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Lindsay Park rocks

Kimberley elementary school students become rock hounds
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Annie Johnston shares her rock collection with Lindsay Park students.

They were rocking at Lindsay Park Elementary this week as all kinds of rocks were examined, explained, interpreted and analyzed.

It was all part of Lindsay Park's annual project for the BC Green Games, and the project this year focused on rocks.

This past Tuesday, rocks were on display at the school, and special guests — local rock collectors and experts — visited the school to share their knowledge.

Guided by teacher, and self-professed rock hound Marlene Driscoll,  students from Kindergarten through Grade 3 worked on projects.

For example the Kindergarten class worked on pet rocks, which they named. But they also analyzed the rocks, and discovered their mass and length. They did scratch tests on them and reported their findings.

Grade 1 students learned about petroglyphs and wrote on stones to leave messages.

Students brought their own rock collections and rocks they found important — skipping rocks, worry rocks, amethyst from Ontario, rocks from the Sullivan Mine.

The rocks from the Sullivan were of particular importance to Driscoll, who wants the students to learn about the mine that supported Kimberley for so long.

"Look at this," she said, pointing to a collection of lead, zinc and pyrite. "Cassidy brought these, obviously grandpa collected them. The mine is gone but not forgotten."

In keeping with that, local rockhounds and former Sullivan employees Brian Crowe and Kevin Redding visited to talk to students about the rocks in the mine.

There were examples of folklore, holy stones, how rocks were used as tools, turned into jewelry.

Driscoll brought her own collection of rocks including a quartz cluster she found on Shark's Tooth Ridge in the Rockies.

Students made their own Inukshuks, and spirit stones, and thought about what each expressed.

They read books about rocks from their own school library and books on loan from the Kimberley Public Library

All in all, there wasn't much about rocks Lindsay Park students haven't thought about in the last few weeks.

All their work will be compiled and entered in the BC Green Games contest. You can vote for Lindsay Park at http://www.bcgreengames.ca/



Carolyn Grant

About the Author: Carolyn Grant

I have been with the Kimberley Bulletin since 2001 and have enjoyed every moment of it.
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