Every year we look forward with excitement to the rock and gem show. It comes to town sometime in the spring and we always go spent time wandering through the exhibits/vendors.
What we love about this is that we can touch all sorts of minerals, rocks, gems, fossils, and fossilized wood that we don’t have access to otherwise. We take advantage of the show coming to town as an educational opportunity. And we are seldom disappointed!
We always find vendors who love to talk to children. They enjoy spending time educating the girls on the various items they have displayed. They will tell them where items come from, the qualities of the objects, what they are and how they were created (in the case of fossils and such). This year, one of the vendor was a science teacher. Talk about a man in his element! He had such fun talking with the girls. His excitement was contagious and the girls enjoyed it, too. We probably spent 20-30 minutes with this man
, walking all around his display, seeing items under the black light, learning how to identify minerals, and getting lessons in geography.
Another of the girls favorites is the wheel of fortune – you pay a quarter and get whatever is sitting on the number the wheel lands on. Sometimes it is just a few rocks. Sometimes it is a large, lovely shell. Sometimes it is a gorgeous gem or mineral. The man who runs this always tells the girls about what it is they have won if he knows. He enjoys it as much as they do.
Between studying all the rocks, gems, and minerals, not to mention the fossils, and the jewelry and trying to figure out how some of it is made, we spend several hours at the show. Our town is known for its mammoth site (recently it has become part of the National Park Service) and there is always a booth there. They often have worksheets or activity sheets for the kids to pick up.
This year, there was a man there advertising the fossil pit up in Mineral Wells. He and Miss J got to talking and boy, did they discuss things for a long time. From the fossils he was displaying to her favorite type of fossil (shells), they had a good ‘ol time and Miss J walked away with several new additions for her collection. We also have found another field trip we would like to make.
If you have a chance, a rock and gem or mineral show is a wonderful learning opportunity. We have found that vendors enjoy talking to children and educating them when possible. They love the curiosity and the kids love to learn. So, take the chance if you get on. You might just come home with a treasure haul like ours.
At Home.
Tagged: field trips, Middle School, science
oh… I like that little elephant! 🙂 we’ve been to one and found the same. 🙂
I think it is fairly universal that those who collect and sell rocks/gems/minerals/fossils like to talk about them.