Exploring geology for kids is a homeschool geology unit for a range of ages. The activities cover grades kindergarten through middle school. Focusing on hands-on exploration of topics in geology, my children really had fun learning while retaining a lot of knowledge in the process. I taught this unit as a whole group learning activity. You can pick and choose some activities to do after school if you do not homeschool. If you do homeschool, this learning unit studying geology will take a few weeks to complete.
Included in this unit overview, I have our introduction process of making a KWL chart, the books we chose to read each day and links to the specific learning activities for studying geology. Many of these activities are even okay for preschoolers to do with you. This collection of learning activities is great for elementary aged children and middle school ages.
Homeschool Geology Unit
I put together a free Unit Plan Overview with lesson plans, key vocabulary cards and a supply list to get you started. Each geology activity is linked below. But, if you want to good plan that will give you structure and flexibility as you study geology with kids, the free download unit plan will be a good tool.
To access the calendar plan for this two-week geology unit, subscribe to the SAHM Guide via email. You will receive the password to access the free printable plan, supply list and book list. All of the other subscriber freebies will be accessible as well.
Getting Started: Books, Vocab, Supplies, KWL Chart
To dive into the Geology activities for kids, let’s cover the important starting pieces of this learning unit and then get right into each hands-on geology activity for kids. We did these activities when my kids were ages 6-11 years old.
The concepts can be taught in a whole-group setting to make things easier. Children as young as preschoolers can do some of these learning activities.
Books about Geology
Our first stop was to the library. Kids love the library! I love free books and curriculum. 🙂 Looking through the science shelf, we found quite a few books we could use for our geology activities. I did not read every book end to end. Some I would mark just a few pages to read; others I simply used the illustrations and images as reference. You can determine how much of each book your children can handle.
The main books we used are listed. The books linked are available on Amazon, but check your library too.
- Discover Rocks (Geology Rocks series)
- Examine Minerals (Geology Rocks series)
- Rocks and Minerals by Dan Green
- The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth
- Oxford Science Materials
- Scholastic Rocks and Minerals
- Investigate Gems (Geology Rocks series)
- Examine Ores (Geology Rocks series)
There are many geology books for kids. Feel free to switch out books on the same topic if you cannot find the ones listed here.
Geology Vocabulary Cards (printable)
In the free download Geology Unit Plan, I included the printable geology vocabulary cards. You can access that when you subscribe. If you want to make your own vocabulary cards, just use the word list below and write them on index cards or print them out on cardstock.
- mantle
- erosion
- outer core
- geologist
- inner core
- crust
- igneous
- elements
- sedimentary
- minerals
- metamorphic
- strata
Geology Unit Supplies
The full supply list is included in the Unit Plan that you can download. Each linked activity below will have a full supply list for that lesson too. So, you can download the unit plan or take each lesson at a time. Whatever you prefer.
KWL Chart for Geology
Our first activity to start the discussion about geology was to make a KWL Chart. If you are not familiar with this type of chart it is a great template to use before any learning unit with kids. It stands for Know, Want to Know, and Learned.
We start with the K and the W first. The L we save for our last day of the unit to review what we know and what we learned. Here is our first-day picture of our KWL chart for the geology unit. I just used our white board. A posterboard would work great too.
Daily Geology Lesson Plans (Printable)
Each linked activity below will take you to the activity and lesson plan plus a supply list for each. This is a two-week unit, but it may last longer for you depending on the ages of your children, the time you take discussing and the time your children engage with each activity. That is ok!
Part of homeschooling that helps kids absorb so much information is that we can go slower and more in depth. There is no time limit to these activities.
Again, if you would like a sample calendar plan for this unit subscribe for free to access it. The geology unit plan does include some open spots for you to search your own videos to use or books at your library that may be more readily available. That offers flexibility.
Scientific Method for Kids: Growing Crystals
Science Kids has a whole array of geology lessons for kids. You can see their collection of rock activities. These geology projects from Little Bins for Little Hands will help you with additional geology activities. The make your own seismograph project at Science Buddies will really get the older kids some extra study of geology and earthquakes.
Geology Activity Archives
All of the Learning Unit on Geology activities can be found in the geology archive. You can work through each activity in the listed order above, use the free calendar plan to work on a day-by-day basis, or simply focus on one activity per day.
It really is adjustable to your learning goals and the ages of your children. I used these activities from preschool through elementary and middle school, so they are great for multi-age groups.
The memories I have of teaching through this geology unit with my kids are unforgettable. It was a special year in our homeschool time together. I am excited for you to look through and try these geology activities for kids with your children. Whether you do one or two activities from this learning unit or you dive in and use the entire unit resources in your homeschool, it will provide learning, quality time and special memories for you.
When you get started teaching these activities to your children, stop back here and leave a comment with how it went. I would love to hear from you.
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