Limestone

 Early next term we are going to visit Xanadu Cave near Punakaiki so we have been finding out all about limestone.

We looked at some pieces of limestone and wrote some descriptions:

Limestone is a pale grey rock with pointy edges, and a rough, scaly middle. Ebony cracks spread over the limestone's smooth surface like mould spreading across bread.
The rock has some clumps of white powder dotted around it.
Ella, Year 4



Limestone is a light grey rock that is smooth and dusty. It feels as if it has a light coat of flour sprinkled from the bottom to the top. When you break it open the edge is as sharp as a knife!
Lily, Year 6

Limestone is a type of rock. On the rock there were silver, grey and black lines bubbled through it. It felt soft and dusty and even a bit warm. There were sparkles in the middle and black lines on the outside.
Maelle, Y4 

Limestone is a very weak stone that is found  in caves. When I touched it I thought it was a rock with powder on it. There is grey all over the stone and if you look carefully, you will see some specks of white.
Jacob, Year 5  

Limestone has sharp edges and a smooth surface. It is white, green and a little grey. On the limestone there is lots of powder. All over the stone there are tiny sparkles. The top and bottom of the limestone is really soft. Where the limestone is broken there is a white circle. If you rub two pieces of limestone together they will make powder.

Liam, Year 4

We put some pieces of limestone into vinegar and observed what happened.

We put a piece of limestone in vinegar, then I saw bubbles because there was a reaction. We left it for a few days. The limestone started to form crystals.
Jacob, Year 5  




We put limestone in a bowl and put vinegar in it. After that we saw millions of bubbles rising from beneath the limestone because the vinegar was reacting with the limestone and the vinegar turned a bit dirty. Four days later we saw bumpy bits of white crystals on the stone. Every day the little crystals got bigger.
Maelle, Year 4

We asked the question, "What is limestone?" We did some research, made some notes then wrote a paragraph to answer our question.

What is limestone ?

Limestone is a sedimentary rock made of 50 percent [or more] calcium carbonate which comes from shells and bones. The other 50 percent of the rock is made of mud, sand and pebbles. A sedimentary rock is a rock that is made from sediment under lots of pressure. The sediment is made from all the thing that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean. As the layers of sediment got thicker the bottom layer had a lot of pressure on top. Over the years it was lithified into rock.

Jeff Rossignal, Year 6

Limestone is a sedimentary rock that contains 50 % calcium carbonate, at least. It is made from bones, shells, mud and sand. It was made billions of years ago. Limestone was formed by bones and shells that layered up, and sand from the rivers, seas and lakes then put pressure on the layers and the layers of bones and shells made limestone.
Blake Dixon, Year 4