Over the past few weeks, Year 3 have been studying the topic of rocks. The children began by reviewing their prior knowledge and discussing the various ways rocks are used. They identified that many rocks are natural physical features, but humans also alter the state of some rocks to benefit our daily lives.
The children took a hands-on approach as we explored over 10 different types of rocks, working together to sort them into groups based on their physical characteristics. They categorised the rocks according to whether they were fossilised, crystallised, smooth, rough, or sorted by their colour and weight. The children also justified in their writing why they chose to group some rocks together and not others.
This week, the children designed their own investigation to test the physical properties of rocks. We focused on testing the hardness of various rocks to determine which ones were suitable or unsuitable for different uses. After some insightful suggestions, the children concluded that we needed to specifically test for ‘hardness’ rather than ‘brittleness.’ To do this, they tested whether each rock could withstand being scratched by a sewing needle 10 times. The children were happy with their results and made recommendations about which materials were safe to use and which posed more challenges.
