Rock and Fossil Classification Labs

If you couldn't already tell by the name of my blog and TpT store, I really enjoy looking at and collecting rocks and fossils. My house and classroom are full of them! Many kids might tell you rocks are stupid, but you'd be surprised how interested they get when you leave them out for them to touch and handle. While many schools might have rock and fossil kits with many small samples, I personally prefer to have large samples for them to handle. I like larger samples for 2 reasons. 1- students are more interested in large samples, and 2- they are harder for students to stick in their pockets and walk away with. When I used to use the small kits samples seemed to disappear- especially the shark tooth fossils!
Now that I teach biology I don't get to dive into rocks much, but I definitely bust out the fossils during my geologic time unit. I want students to be able to touch and handle the fossils, but also be gentle with them. When I put the fossils out at each station, I put them on dissection mats. That way when students set them down it minimizes any damage. I also like choosing some fossils that the students won't recognize. It really makes them think about what type of fossil it is and where it lived. You can click on the slideshow images below to see which samples I used this year.
In my TpT store I have editable lab templates for both rock classification and fossil identification. You can customize them for the samples that you have available to you. Check them out by CLICKING HERE.