Songs, Sweets and Learning Treats

“”With pressure, heat and chemicals, metamorphic rock is born”  belted out 3 eager boys…

Oh the power of song. I love googling to see if I can find a song that will help us solidify information we are learning about. I stumbled upon this song when preparing for our recent rock study (remember the good and the good that I thought was bad due to too high expectations?).

Rock Cycle Song
(sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

SED-I-MEN-TARY rock
Has been formed in layers
Often found near water sources
With fossils from decayers.

Then there’s IGNEOUS rock
Pumice, Obsidian, Granite.
Molten lava, cooled and hardened
That’s how God planned it.

These two types of rocks
Can also be transformed.
With pressure, heat and chemicals,
METAMORPHIC rock is born

I’ve written beforeabout the power of music with brain development. Did you know that it is easier for the brain to internalize information this way? Why? Well it utilizes both sides of the brain. The right side processes the melody and rhythm while the left side sorts out the words sung. Plus the brain stores the entire chunk of information as one piece instead of having to go through the effort to store distinct pieces of information.

It proved quite effective.

As a sweet reward, we culminated our rock study with this hands-on, multi-sensory metamorphic rock activity. It’s not often that we get to bring our sense of taste into the learning adventure. When the opportunity presents itself, we usually jump at the opportunity.

Metamorphic Rock {Snickers} Activity

The boys loved cutting a snickers bar in half and examining the layers of this sedimentary candy. Then while singing at the top of their lungs, we proceeded to apply heat and pressure. {Doesn’t everyone live in football jersey costumes in the Fall, or is just my boys?}

The result was visually dramatic, but still quite tasty!

Are you learning about rocks too?  Check out the Pinterest board I set up when getting ready for our unit.