Geology Rocks! (And it tastes good, too.)

The second week of our geology unit (the week following the field trip) came with lots of hands-on activities. The two main resources I'm using for activity ideas are:

and Adaptive Earth Science Activities --a 78-page PDF of fantastic hands-on activities from RockCamp in West Virginia.

Layers of the Earth:

A hard candy CORE surrounded by a soft, gooey marshmallow MANTLE.

Cover these layers in a molten chocolate CRUST that cools.

Eat your homework!

Peleg, Pangaea, and Plate Tectonics:

Cutting up the continents as puzzle pieces to make Pangaea

Graham cracker TECTONIC PLATES on orange frosting MANTLE

Subduction

Making mountains

Destruction of a strike-slip fault

More strike-slip action
(And from the frosting on her face you can tell she's eating her homework again.)

These activities were followed up with worksheets and notebooking pages, which included Alfred Wegener, Arthur Holmes, Harry Hess, Genesis 10:25, 1 Chronicles 1:19, D&C 133:23-24 and D&C Commentary.

We also tried out our first National Parks Mystery. Having kicked off our unit with a trip to Yellowstone (and wishing we could have spotted wolves) it was only fitting to read the Yellowstone mystery.  I'm not sure what I expected, but it was not what I expected.  Still, it wasn't a bad read.