Desiree Enck's List: Rocks, Minerals, Fossils and more!- 3rd grade

This website provides students with important information regarding crystals. Students can learn about the different crystal systems, as well as learn if crystals are symmetrical. 

This website allows kids to see pictures of different types of minerals with the Gallery page. There are great articles about the differences between rocks and minerals for teachers to use a resource.

On this page students are able to find Games & Quizzes to test their knowledge of fossils. From spotting a fake to a game called "Who Dung it?" students will be able to play interactive games and learn about fossils at the same time!

Fossils for Kids is a great website for students to navigate through. In the website directory there is a link where students can find the answer to the most frequently asked questions. They can also send an email with their own question.  Students can also go to a page with all sorts of shark teeth found from all over the world, and they can take a look at Shark Tooth Hill where many fossils have been found. Lastly, there is a page that shows many different kinds of bugs that have been caught in Amber.

This website provides readers with a plethora of knowledge about fossils. Down the right hand side there are different types of fossils listed in categories from the small Brachiopods to large Sea Monsters. There is also a link to lead you to learn about each type of fossil and where most of them have been found. This could be a great resource website for teachers and students could gain a wealth of knowledge.

When students hear the word fossils, they most commonly know about Shark Teeth and Dinosaurs. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History website can provide the dinosaur enthusiasts with information about Dinosaur misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions. Through this website viewers can also learn about the various Paleontologists and take an amazing virtual tour of the museum.

Through this interactive website viewers are able to learn about the three different types of rocks, how rocks change, the rock cycle, and can even quiz their knowledge about rocks. Viewers are also introduced to weathering and erosion which are key concepts when trying to understand the creation of rocks.

This interactive rock cycle animation gives students a wonderful visual of how rocks are formed. Not only are their animations, but students can see real pictures of what lava looks like and where it comes from. It is important for students to have visual connections to the concepts that are discussed when talking about rock formation.

Identify Rock Types Game is where students can test their knowledge of rocks. For third grade this game might be a little bit difficult due to the hardness scale clues since that is not something that is discussed, but with teacher support students would be able to have fun trying to guess the different types of rocks.

This game will give students a virtual chance to test different types of rocks. In our curriculum we discuss the various ways to test the hardness of a particular rock and with this interactive game students will virtually see other ways to test rocks.