Rock Cycle Review!

Team Wilkinson loves a good hands-on activity...even when it involves food and we can't consume it!    Using an ever popular candy, we simulated the Rock Cycle:

Our candies began as individual pieces of rock, or sediments.   When sediments layer upon each other and are tightly packed, they become sedimentary rock.  Over time and with the addition of heat and pressure, sedimentary rocks become metamorphic rocks. 

Our candy demo took a super fun turn when we added intense heat to our metamorphic rocks using the microwave!   Magma is molten rock below the Earth's surface, lava is molten rock above the surface (and depending on the imagination of your child, our main hallway was either above or below this threshold).  When magma/lava cools, it becomes igneous rock.  Finally, weathering or pressure changes igneous rock into sediments and the process begins again!

p.s.   Apologies for the delay in posting these photos...they got buried by pictures of my adorably fun nephew Rees :)