Lesson Plan

Teacher Candidate: Aleyna Chipperfield Date: 2/22/24

Group Size: 19 Allotted Time: 30 Minutes Grade Level: 2nd

Subject or Topic: How many ways can rocks be sorted?

Common Core/PA Standard(s)

1.E.2.1 Summarize the physical properties of Earth materials including rocks, minerals, soils
and water that make them useful in different ways.

Standard - CC.1.5.2.A - Participate in collaborative conversations with peers and adults in

small and larger groups.

Learning Targets/Objectives

- Students will be able to use their observation skills to categorize different rocks into
groups by comparing and contrasting rocks of all shapes, colors, and sizes.
- Students will be able to strengthen their observation and communicating skills by
working with a group and practicing comparing and contrasting physical objects.

Formative Assessment Approaches Evidence observation or method of collection

1. Whole group/small group questioning 1. Graphing Mats
2. Walking around to observe

Prerequisites
- Three types of Igneous rocks:
- Basalt, Scoria, Tuff
- Rocks can be described by their properties
- Process to describe by properties:
- identify the object
- observe and describe the color, shape, texture, size, etc.
- compare to other objects
- Different types of rocks al have their own different types of properties
- Smaller rocks (sand) results from the breaking (weathering) of larger rocks.
- Vocab:
- The Rock Cycle - A set of natural processes that form, break down, change,
and re-form rocks over time.
- Magma - hot liquefied, rock located deep below the Earth's surface
- Debris - the pieces of something broken down or destroyed
- Crystallization - the process of formation of solid crystals from solution, melt
or by deposition directly from a gas phase
 - Erosion - Water, wind, and other natural forces cause rocks and earth to wear
away. These forces also move bits of rock and earth to new places. This
movement changes the shape of the land.
- Submerged - to put underwater
- Natural Event - violent events that are outside the control of humans. They are
caused by the forces of nature
- River Rocks - round, smooth rock naturally shaped by erosion or weather as in
a river or water setting
- Volcanic Rocks - rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano
- What is the rock cycle?
- A set of natural processes that form, break down, change, and re-form rocks
over time.
- Temperature, pressure, and changes in environmental conditions at and beneath
Earth's surface drive the rock cycle.
- What are the three main types of rocks found through the rock cycle?
- Sedimentary Rocks - formed from pieces of other existing rock or organic
material.
- Metamorphic Rocks - rocks that have been changed from their original form
by immense heat or pressure.
- Igneous Rocks - formed when molten hot material cools and solidifies.
- What are the effects of rocks being put underwater?
- Bubbling (the more hoes in the rock the more bubbles)
- Rock dust or other sediment separating from the rock
- Color changing of rocks
- Different rocks react differently
- Water level rises and drops with/without the rocks inside
- How would rocks be put underwater in the real world?
- a rock could fall in a river, lake, stream, etc. by breaking off due to a natural
event (earthquake, volcanoes, tsunami’s, etc.)
- when a rock falls in water the same reactions from our small cups would occur
with larger rocks
- the larger the impact the more impactful the effects of rocks in water
will be.
- What kinds of properties can be found on rocks?
- Color
- Size
- Texture
- Density
- Shape
- Type of rock
- The sound of the rock
 - Weight
- How might we use a rock's properties to figure out what kind of rock it is?
- Each rock goes through a process as it forms, which is exactly what informs
geologists on what types of rocks there are.
- The process is what gives each rock its properties
- The properties a rock has, visually and physically, are clues that tell exactly
what type of rock it is.

New Key Vocabulary

- Categorizing - to describe by labeling or giving a name to something

Content/Facts
- How do you use rock properties to sort them into groups?
- Picking an observation or description of a rock (size, weight, color, etc.) and
then looking at all of your given rocks to see how they fit into that category
- Example: if you were sorting rocks by size you might have one pile for
all the tiny rocks, one pile for medium sized rocks, one pile for large
rocks, etc.
- How do you create a graph of rocks if we are sorting them by properties?
- Looking at the piles that were created when sorting rocks by their properties
and then counting how many are in each different category.
- The number of rocks in each pile/category is how many you would right for that
column.

Introduction/Activating/Launch Strategies

- Ask students “Yesterday, how did we describe this marker and pencil?”
- Call on several students to give their review observations
- Ask students “Now, what about the river rocks we got to feel and observe, what kinds
of properties were we using to describe them?”
- Call on several students to give their review observations
- Tell students that today we are going to be using those Geologist observational skills to
sort and graph our river rocks based on the properties we define them by!

Development/Teaching Approaches
- Call students by row over to the front of the room.
- Tell students that we are going to read a little bit about all of the rocks and natural
events we have been talking about. Say “I want you all to listen to see if you hear
anything that you know we’ve talked about already. Listen closely to some of the
properties that are mentioned throughout these few pages as well, cause I think there
are a few mentioned in here underneath the pictures.”
 - Read pages 4-13 in the resource booklet
- pausing to ask questions and having students turn and talk
- Tell students that we are going to continue to be Geologists as we take a second look at
our river rocks from yesterday. But today we will be graphing all of the different ways
we can sort them!
- Dismiss students back to their seats and display the sorting mat the students will be
using on the Doc Cam.
- Tell students that they are going to work in groups of 3 to once again observe their
rocks, discuss the kinds of properties they see in their rocks, and sort/graph them on
their mats.
- Demonstrate an example to students of what their graph could look like for one
property using the mat displayed on the Doc Cam.
- Tell students that when they are graphing their rocks they will have to label the
columns and place the rocks into the column it best fits into for whatever property they
choose.
- Example: size is the property; the columns could be very large, large, medium,
small, and tiny
- Explain to students that they can reference the web of knowledge we made yesterday
about all of the different properties of rocks we came up with to give them more ideas
when sorting/graphing their rocks.
- Call students up by groups of three and hand them their materials (bag of rocks, a
lenses, and one sorting map per student)
- Give groups 15-20 minutes to work on their graphing mats.
- During this time, walk around and assist, answer questions, and prompt
questions such as:
- “How are you sorting your rocks?”
- “What are you noticing as you are sorting the rocks by their ____?”
- Call groups up one at a time to hand back their materials before sitting back at their
desks.
- Ask students about how it went!
- “Was there anything you noticed or that surprised you when you were graphing
and sorting your river rocks today?”
- “What were some of the ways your groups chose to sort your rocks?”
- “Why did your group choose to sort the river rocks by ____?”
- “How do you think Geologists do these kinds of experiments out in the real
world?”
- “Why do you think it’s so important for them to do similar experiments like
this? Why do you think we did this?”

Closure/Summarizing Strategies
- Once everything is cleaned up, call all students to return to their seats.
 - Tell students to put their graphs in their science folders because we will be coming
back to them next week.
- Bring student’s attention to the counter at the back of the room.
- Explain to students these books are going to be here for them to take turns looking at
and reading as we continue to explore this unit! Point out the books that are fictional
stories versus the books that show real life images of the rocks that we have been
learning about these past couple of days.
- Tell students that they are welcome to come back and grab one of these books when
they have free time, but that they are to be respectful and responsible in taking care of
the books and making sure they end up back where they got it from on the back
counter.
- Tell students that it is important for us to take close looks at our surroundings like we
have been doing this week so that we are familiar with our environment and we can get
to know more about the planet that we are living on!
- Remind students that their test will be on Monday and that we will be reviewing earlier
in the day before the test.

Accommodations/Differentiation
- This experiment could be done in partners, individually, or in a whole group using the
Doc Cam. The class’ method of sorting and observing could be monitored and a small
group could be pulled for students who need extra assistance.
- A sheet with example titles of categories could be given to students before they begin
sorting. This way students who might struggle with coming up with category names
may begin just practicing finding objects that might fit into the already labeled
categories.

Materials and Resources:

- Graphing mats (20 copies)
- Bags of river rocks
- Lenses (Magnifying Glasses)
- Resource booklet