The Rock Cycle – A Story
Posted by Becca on Jan 31, 2014 in Fun Stuff | 32 comments
I mentioned on Twitter a few weeks ago that my son had written a story for his sixth grade science class. The assignment was to write a narrative and do character sketches to illustrate the rock cycle. You know, when an igneous rock becomes a sedimentary rock, etc. Some readers expressed an interest in seeing his story, so here it is.
This tale is my son’s, but I might have helped with sentence structure and punctuation. 😉 Also, if you enjoyed the story, please leave a comment. He’ll be thrilled.
(The picture of “Maggie” was done by my daughter. Both kids really got into this assignment. We had a blast!)
The Rock Cycle
Iggy Obsidian was president of the Extrusive Igneous Rock Club. He’d been president for tens of thousands of years, and to be honest, he was tired of it. His fellow rock club members were so smooth and polished. Never a mineral out of place. They sat on their mountain and watched the world change around them.
“I’m bored,” Iggy complained to Grandpa Granite one day. Grandpa Grant was president of the Intrusive Igneous Rock Club. He’d been around so long that he now lived on the surface instead of where he was born inside the mountain.
“You need to go on a rock cycle,” Grandpa Grant said.
“What’s a rock cycle?” Iggy asked.
“It’s like a tour of the rock world. You see how the other rocks live.”
“Sound like fun!”
“Start at Cousin Bobby Sandstone’s. He runs the Country Brothers’ Sedimentary Rock Spa.”
So Iggy went to visit Cousin Bobby. “Hi, Cousin Bobby. I want to see how sedimentary rocks live.”
“It’s all about spa treatment, little bro. Erosion, deposition, compaction and cementation.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Not at all, little bro.”
So Iggy hung out at the spa for tens of thousands of years. His hard edges wore away and he relaxed in the riverbed, his minerals settling into layers. It was relaxing, but nothing ever happened.
“I’m bored,” Iggy complained.
“Have you tried the glacier rub?” Cousin Bobby asked. “It’s a great way to chill, little bro.”
“I’m tired of just laying around. I want change.”
“Change?” a new voice asked.
Iggy turned around and saw a dark gray rock in a military uniform standing at attention.
“What’s up, bigger bro?” Cousin Bobby said.
“Commander Slate,” the dark gray rock said. He ignored Cousin Bobby and looked at Iggy. “If you want change, come to the Metamorphic Rock Camp. We’ll change you.”
“How?” Iggy asked.
“It’s intense. The pressure, the heat. But so worth it.” Commander Slate saluted him. His minerals were packed tight.
That’s what I want, Iggy thought. He enrolled in Metamorphic Rock Boot Camp and for the next tens of thousands of years, he transformed his image. He went through a metamorphosis. Commander Slate led the non-foliated platoon, and Iggy worked his way into the foliated platoon.
“You could be more,” Commander Slate said to Iggy one day. “Push yourself, apply more pressure, and—”
“No. I’m tired of all the pressure. I’ve had all the heat I can take. It’s too intense,” Iggy said.
Iggy wanted to be more like his friends Magma and Lava. They looked like they were having so much fun flowing along the edges and beneath the Metamorphic Rock Camp.
“What are you girls doing?” Iggy asked.
“Going with the flow,” Lav said.
“Want to join us?” Maggie called from below.
“It’ll melt all that tension,” Lav said.
“My minerals are pretty tight,” Iggy said.
So he jumped in the lava flow and for the next thousand years, he flowed everywhere. Over land with Lav and beneath the ground with Maggie. He travelled a lot, but it made him unhappy to have no place to call home.
One day, he was flowing past a familiar mountain and heard a voice.
“Iggy! Where have you been?” Grandpa Grant sat in his usual place on the side of the mountain, his course-grained surface glittering in the sun. “The Igneous Rock Club hasn’t been the same without you.”
“I do miss the mountain and my friends.”
“Then join us.”
So Iggy flowed back into his old place at Grandpa Grant’s side. He sat there until he cooled into the smooth-grained, black stone once more.
“I’ve missed this,” Iggy said. He settled in beside Grandpa Grant and watched the world change around them.
32 comments
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Clever and cute! You have a budding author on your hands.
That’s a great little story! I loved the pictures, and how educational AND fun the story was! I loved the personalities that were given to the different rock/mineral types! Very charming!
This is a fun little story. I really like the picture your daughter drew.
Cool– the story really rocks!
I’m glad that Iggy got to have his adventures, but that he then returned home. He wasn’t the sort of personality to hang around stoned at the Sedimentary Spa, and while he did well when he volunteered for the military, getting sent to A-rock was too much pressure. And admittedly, the girls he met when he got out, Lav and Maggie, were really hot, but he knew they weren’t very stable. And so he went back to the Extrusive Igneous Rock Club, where at least he knew no one would take him for granite!
Seriously, though… a remarkably good story for a a Middle Schooler. With some lengthening and editing (and more of his sister’s witty rock pictures) this could easily be published as a children’s picture book. Good work by both the author and the illustrator!
Awesome summary, lol! And thank you. I wish there were more homework assignments like this one. It was a lot more fun than solving for X. 😉
Awesome story! I really enjoyed it. It is a shame it ended. I wished T could write more
stories. I liked “FLAT CAT” too. That was another great story he wrote. It was accepted in a children’s short story anthology. He is turning out to be a terrific writer just like his mother and great-grandfather, John.
i like it its good i like the guy that says little bro
wow amazing love this story its amazin mind blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
my teacher read me this story in s ience classs
What a great story, Iggy really did’t look happy in that first picture but it sounds like everything worked out for him in the end 🙂
I loved the story, AND the illustration. I think my favorite “rock” person is Commander Slate! Grandpa Grant is right up there too. They are all so good!
You are such an amazing writer! Must run in the family. It would be such a gift to the kids your age learning Geology to read your books. You explain so clearly and in such a COOL way about the different types of rocks.
Congratulations on an Amazing story!
Thanks! He had a lot of fun with this assignment and it shows. 🙂
That was a very cute story. The illustrations were very good, also.
Thanks! 🙂
Hey do u mind if I copy some parts of this story I wont plagiarize I just want to use some of its words because I got this 100 points project and I need some of these words do u mind?
Yes, you may use this story as inspiration for your own work. Good luck on your project!
Thank you very much tell your son he did a great job
Thanks! I will. 🙂
Aww so cute
😀
WOW great story he did great i have a project like this i hope i can make mine as good as his.
I teach 6th grade science and am planning for my students to work on a creative writing story about the rock cycle. Your son did an outstanding job on this story. I would love to share this story with my kids.
Thanks! You’re welcome to share it with your class. 🙂
My class and I really enjoyed this story. We are going to write our own. The pictures are really cute. This is fun, but still educational. I’m glad that you shared this piece with us; you helped us with some ideas for our own writing. We liked how you used very descriptive words, like intense, and how you included intrusive and foliated. Great work!
P.S. My students want to know what grade you were in when you wrote this.
Thanks for the comment! Yes, this was a great assignment and educational. I still remember the rock cycle because of it, lol. My son was in the sixth grade when he wrote this–which was two years ago. As I mentioned above, the story was his, but I helped with the sentence structure and punctuation. It was part of the assignment to use a list of rock related vocabulary words like intrusive and foliated. So, we worked those in where they made sense. Best of luck to your class with their stories. 🙂
Thank you!
Brilliant- so talented! I would love to use this as a stimulus for our Primary 5 class assembly- do you think he would mind?
Such an accessible way for younger ones to understand.
Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks! Yes, you are welcome to use it.
We will be having an employee appreciation day. one of the activities is to write a nice message on a rock which will be passed around in a circle. We want to find a fun rock story and each time the word “rock” is mentioned the rock will be passed around. at the end of the story, the rock that each person ends up with, they will keep. I would like to use your son’s rock story for this purpose. I thought is was a cute creative story and it made me laugh. I will give him credit when we read his story. this story is awesome!
That sounds like fun and yes, you’re welcome to use my son’s rock cycle story. Thanks for asking! 🙂
I love the creative writing! Very clever.
Thanks! 😀