Rocks Class Assembly Script

Extract 1

But let us start with what rocks are! And to explain, we have a geologist with us today who has a very special visitor! Please welcome George the Geologist and his friend, Trevor the Traveller!

Hi everyone! My name is George the Geologist! I am a rock expert!

Good! Then you can start with telling us what rocks are!

Rocks are materials that you find in nature! Stones, pebbles and sand are just small pieces of rock! They are found everywhere! If you dig into the ground, sooner or later you will reach rock!

We have a friend who wants to dig! He has travelled everywhere and now he wants to do something crazy! Shall we bring him on?

(On comes Traveller) I have travelled all over the world and now I want to travel under it!

Eh?

Well! People always fly over the earth to go on holiday! Why do people never go to centre of the earth? Imagine what the journey to the centre of the earth would be like!

Well you wouldn't be able to go very far!

Why not!

Well the earth is made up of different layers! (Points to the power point slide). First you would get through the soil!    

Easy!

Well the soil is the first bit of the earth's crust. Then there is the rocky bit underneath.

Like the crust of the bread I have every morning?

Trust me! This is a lot harder! You could drill your way through but as you go through the crust, you would get hotter and hotter because you would get nearer to the mantle.

Extract 2

We interrupt this live broadcast of the Rock Show with breaking news of an exploding volcano!

Risking their life to bring this to us, we have our own broadcasters bringing you a report of an exploding volcano! (Enter 2 reporters. Power point slide change)

Can you just explain to our viewers where you are!

Well are observing what happens when a volcano explodes. (Hissing background sound)

We can hear the hissing of gasses which means only one thing!

Masses of hot lava will spit out like thick treacle oozing out over these mountains.

Oh no! The hissing is getting louder! That's the sign that it is going to erupt! The ground is starting to shake under our feet! Let's get out of here! (Clip of an exploding volcano)

Ladies and gentleman. Of course, no reporter would ever escape a volcano from so close! We ask you to use your imagination!

While our reporters are running for their lives, we can explain what a volcano is!

The earth's crust is very rocky but it isn't perfect! It has lots of cracks. Lots of them! In fact it fits together like giant slabs of a jigsaw puzzle!

Extract 3

Rocks are very useful! In fact, we hardly talk about just how amazingly they actually are!

Do you remember when iron changed our lives forever? (Enter a stone-age man as a hunter gatherer!)

Yabadaboo! I am a hunter gather! I hunt and gather!

(Enters newspaper boy and stands next to the hunter gatherer. Waving his newspaper) Iron! Discovered! This will change your life for ever! New farming tools! New discoveries!

I think you are 2000 years to late mate!

Buzz off! (Both the hunter-gatherer and the newspaper boy go off stage)

Yes we remember all that but iron isn't a rock it is a metal!

No! it is a metal but iron was found in a rock called haematite. That contained iron. The rock that changed our life! A rock called haematite contains iron. It is iron ore.

There are many things we can find inside rocks or buried deep under-ground under rocks that are very valuable and useful!

Rocks rock man!

Anything else?

Gold is found in rock too!

Coal is found in rock! It makes electricity!

Diamonds!

Rocks also play an important part in telling us about the history of the earth! Through fossils!

And to tell us more, we have a special visitor here today! Please welcome Mary Anning!

Extract 4

Dear scientist at the British Museum. I have found the most amazing thing in the rocks of Lyme Regis. I have made a careful drawing of it. I wanted to know why it is such a clear fish shape! Please write back. (Enter scientists and photographers taking pictures)