocks identifiied by name and place of origin.

Peggy Hazelwood

Make Rock Kits

Buy Individual Rocks and Label Them

A simple way to make your own rock kit is to buy individual rocks and label them.

This selection shown here came in a paper bag already assembled. I bought it at a rock and mineral show for a few dollars. I don't remember how much, but it was less than $5.

Identify Rocks and Label Them

This particular rock kit contains a good little assortment of a variety of rocks. The following rocks are included with their scientific name and place of origin:

Amethyst: Minas Gerais, Brazil
Gypsum: Chihuahua, Mexico
Herkimer diamond: Middleville, New York
Lepidolite: South Dakota
Peridot: Apache County, Arizona
Pyrope garnet: South Africa
Sapphire Corundum: Burma

You can easily make your own rock kit by choosing individual rocks like these. You can find rocks, minerals, and gemstones from rock shows or rock shops. Be sure to get the information needed to label the rocks when you get home.

To get kids involved, take along your child (or borrow one!) to a rock show or to a rock and mineral store and let them choose their own rocks. They can talk to the person selling the rocks to learn more about geology in a fun, relaxed way.

Another option is to buy gemstone rock kits already assembled. Whichever way you go, if you add a rock tumbler kids can find their own rocks and make chunky rocks into smooth treasures to display in the garden or in their own collection.

Fossils: Do You Dig It?

When we think of fossils, our mind goes to rocks that have impressions of items in them. These items can include things like a leaf or a bone, that were embedded over time, that left a grooved impression in the stone.

But the word fossil means "having been dug up" in Latin (fossus is the Latin word for fossil). That definition opens up the fossil world, doesn't it?

So, dinosaur bones are fossils. So is amber. Finding a nice piece of amber with a mosquito or other insect inside is a treasure! And petrified wood is a fossil.

Fossils with impressions can be found in limestone, coal, and other rocks. The impressions can be made from shells, leaves, skeletons, teeth, and more.

A fossil kit and book will help kids learn what geological period each fossil was made as well as identification of many fossils.

For young children, using fossil rubbing plates to make their own fossil drawings is a great way to introduce them to fossils. The rubbing plates have raised images of leaves and dinosaur bones that let kids place paper over top to create their very own fossils!

Source: Wikipedia