Kids
Kids on a Field Trip looking for minerals
Activities and Rock Fun for Youth
Introducing children and youth to rocks, minerals, and fossils helps spark curiosity, build confidence, and encourage lifelong learning. Hands-on activities give young people the chance to explore, ask questions, and discover how geology connects to the world around them.
Youth activities can be offered in many settings, including:
- club shows
- regular club meetings
- special sessions designed specifically for kids
These activities help clubs welcome families, support education, and create positive, memorable experiences for young participants. They also encourage future involvement in rockhounding, lapidary, and earth science hobbies.
Activities at Club Shows, Club Meetings,
or Special Sessions for Kids
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Have a rock, mineral or fossil treasure hunt
Let kids hunt for specimens:
- In a dry, portable swimming pool filled with sand and seeded with colourful rocks and minerals or interesting fossils, or
- At the end of a fabricated cave or tunnel they can crawl through.
Provide identification charts so club members can help kids classify their finds.
Discovery boxes and simple experiments
Discovery boxes are easy to create, portable, and fun for all ages. Plastic shoeboxes work well and can include tools, clear instructions, and ID sheets.
Examples:
- A simple fossil dig for ages 5–8 using dry sand, buried fossils, a spoon, and a colouring ID sheet
- A conductivity test box for older kids using specimens such as quartz, native copper, molybdenite, and feldspar, along with an ohmmeter. Ask kids which minerals conduct electricity best and why.
Interactive learning activities
There are many creative options, including:
- Build a giant model cellphone to show which minerals are used to make phones
- The phone opens to reveal a large image of the interior
- Buttons light up LEDs to show where elements like aluminum are used
- A separate display shows rock and mineral samples linked to each element
- Create a “rock identification device” that lights up when kids match a specimen correctly
- Help kids crack open a geode
- Build a geological mini-putt course with volcanoes, glaciers, and mountains
- Teach simple wire-wrapping using colourful cabochons
- Make keychains or backpack decorations using beads and metal split rings
- Encourage kids to create small gifts, such as drilled cabochons or tea light holders
- Older kids can use diamond hole saws and a drill press with supervision
Soapstone carving and rock polishing
This activity works well for all ages.
- Demonstrate polishing soft stones such as marble or soapstone using sandpaper
- Older kids can use high-speed rotary tools under supervision.
Colouring
Younger children enjoy colouring simple line drawings of:
- Dinosaurs
- Fossils
- Crystals
Rock and mineral identification
Set up an identification station where kids can explore differences such as:
- Colour (amethyst, sulphur, malachite, pyrite)
- Hardness (talc, fluorite, quartz)
- Magnetism (magnetite, pyrrhotite)
- Density (pumice vs. banded iron formation)
Older kids enjoy the acid test:
- Place quartz and calcite of similar colour in a plastic basin
- Provide safety glasses and magnifiers
- Add a drop of diluted muriatic acid and observe which specimen fizzes
- Use a spray bottle to rinse specimens afterward
Kids can also bring their own specimens for identification or show-and-tell.
Demonstrations
Live demonstrations are always popular:
- Rock polishing, tumbling, or faceting
- Compare rough and polished specimens
- Show the steps of tumbling using prepared samples
Some clubs may also loan tumblers to families with clear instructions and supplies.
Give presentations at schools
Clubs can offer presentations on topics such as:
- Rock, mineral, fossil, or gem identification
local geology - Everyday uses of rocks and minerals
- Unusual properties (fluorescence, floating rocks, crystal growth, conductivity)
- Meteorites, tektites, and fulgurites
Field trips
Ideas include:
- A visit to a rock pile in a club member’s backyard
- Rock hunting along a lakeshore, discussing wave and sand effects
- Using magnets to find magnetite in beach sand
- Creating simple toys from collected magnetite
On regular club field trips, encourage kids by spending extra time helping them know where and how to look.
Museums and science centres
Many museums offer excellent hands-on experiences for kids, including:
- Science North and Dynamic Earth (Sudbury) – kids (and adults!) can bring in specimens to trade for others that are on display.
- Crystal Cave (South River) – kids can interact with mosasaurs, dinosaurs, and woolly mammoths through augmented reality.
- Also Activity Books with fun questions and things to find in the exhibit.
- Ontario Science Centre (Toronto) – kids can participate in interactive presentations and demonstrations about rocks and geology.
- ROM (Toronto) – kids (and adults!) can see:
- Rocks and minerals from around the world
- Special exhibits – for example, meteorites, ores, fluorescent minerals, and much more – some of which are 4 billion years old.
- Fossils – some as old as 350 million years, such as the interactive Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life – dinosaurs including T-Rex – and much more.
- ROM also hosts mineral identification nights as well as online galleries.
- Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa) – Kids can roam through the dinosaur and the geology interactive exhibits to see fossils and minerals.
