Welcome to our “Rocking Rock Research! – An Amazing DIY at Home Camp” series. All that sparkles! For our final day of rock week, we focused on gemstones! We learned the different types of gemstones, examined a few, created some “jewelry” snacks, “unearthed” a few of our own! Read on for more details!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
If your kiddos are unfamiliar with gemstones, kids.nationalgeographic has a nice, picture-friendly page where kids can click on a gemstone and learn more as well as learn some myths associated with the stones. Lots to learn 🙂
We also had a rock collection kit which we pulled out for the day. It’s just a small kit (gemstones are less than a nickel in size) but it has a chart on the back of the box, so the kids could easily identify what they were. It was a fun activity to match with what they saw online 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
For our video of the day, we watched a Thomas Edison Secret Lab episode: S1E1 Gem of a Deal. In this episode, the characters need to learn all about minerals when someone tries to sell a fake gemstone.
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
For our themed snack of the day, we went with ‘cereal jewelry’. Using fruit loops & cheerios, we played a bit of make believe and pretended they were gemstones (green fruit loops for emerald, red fruit loops for rubies and garnets, honey nut cheerios for gold, etc…).
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our gemstone day, we picked a book about gems, gem parts, and a bit of science.
- Gems for Kids: A Junior Scientist’s Guide to Mineral Crystals and Other Natural Treasures by Lee Hall
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: ROCK, GEM, GEMSTONE…
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices.
- If you could design your own gemstone necklace (& not worry about the cost), what would it look like? Draw a picture if you can!
CRAFTS
For our craft of the day, we purchased some small Crystal Birthstone Charms – they’re not the best quality but if you’re only using them for kids crafts, they work just fine. 🙂 The hole is pretty small, though – much smaller than a typical pony bead hole, so plan accordingly. We had planned to use a black string we usually use for kids necklaces but had to switch to something thinner for these. They still came out nicely and the kids liked sorting through them.
STEM ACTIVITY
For our STEM Activity of the day, we used a Discovery Kids Gemstone Dig Stem Science Kit which contained just about everything you need to dig out the 11 gemstones (googles, chisel, hammer, etc..) as well as a poster. Fortunately, for us, we had all 11 gemstones and they were spread out throughout the brick, so it was a fun activity for the kids! Gemstones are about the size of a dime but we didn’t expect anything massive considering the cost.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home play / summer camp guide! If you enjoyed this article, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest.
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other at home play / summer guides: DIY Summer Camps.
Happy Learning!
