Geology
updated December 23, 2023
This page has helpful links and LOADS of free resources to help you plan your sixth grade year. Enjoy!
Mission Statement - Consulting Services - Lending Library
Geology Overview (PDF)
for Class 6
Pinterest - Renee Schwartz
My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for
Geology & Mineralogy.
If you're looking for a Mineral Identification Lab Activity,
I recommend this one.
It
accompanies this
Mineral Identification Kit and has a helpful
student identification "wheel" in order to decipher each mineral quickly and easily. This is designed to be significantly more user-friendly than the usual mineral properties charts.
Also included is a data sheet for students to record their results.
FREE eBooks at the Online Waldorf Library
Excellent resource! Published Waldorf curriculum books provided here in PDF format for you to download, keep, and read... for free!
Sample Lessons and Free Curriculum
Other Helpful Links
Books to Buy
We used the main lesson resource by Charles Kovacs and supplemented it with a book specific to our state,
Geology Underfoot in Illinois:
 
 
Here are the links for every state's Roadside Geology book (where available):
AL Roadside Geology of Alabama - Mark and Laura Steltenpohl
AK Roadside Geology of Alaska - Cathy Connor
AZ Roadside Geology of Arizona - Halka Chronic
AR State of Arkansas
CA Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California and/or
Southern California
CO Roadside Geology of Colorado - Felicie Williams, et al.
CT Roadside Geology of Connecticut and Rhode Island - James Skehan, et al.
DE Roadside Geology of Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C. - John Means, et al.
FL Roadside Geology of Florida - Jonathan Bryan, et al.
GA Roadside Geology of Georgia - Pamela Gore, et al.
HI Roadside Geology of Hawaii - Richard Hazlett
ID Roadside Geology of Idaho - David Alt
IL Geology Underfoot in Illinois - Raymond Wiggers
IN Roadside Geology of Indiana - Mark Camp, et al.
IA State of Iowa
KS Roadside Geology of Kansas - James Aber, et al.
KY State of Kentucky
LA Roadside Geology of Louisiana - Darwin Spearing
ME Roadside Geology of Maine - Dabney Caldwell
MD Roadside Geology of Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C. - John Means, et al.
MA Roadside Geology of Massachusetts - James Skehan
MI State of Michigan
MN Roadside Geology of Minnesota - Richard Ojakangas
MS Roadside Geology of Mississippi - Stan Galicki, et al.
MO Roadside Geology of Missouri - Charles Spencer
MT Roadside Geology of Montana - David Alt, et al.
NE Roadside Geology of Nebraska - Harmon Maher, et al.
NV Roadside Geology of Nevada - Frank deCourten
NH Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire - Bradford van Diver
NJ Roadside Geology of New Jersey - David Harper
NM Roadside Geology of New Mexico - Halka Chronic
NY Roadside Geology of New York - Bradford van Diver
NC State of North Carolina
ND State of North Dakota
OH Roadside Geology of Ohio - Mark Camp
OK Roadside Geology of Oklahoma - Neil Suneson
OR Roadside Geology of Oregon - Marli Miller
PA Roadside Geology of Pennsylvania - Bradford van Diver
RI Roadside Geology of Connecticut and Rhode Island - James Skehan, et al.
SC State of South Carolina
SD Roadside Geology of South Dakota - John Paul Gries
TN Roadside Geology of Tennessee - Marcy Davis
TX Roadside Geology of Texas - Darwin Spearing
UT Roadside Geology of Utah - Felicie Williams, et al.
VT Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire - Bradford van Diver
VA Roadside Geology of Virginia - Keith Frye
WA Roadside Geology of Washington - David Alt
WV Roadside Geology of West Virginia - Joseph G. Lebold, et al.
WI Roadside Geology of Wisconsin - Robert Dott, et al.
WY Roadside Geology of Wyoming - David Lageson, et al.
Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!
This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.
I am currently teaching this main lesson block, in January-February 2017. When we are done I will create a blog
post with photographs of all of Becca's MLB pages.
Note: I ended up adding an extra week to this main lesson block, so we had
plenty of time to explore the topics and add in field trip opportunities. I'm not usually one to spend extra time -- I keep
pretty tightly to my schedule and the school year plan -- so this was something special!
Poem
A good poem to memorize for this block is "Flint" by Christina Rossetti, page 2017 of The Hutchinson Treasury of
Children's Poetry.
List of Stories
Chapters 1 - 3, Kovacs
The Children of the Earth
The Story that the Mountains Tell
Young and Old Rocks: Granite
Chapter 4, Kovacs
The First Rocks
Chapter 5, Kovacs
Volcanic Rocks
The Salt Pump / The Great Conveyor Belt
Chapter 6, Kovacs
The Restless Earth
pp.54-61 Solar System book
(also handy for the next Science block in 6th grade, Astronomy)
MLB illustration - The Circle of Fire FREE sample lesson from Live Education!
includes mapping activity and practice using an atlas index
hands-on exploration: paper map of the U.S. Geological Survey's This Dynamic Planet
(also available for download as a PDF file at the link above
OR it can
be viewed online at the Smithsonian Institution website with the ability to zoom in)
Geology chat with Leah and a cheery high-energy lesson on the three types of plate boundaries (divergent, convergent, transform), faults (normal - tensional stress, reverse - compressional stress, strike-slip - shear stress), the three types of waves (primary, secondary, surface) and how each wave moves and when each arrives, and earthquake terminology (focus, epicenter, seismogram, triangulation, Richter Scale, tsunami)
(here's a link to a great lesson I did years ago showing how the Richter Scale is logarithmic using the Montessori Wooden Hierarchical material)
"USGS Increases Earthquake Risk Along New Madrid Fault"
(the Mississippi River is one of the borders of our county... this surprised Becca very much since we only
moved to Illinois a few years ago)
Strange Happenings During the Earthquakes - website of the town of New Madrid, MO
more fun with the Ring of Fire:
we spent a lot of time on this topic, doing a 2-page spread for the Ring of Fire (the Live Ed free sample lesson), a 2-page spread with the volcano
artwork on the left and the tsunami artwork on the right, contrasting the red and blue, and a 2-page spread about earthquakes
Chapters 7 - 8, Kovacs
Some Different Rocks
More About Limestone
The Mosul Dam
Chapter 9, Kovacs
Coal
first, I gave Becca the colored chalks and had her do a full-size chalkboard drawing
of the Carboniferous Period (which she loved) - using the illustration on page 16 of the lovely
Giant Golden Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles
then we read chapter 9 and looked at samples of coal (carefully wrapped in tissue paper - she was excited to unwrap it)
I suggest also having charcoal available
Buried Sunlight: The Story of Coal is
also an excellent book (from 1941)
Three Types of Rocks
The Rock Cycle
The Water Cycle
The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet by Meredith
Hooper is my favorite book for the water cycle (chapter 11)
 
field trip #32
Mississippi River floodplain, good tie-in to water cycle I like this freeze/thaw cycle experiment
Ultimately, we ended up adding the Water Cycle (chapter 11) to the upper part of our tapestry:
When our tapestry was finally complete (it's a year-long project), we exhibited it at the County Fair.
Chapter 12, Kovacs
Winds
science experiments from Heat lesson plans on convection -- show how wind is made
NEED EnergyWorks Student Guide (PDF) from 2015-2016, pp. 18-21
Exploring Heat in Solids, Liquids, and Gases 1
Exploring Heat in Solids, Liquids, and Gases 2
Exploring Heat in Solids, Liquids, and Gases 3
example of a chalkboard drawing for winds
this is a PERFECT fit with experiment #2
Chapter 13, Kovacs
Glaciers
Culminating President's Day Weekend
Field Trips
from
Geology Underfoot in Illinois:
#36 - The Little River That Couldn't (02/18/17, full day)
Hamletsburg to Cache River State Natural Area, Pope and Johnson Counties
#33 - Sandstone Gorges, Rock Shelters, and a Natural Bridge (02/20/17, morning)
Bell Smith Springs, Pope County
#35 - The Geologic Wonders of an (Almost) Undiscovered Country
Hicks Dome to Cave-in-Rock State Park, Hardin County
My blog posts from teaching this topic:
February 12, 2017 -- we warped our loom and started a new Earth Science tapestry, inspired by the "landscape framed by
a limestone cave entrance" lesson in
Painting
and Drawing in Waldorf Schools: Classes 1-8 by Thomas Wildgruber (pp.260-261).
My children are so excited to begin!!!
November 19, 2017 -- we have learned that stalactites and stalagmites are best made by finger knitting lengths of yarn (preferably cotton), which
gives the correct texture, and put in place before the background is woven in. When you are weaving, simply pass
behind the existing stalactites and stalagmites. This will make them stick out from the background, adding additional texture.
September 7, 2019 - Weaving Tapestries in Geology
photos of the completed project
my older Rocks and Minerals lesson plans (PDF)
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