Nature Study, Lesson 209: Granite and other Igneous Rocks

Demonstrating the Rock Cycle

We have studied the rock cycle before, 

Volcanoes and Igneous Rocks Pop-Up Book

 as well as igneous rocks specifically, so I began by reviewing this with them.

It seems with every nature walk we take, the boys come home with their pockets full of rocks,

but it was the Rock and Gem show at Bay's Mountain that really sparked their interest in rocks. So when the    Handbook of Nature Study blog's Outdoor Hour study was Granite and other Igneous rocks, we decided to  do a formal nature study.

We didn't get any granite samples there, but we did get a sample of another igneous rock, Pegmatite.

So, we decided to do a study of granite and Pegmatite. We looked each up in field guides and they drew pictures in their journals.

They also made a Venn diagram, comparing and contrasting the two.

We could see the shiny, silver-gold Mica in it, as well as streaks of pink, white and gray.
We speculated that the pink was some rose quartz because it was so shiny,  but that the white and gray were feldspar because they were less crystal-like.

sources and inspiration:

• Handbook of Nature Study, Anna Comstock, pages 743-750 (Introduction to Rocks and Minerals and Lessons 209—210).
• Handbook of Nature Study blog