Introducing.......The Magnificent Minerals!!!!!

Lessons four and five combined were a challenge for Ben and I. When we arrived to set up, we put the 12 minerals labeled A through L in the 11 egg cartons and put the 12 rocks labeled 1 through 12 on the eleven trays. Then I wrote our agenda on the white board as well as the process skills the students would be using today. While I was writing those things, Ben was setting up the KWL chart for minerals and then made a Venn diagram so we could finish talking about the physical properties of rocks.

Ben began our lesson with discussing the physical properties of the 12 rocks we observed last week to do a quick wrap up of rocks. Ben wrote the physical properties the students mentioned while I walked around calling on the students to answer our questions. The students had so many physical properties they wanted to share that we did not get to all of them. We realized that next time; we have to make sure we write bigger on the sticky notes because the properties were difficult for students to see.

After our Venn diagram activity, Ben gave a short lecture on minerals. Unfortunately, many of the words Ben mentioned went over the students’ heads and they were confused. We learned that next time we have to use more appropriate vocabulary for fourth graders.

After the “sophisticated” lecture, we had the students help us fill out the KWL chart on minerals. The students told us what they know about minerals and some things they would like to learn about minerals. When we finished the chart, we told them they were going to be observing and writing down the physical properties of 12 minerals with their partners. We also asked the students to write down if they saw any of the minerals in the 12 rocks we looked at last week. We explained that they would be using their hand lens to carefully observe the minerals and to then write down what they see in their science workbooks.

Before we had the students get their materials, Ben showed them the proper way to put on a glove that they would have to wear on their opposite hand they write with to handle the minerals. I then read the partners off and had each pair go to the table to collect their rocks, minerals, and hand lens.

The students were very engaged in observing the minerals. A lot of our students liked the minerals more than the rocks because they were different and more appealing to look at. Ben and I walked around asking them questions about the minerals and made sure they weren’t spending too much time on each mineral.

When the students were finished observing, we concluded our lesson by asking the students what they observed while looking at the minerals. We were a little better on time for this lesson however, their teacher still had to talk to them a little more about what they observed because we had to leave.

I definitely believe that we are improving with each lesson and we love the feedback we are getting from our professors. This lesson was the hardest for us because there was so much to cover. For our next lesson, we plan on talking less so they can spend a good amount of time on the activity. We had a blast and we are really looking forward to next week!