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The rocks that compose the Earth's crust are subjected to a variety of forces. Depending on the environmental factors at work, the rocks can be altered in size or in composition. Factors such as wind, water, plants, and animals cause weathering, physical changes in rocks that affect their size. However, physical changes do not affect the composition of rock. In this activity you will see the effect of physical weathering on rocks.

VERY cool Earth Science/Space crossover project.  Students can send in a rock from their area, and NASA will use a special tool (like the one on the Mars Exploration Rovers) to tell you what it's made of.  Students could compare rocks on Earth to the rocks found on Mars.   Class can view and print various rock pictures from this website and create their own rock book, differentiating by ability.  (could be categorized by color, composition, geographic location, etc.)  It can be expanded as needed.  Kindergarten example would be to create a journal entitled "My Rock Collection."  They would find pictures of rocks that are blue, red, yellow, green, purple, etc and categorize them.  

This site doesn't provide specific activities; however, I would design earth science activities to assist kids in researching this park, and the surround area.  We would discuss how and why the area has these deposits, the history of the area, and how to go about finding diamonds and other cool rocks.   Extension activity:  Order bags of dirt from Crater of Diamonds park and have the kids sift through to find and identify various rocks and minerals.   Standards: 3.2.1:  Examine the physical properties of rock samples and sort them into categories based on size using simple tools such as sieves. 3.2.2:  Observe the detailed characteristics of rocks and minerals.  Identify rocks as being composed of different combinations of minerals. 3.2.3:  Classify and identify minerals by their physical properties of hardness, color, luster, and streak.  

Students explore the differences and similarities between rocks and minerals by investigating samples of these earth materials, performing a series of tests similar to geologists' field tests, and reading about rocks and minerals and how they are used.

Great little site that contains 3 different rock experiments that are easy to conduct and can provide great conversations among the class

This page has everything a teacher needs to know to make a class rock and mineral collection or assign the task to students.

4.2.2 Describe how wind, water and glacial ice shape and reshape earth's land surface by eroding rock and soil in some areas and depositing them in other areas in a process that occurs over a long period of time. Sticky Note: This would be great to add for ELL students as a preview for a unit on weather so they have a good foundation of the vocabulary needed to understand the upcoming unit.

This activity allows students to see the effects of a landslide on a small scale in the classroom. This is a neat experiment that looks easy to assemble and explain.