Hello, there! Thank you for visiting our website! We are so glad you are here. My name is Kaycee Hobbs and I am a homeschooling mama to our large family. We are blessed with seven beautiful children and want to give them the best education we can.

This unit study is the first one of our “Give and Go” series. This series is designed so that the child, with your permission, is given the unit study and can independently learn it on their own. The child must be able to read and follow directions. If following directions is a challenge, this is the perfect way for them to boost their capabilities and help them learn how to do this a little better.

Rocks Unit Study

In this unit study, the child will learn the following things:

• What rocks are made of
• The three categories of rocks are separated into
• The details of the three rock categories
• Be able to identify different kinds of rocks
• Complete a rock art project

What is a Unit Study?

If you already know what a unit study is, skip to the Rocks Unity Study information HERE.

A unit study combines a variety of subjects while you study one topic. It is a homeschool lesson plan that is used as a curriculum. I like to think of it as taking a topic and placing it under a magnifying glass. Within the study of that topic, you will explore a variety of subtopics. It allows the child to create a file folder in their brain to all the information that they learn under on topic.

There are several advantages to learning through unit studies so let me share a couple with you:

• Multi-level Teaching
• Saves Time in Your Homeschool Schedule
• Sensory Teaching
• Accommodates Different Learning Styles
• Makes Memories
• Saves Money

Multi-level Teaching

Since we have seven children, the unit study method is a perfect way to combine the teaching of different age levels and grades. We get to incorporate everyone no matter their ages and levels of development. I just change the activities to be something every child can do based on their skill level. Don’t be afraid to alter any of a unit study to fit your child or the dynamic of your family.

I wrote and in-depth post about how we multi-level teach, check it out here!

A Parent’s Handbook: Multi-Level Teaching

Saves Time in Your Homeschool Schedule

When you teach all the children together, it saves time in your daily homeschool schedule. Instead of meeting individually with every child, you can teach them the same thing as a group all at the same time.

Now, I am going to be very honest with you here. We use a boxed curriculum for our Language Arts and Math subjects. I do this because I know that you can’t teach these subjects on the same development level.

However, if I have the chance to throw in a everyday math word problem into the unit study, then you can guarantee that’s what I will do. If I can have them list adjectives for a piece of our unit study, then I go with that. If it fits, then I am going to incorporate it wherever I can.

Homeschool Homepage

Click the image above to see their homeschool curriculum page.

We use Christianbook.com to buy our homeschool curriculum. I have found they tend to offer the best prices! Almost everything else is taught with unit studies. This is what we use for our math and language:

Math-U-See Shop

Easy Grammar Shop

Sensory Teaching

In a unit study you want to let the child act out or experience as much of the unit study as you can. To do this you want to include as many of their five senses as you can. I have a rule that I try to follow… I try to include a minimum of 3 senses in every activity. I figure that sight and hearing are going to automatically be a part of the lesson, so I intentionally try to add touch, taste, or smell to it.

I give lots of tips and practical ideas in this post! Check it out!

Making Memories with the Five Senses in Your Homeschool

Accommodates Different Learning Styles

So, as I mentioned before, we have seven children and guess what? They are all different and they have a variety of strengths and weaknesses which creates a variety of different learning styles. It can get chaotic when you start to think about how differently each of the seven kids learn. When we use unit studies we can adapt and customize their learning plan easily.

I wrote a unit study on how I taught my kids the 8 Great Smarts. Check it out! These concepts based on the book by Kathy Koch is a game changer!

How I Taught the 8 Great Smarts to My Kids

Makes Memories

Learning together as a family gives us the opportunity to learn stuff together. We design it so we get to experience the activities together, so we have the chance to make memories together. When our children get older, I want to hear the “remember when?” stories and these experiences make that possible.

Saves Money

For us using unit studies saves quite a bit of money. I have a good-sized school supply collection that I keep on hand and so I try to use those. It helps the bottom line when you can use common supplies instead of supplies that are hard to find. Even with the cost of field trips, I spend less on unit studies than I do on buying boxed curriculum for our large family.

It also saves money because I can customize to the child and their specific needs. We all know that homeschool curriculum is NOT one size fits all.

Epic Climbs

What subjects does this unit study cover?

This unit study covers Science, Art, Language Arts, PE and a little bit of Math.

Supply List

I like to keep my supply lists very easy so hopefully you have the supplies on hand. Here is the list for this unit study:

• Printed Unit Study
• Pencils
• Electronic Device
• Internet Access
• Scissors
• Large Indoor or Outdoor Space
• Stopwatch
• Tablecloth or placemat
• Different Colors of Paint
• Paint Brushes
• Water
• Wet Cloth
• Rocks

Our Picks

Teacher or Parent Directions and Details

YouTube Videos

I would recommend that you double check the links on YouTube and make sure they work and are appropriate for your family.

There are two YouTube videos in this study. The first one is a very in-depth lesson about rocks. I chose it because it is very informative. As the students watch the video, they are supposed to complete the worksheet. They will fill in the blanks from the word bank.

The second video is a rock painting video. It is designed to show the students that they can turn rocks into whatever their imagination allows them too.

Secrets of the Seashore – Shine-a-Light

Match It Up Game

After they have watched the first YouTube video, they will play a game to help them remember what they have learned. I like to incorporate movement into my games because I know kids don’t like to sit still for long. Plus, it helps my kids learn better.

The game cards are included in the FREE printable download below. In the first phase of this game, they will match the card up correctly. They can use their completed worksheet to help them if they need too. Once they have completed the game, they can look at the answer key to see if their answers are correct.

Once they have double checked their work then they need to do the activity again. This time they will time themselves with a stopwatch to see how quickly they can match it up correctly. They will check their answers and for everyone they got incorrect, they will add 5 seconds to their time.

Then they can do it again, to see if they can beat their own time. Doing this activity a couple of times will help them remember what they have learned. They will check their answers and for every one they got incorrect, they will add 5 seconds to their time.

Room on Our Rock

Download

You can get this Rock Unit Study for FREE! All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter below and we will give you the FREE PDF download. All you will need to do is print the unit study and gather a few supplies. Give it all to your child and let them go! Thanks for reading! We appreciate YOU!