Did you today, September 16th, is National Collecting Rocks Day? Are you wondering how to celebrate? Well, simply go outdoors and collect rocks. Rock collecting is an easy pastime to start with your family. Children love to collect. Who knows, go on outings to collect rocks may lead to a lifetime love of geology.
Why Collect Rocks?
Collecting rocks is a hands-on learning experience. Unplug from your devices and spend an afternoon outdoors. Turn rock collecting into an adventure for your family. Rock collecting has many benefits, including:
- Building vocabulary
- Increasing fine motor skills by searching and picking up rocks
- Expands imagination
- Builds large motor skills by walking to find the rocks.
- Promotes family togetherness
- Provides a foundation for further learning
Plus, collecting rocks is fun.
Ideas for Your Rock Collection
How many rocks did you find? Are you wondering what to do with your collected rocks? Check out the following ideas.
- Identify: Rocks fall into three main categories, sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Identifying rocks is a great learning experience.
- Display: Using old egg cartons or other throw-away plastic containers, display your rocks. Egg cartons are wonderful to separate and label your latest rock finds. Or invest in a larger container to continuously fill to show your rocks.
- Paint: Paint and hide larger rocks around your community.
- Crafts: Smaller rocks or stones are great for crafting. Arrange your rocks into animal shapes or other patterns. Glue the rocks to a board to display on the wall.
- Make Jewelry: With the right type of crafting material, you can turn rocks into necklaces and bracelets.
- Polish: Invest in a rock tumbler to polish and shine your finds.
Fall is an excellent time to go rock collecting with your family. But be warned, once started collecting rocks is addicting. You may want to check pockets before doing the wash. Finding a hand full of rocks in each pocket is an expected outcome for starting rock collecting.
