Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils: Part 2

Rock Show!!!

The rock show was amazing this year. I went twice: once with the kids, and once without, to be able to look around more. They had a lot of kid-friendly activities set up, and so many of the people were really interested in teaching kids. There were a few stations where an egg carton was provided, and a kid could fill it with rocks, minerals, and fossils, and then label them, all for 50 cents. We went to both stations that provided this activity. There were some great ladies and gentlemen running these booths, and they helped the kids each step of the way. I overheard one man explaining the Moh's hardness scale to a middle-school boy (he was talking about how your fingernail, which is rated at 2.5 hardness on the scale, can scratch gypsum, which is lower). The specimens were even sorted by category: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. Evie loved standing up on her tippy-toes to choose a specimen from each of the trays. She's been carrying her egg cartons around all over the place ever since we got home, and showing them off to people. 

They had another 50 cent activity: fossil shark tooth excavation. It was a kiddie pool filled with sand, and they had put the fossils in there for kids to dig up. Once you had collected some, you got to choose your favorite one to keep, and the young ladies running the booth would help you identify which shark species it came from (This activity would be pretty easy to replicate this summer for some outdoor fun, perhaps when we study dinosaurs, which will be a big unit). Evie had so much fun with this! I think she would have happily excavated shark teeth for an hour if it had been possible. In the end, she chose a long sand shark tooth. The ladies handed us a sheet with information on identifying the fossils, and about the sharks they came from. 

So, for 75 cents, Evie got to do all of that! It took up a fair chunk of time. This is why I went back the next day, to actually look for some new additions to our cabinet of natural curiosities. 

There was also a small crowd gathered around a man who was using professional equipment to crack open large geodes. We've cracked small geodes on our own in the driveway before, so it was really interesting to watch the larger ones being opened.
This is all aside from looking at all of the rocks, minerals, gems, fossils, insect specimens, and more that were on display. We saw mastodon teeth, gigantic crystal formations, dinosaur teeth, huge taxidermy walking stick insects, framed butterflies, skulls...basically there was a fascinating teaching opportunity around every corner. By far the best part, as far as Evie was concerned, were her own rock collections. As soon as she had those, she didn't pay attention to much else. I keep finding the egg cartons in random rooms of the house, because she carries them all over the place.
When I returned the next day, I obtained a fossilized fish, a fern fossil, a framed metallic green beetle, and some beautiful minerals. When I got home, I looked at all of them with Evie, then we put them in the display cabinet.
This was a wonderful experience, and we will certainly be doing this again next year!