Thursday, June 5, the summer
children’s programs at Emden’s Whistle Stop Library kicked off with
a program about rocks.




Activities included rock painting
for all ages and rock digging for children ages eight and above.
Those digging into the brick shaped objects could find several small
rocks.




Tables around the room held books
about rocks, a poster about rocks and several different types of
rocks.

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Ladonna Gass, with the help of
Dottie Russell, also did a program describing the different
categories of rocks and showing examples of each type.
First, Gass said there are three
types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks
are formed from cooled lava. Sedimentary rocks are deposited by
water and wind and sometimes buried under layers. Metamorphic rocks
change their structures because of heat and structure. There were
examples of each type of rock on the table.

Next, Gass showed the children the
rocks she had brought, which included lava rocks, Satan’s spur,
fluorite, basalt, sandstone, coral rock, trauertine, anthracite,
granite, onyx, flint and pyrite. She also had fool’s gold and
explained that it looks like gold, but it is actually pyrite and not
valuable.
There were a few shiny rocks, which had gone through rock tumblers.
Gass said tumblers use grit and water to make rocks shiny. The rocks
are then tumbled in the “machine” and rub against each other in
several grit stages, which can take a week.

Children could get chips and Capri
suns when the program was done. Each one was also given a homemade
bookmark.
Next week’s program is Jacques Cousteau’s under the ocean
discoveries. All programs start at 2 p.m. on Thursdays.
[Angela Reiners]
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