Before the meeting:

1. Purchase a bag of rocks that contains igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks. Look at stores that sell garden rocks, Amazon, or visit any museum that has a rock collection. 
2. Set up a meeting space to lay out the rocks for Cub Scouts to examine.
3. Set up an area with 3 pieces of paper, one labeled igneous, one labeled sedimentary, and one labeled metamorphic. Cub Scouts will be examining rocks and placing them on the paper that they believe best describes the type of rock.

During the meeting:

1. Gather Cub Scouts and share that they will be sorting rocks into types. Explain the types of rocks:
   • Igneous rock is any rock made by cooling magma (hot, molten material that flows under the Earth’s surface) or lava (molten rock that comes out of a volcano). Examples of igneous rock include basalt, granite, and obsidian.
   • Sedimentary rock is formed in layers. Sediment is gravel, sand, clay, or soil that settles and hardens out of water in riverbeds, ponds, lakes, and oceans. Sediment may contain shells and skeletons. If the sediment was originally sand, it becomes sandstone. Clay turns into shale. Shells and skeletons make limestone. Small pebbles and sand form conglomerate.
   • Metamorphic rock has been through a process much like baking. (Meta means “changed,” and morphic means “form.”) The change is caused by intense heat and great pressure deep in the Earth. Under these conditions, sedimentary limestone becomes marble. Sedimentary sandstone turns into quartzite. Igneous granite changes into gneiss (pronounced “nice”).
2. Ask Cub Scouts to use their magnifying glass and separate their rocks into the three types of rocks igneous Rock, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock and place on the labeled piece of paper.
3. When finished, have Cub Scouts share their results.