Rock identification can be a challenging but fun subject to teach in any science classroom. If you’ve taught your students the basics of rock ID, but need a fun review game to end your unit or prepare for a test, I’ve got you covered! In this post, I’ll share the materials and directions for playing rock ID bingo in your classroom!
If you’re teaching rock identification, you are probably studying minerals too! If you’d like to review mineral ID as well, you can head over to my separate post about how to play mineral ID bingo!
Before we dive in: If you’re an educator planning to try this game with your students, you can save yourself the time of making your own bingo cards and calling cards. My printable rock ID bingo card set is available on TpT and Etsy. The set includes 25 unique bingo cards with illustrations of each rock, plus calling cards with each rock’s key traits and other hints (plus you’ll support this blog with your purchase! ❤️)
Prior Knowledge Required
To do this activity, your students must know the difference between rocks and minerals. They should have already practiced some rock ID and be familiar with common rocks such as:
- Granite
- Basalt
- Pumice
- Marble
- Gneiss
- Slate
- Sandstone
- Limestone
Furthermore, your class should be familiar with the following rock-related concepts:
- The rock cycle
- Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and their subtypes
- Igneous textures: aphanitic, porphyritic, phaneritic, etc…
- Igneous composition: mafic and felsic
- Foliation
- Grain size: gravel, sand, silt, and clay
- Identification of common minerals
You can brush up on rock ID by working through a rock identification lab activity with your class by following these directions. Or, read my list of fun rock & mineral activity ideas for other geology projects and lessons for your classroom.
Finally, you can get my most comprehensive rock and mineral teaching materials in the Rocks and Minerals Unit. It’s my complete set of printable materials for teaching rocks and minerals – with worksheets, activity directions, tons of diagrams, and much more. I know you will love it!
Materials
To play rock ID bingo, you will need the following materials
- 25 unique bingo cards featuring different rocks (download & print mine here, featuring common rocks, or create your own with your rocks of choice)
- Calling cards – a list of each rock’s traits (hints) on small pieces of paper or index cards (also included in my printable bingo set!)
- A hat or bucket
- Bingo chips or small items (pennies, candies) to place over the squares on the bingo cards
How to Play
Follow these steps to play rock ID bingo with your students:
- Each student gets one unique bingo card.
- Cut apart the calling cards with each rock’s properties/hints. Place your calling cards into a hat or bucket.
- Pull one calling card at a time and read it out loud to the class, sharing the hints and properties of the rock without revealing the name of the rock.
- Students should find the corresponding rock on their bingo cards and mark or cover it.
- The first student to get four rocks in a row gets “bingo” (across, diagonal, or vertical).
- Check the student’s card to ensure all rocks were identified correctly.
Helpful Hints
When reading out clues for a rock, start with the more obscure hints, and then progress to the more obvious clues.
Products Mentioned in this Post:
There’s no need to scramble to put together the perfect printable materials for this activity – I’ve already created it for you! This bingo set includes all the printable materials you need for playing rock ID bingo.
For more rocks and minerals learning fun, try my Rocks & Minerals Unit – a complete set of printable classroom materials for teaching this subject:
Studying mineral ID too? Check out my mineral ID bingo review game as well:
Explore more lessons from Wild Earth Lab:
If you enjoyed this post, I know you will love trying my other printable science and nature units in your classroom too!
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