Gemstones primary resource

This primary resource offers an opportunity to introduce children to different rock types. Discover what crystals are and how they are formed. How long did these gems take to form? What are they used for?

Pupils will learn about minerals and how they change the colour and appearance of crystals in our National Geographic Kids’ Rocks primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for discussions about the processes involved in crystal formations; as a printed handout for each pupil to review and annotate, or for display on the interactive whiteboard using the images included in the resource to open class discussion.

Activity: Ask children to draw and colour the crystals shown on the resource sheet. Can they research some crystal types of their own, and draw and colour these too? Try out the Growing the crown jewels primary resource to show children how crystals can grow and under what conditions.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: schools@ngkids.co.uk

This Science primary resource assists with teaching the following Lower Key Stage 2 Science (Year 3) objectives from the National Curriculum:

Pupils should be taught to:  

• compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties

• describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock 

• recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter

This Science primary resource assists with teaching the following Sciences Second level objectives from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

• Having explored the substances that make up Earth’s surface, I can compare some of their characteristics and uses

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Sciences Third level objectives:

• Through evaluation of a range of data, I can describe the formation, characteristics and uses of soils, minerals and basic types of rocks

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