Rock Cycle Unit. - Earth/Volcano/Mountains

We've been looking at the rock cycle again but more detailed than last time (you can see our previous activities here)

We started by looking at the structure of the earth. As we'd previously done the playdoh earth, I decided to do the boiled egg version this time (also I couldn't find enough playdoh) along with some 3 part cards and discussed how the rocks around us originally came from the molten rock within the earth that had cooled.

I got the girls to do a drawing to show earth's structure

Next came Volcano's. We made a plaster volcano with a length of plastic tube in for our 'exploding volcano'

and attached a bottle filled with vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to the other end of the pipe.

The girls also made a paper mache model of half a volcano

which they painted and labelled it to show the structure of a volcano. We also read a number of books and looked at our old 'lift the flap' drawings.

We revisited the different types of lava (again with icing sugar)

and discussed how when the surface of lava cools the underneath can still be soft and moving

Then looked at mountains, how they are formed and the parts of a mountain - I made a mountain in the front room and got the girls to write a label and definition for each part of the mountain (peak, base, slope, face, ridge etc)

before getting them to draw their own.

We also looked at the highest mountains on each continent - they made playdoh representations which they had to place correctly on the map while naming them.

we finished by using some types of mountain cards from Montessori Print Shop

 next week we move onto types of rock, weathering etc.