Science Sunday/ Discovering through Rocks

As I have mentioned several times, Selena is a rock collector. She collects rocks any time we are outside. I had an idea of how to use these rocks to see if Selena could remember some information that we have talked about before. Now I gave her no hints as to what information I was looking for, and began this experiment out as a fun game or craft.

Supplies: Rocks, Water, and a Paintbrush.

Selena started by laying her rocks out and counted them all. I was very impressed with her ability to count every rock even though they were not in straight lines. She didn’t miss a single one in her counting nor did she count any one rock twice.

I had her pick out a rock and describe it to me. It’s color, shape, texture, and what did she think it looked like? Then handed her the paintbrush and water and she began to paint. She then had to describe to me how the rock was changing. We had all sorts of critters from ladybugs, frogs, and turtles. As she finished painting them we set them aside. She didn’t know they would dry and change back, but of course I did.

I loved her expression when she discovered her rocks had dried and changed back to what they looked like when we first started. She informed me, this just isn’t right, not right at all. Then preceded to repaint the now dry rocks again.

It wasn’t long before this expression appeared and she shouted out, “These rocks are like Chameleons!” That was what I was looking for. We discussed many aspects of the Chameleons, basically allowing Selena tell me what she remembered about them. Here is what she could tell me:

1. Chameleons change color.
2. Why? Because of the temperature. (while there are other reasons they change color, this was the reason Selena remembered.)
3. They live in the desert (they can also live in rain forests, but Selena wasn’t going to buy into that one.)
4. They change color for Camouflage to hide from predators. (Not all change color for this reason, but this is what Selena remembered.)

She then informed me that this was a lot of fun and she wanted to paint all the rocks in the whole world! Good Luck on that one Selena! I have to say though I was very proud of all the imagination she put into this fun activity, as well as all the information she retained from a lesson learned several months back.

I am linking this up at Adventures in Mommydum.