Science...This Week

I use to do peek at my week, but wow is life busy...so busy I get my lessons done, get supplies for 6 science preps, and we are full speed ahead! I am sure glad last year I did that. I can look back and get some ideas, find my links and videos and more. So....I figure, I better post a peek so that I can once again get back on track to showing what I do each week in my science school yard!

Kinders- We are learning about the stars. We start with a great online book from We Give Books called Starry Sky. I made constellations from Full of Great Ideas Blog. As I read, I had the constellation cards shining on the ceiling when we saw it in the book. The kinders actually remembered them!

Our project consisted of giving each one a piece of black paper, 6-7 pieces of popcorn, and a piece of chalk. They tossed the popcorn on the paper, picked up a piece, ate it, then placed a star in its place. Then the  kids were able to see a constellation. When everyone was done, I played a virtual camp fire, they got a story stick to pass and share their pictures. We finished with a five little astronauts song.

 

First Graders- Are working on balance once again. I created a pack that took the picture books I could find, the FOSS lesson concepts, but added a fun circus theme to it. There are a ton of great balancing videos that kiddos love to watch as well. Balance: Science Circus Fun is a great way to teach balance, add math, reading, writing, and more to your FOSS balance and motion kit and then some!

2nd graders-Are all about the Non-Newtonian Fluids. We once again used our What's The Matter? Pack to supplement mixtures and solutions. Last week, Oobleck, this week...toothpaste!

3rd grade- My middle children are finishing up on the water cycle. We are working with ice cubes. We used ice cubes to learn the three phases of matter. Here is a great time lapse I showed as they worked on the phases of the ice cube sheet...this fun 15 second you tube video Life Cycle of An Ice Cube.  This sheet is from my FOSS Water Extensions Pack.

Ice Cube Life Cycle FREEBIE

4th grade- The Digestive System...what a fun way to learn about our body... engineer a model of it! Take a look at what they did!

We used the site Kids Health: Digestive System to get information and a fun...quick video...

Then onto the team activity. They got 20 minutes to include the parts of the digestive system and then share it with the class. It was a great way to remember it!

5th grade- We are working on Chemical Reactions. The kids loved theses reactions and could remember examples pretty easily after watching this...

We then did this great penny polishing activity that had the kids reacting, too! Did you know that ketchup is a great polisher? Who knew...We also used BTB to test a color change in water as we blew into it and tested for acids and bases. We always do a ticket out the door...this one was 5 examples of chemical reactions and what does BTB indicate. They got it!

Using BTB...showed a color change from blue, to green, to yellow!

BTB showed cola to be an acid... and it cleans pennies!

But the winner...hands down...was ketchup!

It was a great week in the Science School Yard!

 

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Surface Tension Supplements

I am always trying to find great ideas to make my FOSS lessons more exciting and fun for my students. Today, I was trying to figure out how to make the surface tension lesson a bit better. I compiled some pictures of bugs that walk on water that my students will use to create this fun art project that we will add facts to. Take a look at the plan...
Bugs That Walk On Water

This fun art project came from http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/testing-water-tension-lesson-plan/. I will be reading the story A Drop Of Water for background knowledge, too.


Now, for the fact sheet that we will add to our picture...and a quick label and definition sheet for our interactive science notebook...

                               Surface Tension Sheet

                        Hope that helps my FOSS friends.

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Here's That Peek...

First Grade geologists... just a little something for their interactive science notebook. Here is the sheet I started with to use as an assessment.
Geologists in 1st

Sorting rocks is fun. We sorted them by shape, size, color, and texture.  This is our writing part of our science activity. We predicted where our rock came from.

 Look what happens to our rocks when they get wet...they change. The firsties were amazed at the colors they could see!

We started our water unit. I love this activity. Came up with it on the fly. I read the book Simply Science Water.  The students took 6 pieces of paper in different water shades. I read the story and they listened and took notes.  They glued the pieces on the paper and Viola, a great visual for them outside the Science room!

Our 5th graders, finished their Variable Unit. They were able to finish with a fun day, Engineering Style. Each group was given 10 tongue depressors, and 4 rubber bands. They each build a marshmallow catapult using what they knew from the lessons. They had so much fun! You should see how good some of them are at catching marshmallows in their mouths! 
 Different designs ...

These boys had some great techniques to catching marshmallows. 

 We finished off the hour building a control designed airplane. Then, we changed one thing to see if it made our planes fly better. We then went outside. See that bloggers...snow. It was hard to see some of the planes. It was like they got sucked into the Bermuda Triangle. The winner got airplane designs and a pack of paper to build some new models.

So, there was a peek at my week. I started the lessons on Thursday and will finish the other classes by the time we get back from break. My kinders, 2nds, and 4ths are learning new lessons, too. I will include some pictures as we go. This was just a little peek of my week.

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