Teacher Gifts
Apples and Oxidation
Many of my first grade students thought that apples turned brown because they were dirty. We learned that oxidation occurs when the flesh of the apple is exposed to oxygen. Rust is also oxidation. We tried to prevent oxidation using a variety of liquids. We had a control apple that we didn’t submerge in a liquid.
We took this experiment through the scientific process. First grade students completed their first lab reports.
Morning Glory Farm
Possibly the best field trip ever! Our kindergarten and Pre-First classes made lots of memories!
Click here to learn more about Morning Glory Farm.
Google Science Fair Winner
Miss America
Calloway Gardens
Have you taken your family to Calloway Gardens? Less than two hours away from Atlanta, it is the perfect destination to enjoy the outdoors. My husband and I visited over Labor Day weekend, but we made many trips there with our daughter.
I saw the best spider web ever! Look at the design around the orb web.
These pictures were taken inside the Butterfly House.
There were leaves as tall as me!
In addition, The Little White House (FDR’s retreat) is only about 30 minutes away. If you love history, you’ll find this spot very interesting!
Flower Lab
Pollen can travel to the pistil by wind, rain, or pollinators, such as bees or butterflies. We pretended to be pollinators. Just like real pollinators, we were attracted to the colors of the flowers, drunk the sweet nectar (sugar water) and as we sipped the nectar, pollen stuck to our hands (Cheetos). Watch the video below for additional information.
POPCORN
Popping popcorn was a fun way to review the way we use our senses!
We also learned that the Native Americans first popped corn. Corn grows on a stalk and we eat the seeds. Inside a kernel is a small drop of water. When the water is heated inside the kernel, the water turns to vapor and expands which causes the kernel to explode and turn inside out. Watch the video below to see this happen in slow motion.
Is it Alive?
First grade is studying living and nonliving things. We put this turtle in water. I asked the children to watch it for me and to tell me if it was living. It grew and grew! The children told me that although it grew like a living thing, it wasn’t living because it didn’t move on its own, didn’t need food, and couldn’t reproduce. 🙂 So how did it grow so large? They had lots of thought provoking ideas. One student said that it must be a sponge, but we squeezed it and no water came out. Hmmm… We took it out of water and now we are watching to see what happens. Will it return to the original size? If so, how long will it take? If there is water inside, where will the water go?