Teacher Directions: Reading Activity
ROCK TO ROCK: A FANTASY JOURNEY
Unit Objectives
1. Describe the characteristics and cite examples of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks.
2. Describe the condition under which each type of rock forms.
3. Classify examples of the three types of rock.
4. Trace the steps of a rock cycle.
5. Define cementation and compaction.
6. Describe crystal formation by the cooling of magma.
7. Interpret cooling time by the size of crystals.
Worksheets for the Activity:
Teacher Directions: Have students complete the following:
1.
Read the selection titled, ROCK TO ROCK: A FANTASY JOURNEY.
2. Illustrate the main ideas of the selection on unlined note cards.
3. Each note card should represent one concept.
4. Use markers or coloring pencils to add interest to your illustrations.
5. Sequence your cards to represent the cyclic nature of the rock cycle.
ROCK TO ROCK: A FANTASTIC JOURNEY RUBRIK
3  all major concepts in the selection represented
 all note cards illustrate one clearly identified concept
 illustrations indicate clear understanding of the concept represented
 sequence indicates a complete understanding of the cyclic nature of the rock cycle
2  most major concepts in the selection represented
 most note cards illustrate one clearly identified concept
 illustrations indicate an understanding of the concept represented
 sequence indicates an understanding of the cyclic nature of the rock cycle
1  some concepts in the selection represented
 some note cards illustrate one clearly identified concept
 illustrations indicate a basic understanding of the concept represented
 sequence indicates a basic understanding of the cyclic nature of the rock cycle

ROCK TO ROCK: A FANTASY JOURNEY
Imagine that you are a rock as big as a baseball. Your home is on a sunny hillside and you can see down into a deep valley with a river roaming far below. You like your home. Sometimes it is very hot there. Can you feel the sunlight warming you? During the winter you get worried about the ice that freezes in the crack on top of you. This crack grows bigger each year because the ice pushes hard on the sides of the crack.
One spring it is very wet, wetter than you can ever remember. The rain pours in little streams rushing down the hillside. Feel the water flowing over you and into the soft mud below. Suddenly you feel a rumbling and the Earth begins to shake. You look uphill and a large wall of mud rushes down and sweeps you up. You begin to roll down, down, down into the valley. Ouch! You hit another rock and you split along the crack.
Now you are two halves rolling down the hill.
Splash! You land in the river. For days and days, you are pushed by the strong current in the water. Rolling and bumping along you are getting all broken up into gravel and sand. Finally the river enters the ocean and your many pieces settle onto a large, flat area along with millions of pieces of sand, gravel and silt. Some pieces settle on top of you and you are getting squished. You yell out,
“Stop pushing!” but more and more weight presses down. Your pieces get pushed and stuck together with other pieces. You are now hardening and becoming a sedimentary rock.
The pressure grows and you begin to get warmer and warmer. You change color and form into many hard crystals. Now you’re a metamorphic rock. You keep getting pushed farther down. It is hot. It is boiling hot! Everything begins to melt and you are part of a hot mass of melted rock called magma deep underground. It seems like forever that you are part of this big melted sea of rock. Will you ever see the sun again? You want to be back on your hillside feeling the hot sun and cool wind and rain.
Wait, you’re being pushed up and the Earth is shaking and rumbling again. You can feel yourself rising higher and higher. Fire, ash, dust, and steam surround you and, with a loud explosion, you burst up out of the top of a volcano. Red-hot lava is all around. You are a scalding, steamy piece of lava shooting through the air when, suddenly, you land on a high point of the volcano away from the hot flow of lava below.
Slowly the volcano begins to quiet down and the lava cools and hardens. You are now a cold, gray igneous rock on top of a high volcano looking down at a river flowing far below. When the dark ashes blow away and the sky clears, the sun comes out and warms you high up on the volcano- your new home.
Resource:
Keepers of the Earth, Caduto and Bruchac