Games & Puzzles
Just twelve rock & mineral specimens can make a quick matching game for kids.
Image credit: Joan Stoker (See below for more about this image)
Let's face it - We all like games and puzzles, so games designed to help kids learn about rocks can be double fun!
This page will direct you to a list of downloadable printable games, puzzles and fun activities for all ages. This is an evolving collection: Watch as more and more leaders across the USA contribute their best ORIGINAL ideas. These items are free to you and your club, but are not to be sold or included in any commercial endeavor. Any use outside your AFMS-affiliated rock club should only be done with the permission of the authors.
Suggested for Grades K - 5 (ages 5-11)
Click on the arrow at the right to see the list. Click on the links in blue font to see the pdf. (Do NOT open in Google Docs. Download)
My Own Rock & Mineral Matching Game This template for common rocks and minerals can be used to display a junior's own specimens, a motivator to collect and learn about them, and even a game as he or she moves the specimens off the game cards.
Suggested for Grades 3-12 (ages 8-17)
Click on the arrow at the right to see the list. Click on the links in blue font to see the pdf. (Do NOT open in Google Docs. Download)
Rock on the Shelf Game - Draw lines from the rock names to the correct Igneous, Metamorphic or Sedimentary shelf. Kids don't know this yet? Looking up the rock names in a rock book or internet search engine will yield even more learning.
Igneous Wordfind Crossword Go a step deeper to familiarize your more experienced juniors with geological terms for this fascinating subject of rocks born by fire! Only the usual wordfind skills are needed to complete the puzzle, but it may spark curiosity about a few new words and their meanings.
Bible Rocks and Gems Game - There are dozens of references to rocks, minerals and gems in the Old and New Testaments. This Bible hunt can be fun on several levels!
Michigan Fossils - (Made available by the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality). Each of these pictures of Devonian period fossils has a descriptive box that matches it on the next page. Download, print, cut apart, and watch the kids have fun matching the name and description to the correct picture!
Rock & Mineral Matching Games make learning fun. Kids learn by seeing and handling the displayed specimens. Then they get to test their memory skills when the Leader moves the rock samples off the board and the Junior gets to put them back by the correct names. A prize rock awarded for successful completion makes it extra special.
The specimens in this example were chosen to represent the main categories of both rocks and minerals, as well as sources in several states and Canada.
Image credit: Joan Stoker