Transcript Rock Festival - Mrs. Kostiuk`s Class Blog

Lindsay Park Elementary School
ROCK FESTIVAL
Why Rocks???
A little history...
Our town - Kimberley, BC was discover over 100 years ago (1892)
by prospectors searching for ore. The first discovery of ore was
found on our present day ski hill - North Star Mountain – a mineral
called Galena – a lead/zinc ore. The news of this discovery
travelled fast which lead to the eventual finding, by four
prospectors, of the Sullivan Mine ore body - once the worlds
largest lead and zinc mine (from 1917-2001)
At Lindsay Park Elementary School we felt the history of our town
being a Rockin’ City was important to share with our students, and
to teach them about the impact lead, zinc, and other rocks and
minerals have on our lifestyles and environment.
Project Description
When you hear the word “rock”, what do you think of?
The earth is the ultimate rock. Wherever you are standing, walking, hiking or
floating, there is a rock under you. At Lindsay Park Elementary School, we decided
to explore the different ways that rocks are part of our world. We explored rocks
through all educational mediums: Art, Math, Music, Language Arts, History,
Science and Computers.
Kimberley, BC is a small town nestled between the Rocky and Purcell Mountain
ranges.
Learning about our home and why it is here just seemed to “fit” for our project!
We celebrated all out learning with the “Lindsay Park Rock Festival”. It was a
student show and share, held Tuesday January 29th from 1pm-7pm.
Highlights were Rock Collections from community members, displays from the
Kimberley Public Library and wonderful rock collections from our students.
Through the projects shared, we learned about Kimberley, our school, the
environment and the Sullivan mine.
We learned words like “sustainable resources” and “reclamation”. We learned
about rocks and precious gemstones. We learned that our first nations people
used rocks for tools, art and messages in stone. We learned how old the earth is
and what dinosaurs’ fossils can tell us. We learned that rocks are fun, and are a
huge part of the earth we need to care for.
Individual Classroom Contributions…
•The Kindergarten classrooms created “Pet Rocks” they found rocks within our community, some which
tied back to the Lead and Zinc mine that made this town boom, and some were just rocks that made
them happy. We named our rocks and tested the rocks to see if they would float, if they would scratch
surfaces. These rocks went on display along with a book the students created to show the community
what their rocks mean to them and the environment of Kimberley. We also had a private rock collector
and retired miner come into our classroom and help us discover all the things rocks are needed for to
sustain a comfortable lifestyle – his Moto was “If you can’t eat it, a Rock helped make it.”
•One of our classes researched the twelve monthly birth stones. They had to find what kind of rock it is,
where it is found in the world, the meaning attached to the stone and an interesting or cool fact that
they did not know before. We also found pictures of the 'rough' stones and the 'finished' stones.
•A grade 1/2 class read the classic book Everybody Needs a Rock written by Byrd Baylor. In this story
there are very specific instructions on how to find a very special rock of your own. As a class they spent
some time hunting for just the right rock then learned about the type of rock we had chosen. Students
each wrote about why their rock was special to them. They made a big display of our class collection to
add to the individual collections that were brought in for our community "Rock Festival" complete with
rocks and rock music!
•The Grade 2/3 class looked at rocks through an aboriginal perspective. They learned about the beauty
and meaning of Inuksuks, and their importance to the Inuit culture. Each student made their own
Inuksuk and they guided the Rock Hounds through the gym during our festival.
•The grade Three classroom helped restore an old rock resource which showed the location of certain
types of rocks in the earth’s layers. Next they each chose a rock and researched about their chosen rock.
We then created posters to show the school some basic facts (colour, classification, where it's found)
and interesting facts that we found.
The students and staff at LPES would like to
thank:
Brian Crowe & Kevin Redding – Rock Hounds
and Teck Cominco employees
Annie Johnston – Private Collector and
enthusiast
Ryan Ashby - Private Collector and enthusiast
Kimberley Public Library – Book display
Anna Keiver – Ab Ed Worker
Ana Pakenham – for compiling rock music and
being our technical advisor
Marlene Driscoll – for organizing the troops
and keeping us focused!
Everyone who made this project so successful!
Rocks can guide you
– as learned through
the Inuit art form of
Inuksuks
Rocks are
beautiful
We learned
about the
importance
of controlled
mining
We learned how
some rocks have
special
meanings and
represent
different things
We learned that without rocks we wouldn’t
have the tools and other objects on this table
We learned what
it takes to mine
rocks, and how
extra measures
are now being
taken to make
mining more
environmentally
friendly
We explored the size,
shape, colour, and
texture of rocks and
talked about the many
uses rocks have in our
day to day life
Experts and
Enthusiasts joined
us at our Rock
Festival to enjoy
the learning our
students did with
rocks
Rocks are what built our city, and rocks are
what made our Green Games learning the
success it was this year!
ROCKS ROCK