Exploring at Recess

Here are some of my students doing their rock cracking during recess. I think it is great that the girls are showing an interest in the Earth - I was afraid it would only be the boys in the beginning. On the first day I read the book How to Dig a Hole Through the Earth, and the boys were hanging on my every word, while the girls did not show much interest at all. Fortunately this changed.

I think what happened was one girl showed an interest, and some others followed the lead.

This herd mentality has happend before in my class this year. I remember I was reading a book and not many students were interested in it. All it took was one of the bigger personalities in the class to become excited, and before I knew it, most of the students in the class were excited too. I should do an experiment about that.

While I think it is great that the girls are taking what they learned in class and acting on it in their own time, I think it is time for them to do more than just crush rocks. I am thinking about having them do a picture presentation showing what the rocks look both on the inside and outside. I would also like them to identify the rocks.

Now I need to think of a way to get them as excited to do a presentation as they are excited about their rock exploration.