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View compareRock Families: Igneous, Sedimentary & Metamorphic Training Center
Ari Raider's Training Materials · Treasure Mountain · Training Center 1 of 6
The Three Rock Families
Every rock on Earth belongs to one of three families — and the Granite Gate, the only way into Treasure Mountain, will not open for anyone who can't tell them apart.
What you're training for
At the Granite Gate, the way into the Realm is jammed and a heap of rock lies spilled across the entrance. The gate opens for whoever can sort every rock into its right family. Train here first; prove it in the simulation.
The science
- Igneous rocks cooled from melted rock. Slow cooling underground grows big visible crystals (granite); fast cooling at the surface makes fine grain or even glass (basalt, obsidian).
- Sedimentary rocks are layers of sediment pressed and cemented together over time — sandstone, shale, limestone. This is the family where fossils hide.
- Metamorphic rocks are older rocks changed by heat and pressure without melting: limestone becomes marble, shale becomes slate.
- The field test: crystals grown in place point to igneous; visible layers and grains point to sedimentary; bands and stretched crystals point to metamorphic.
Teach it today — no prep
Three Corners. Label three corners of the room Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic. Show a rock — real or a picture — and students walk to the family they'd file it under, then defend the choice in one sentence. Ten minutes, whole body, instant formative assessment.
Trained and ready? Prove it at Stop 1 — the Granite Gate. Free, no logins, progress saved on the device.
Enter the Realm at Stop 1Resources in this training center
Worksheets, reading passages, flashcards and printables for this lesson are being added — new resources land here first. Get one email a month when they do, or browse the whole free library.
The hands-on half: the Treasure Mountain Adventure Kit puts six real specimens, six Digs, six Gemlings and the Realm map in your students' hands — $19.99, or $15 a student for classrooms.
More Treasure Mountain training
Rock Families · Rock Layers · Rock Cycle · Mineral Properties · Mohs Hardness · Crystals & Glow · Enter the Adventure →