Rocky Teaching

Hi! It's Scott from Brick by Brick. I love to repurpose materials—use materials in ways different from their intended purpose. Repurposing, reusing, and recycling are important for the world and are great ways to have fun resources for little or no cost.

Some teaching resources may be just lying around. Use rocks and other natural materials in your classroom. Here are some ways we've used rocks.

We investigate them. Add magnifying glasses, rulers, paper, and pencils. Kids can look, sketch, and note their observations.

We build with them. Add rocks and other nature materials to your blocks center. Let the kids decide how to use them.

Or "build" and create with them without blocks. Sometimes basic materials encourage creative thinking in different ways.

We count with them. Use rocks as counters in games. Or just on counting mats. You can count sticks, flower petals, leaves, or other natural items.

We weigh them. Just a scale and the rocks can provide lots of investigation.

We find them in sand. Sometimes I'll print letters or words on the rocks with a permanent marker. Sometimes we just find and sort the rocks.

We spell with them. Print letters (or words) on paper. Kids can outline the letters with rocks. You can also outline shapes or just lines, working on fine motor skills.

Use rocks as game markers. 

Use rocks in your art explorations. 

Use small rocks in homemade shakers. 

What ways do you use rocks and other natural materials?