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?

Third grade completed their lessons on thermal energy with a lab about thermometers.  In this investigation, we watched the thermometer as the hot water cooled to determine which cup was the best insulator.  Thermometer concepts and skills were new to many of my students.  Vocabulary included Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin, degrees and scale.  We also learned freezing and boiling points of Celsius and Fahrenheit scales. To reinforce this concept at home, show your children places you use thermometers (such as your thermostat, oven, fish tanks, or car).  Show ways you use thermometers to measure the temperature of your body, air, liquids, or meat.

Click here to practice reading a thermometer.

Click here for NASA thermometer activity.

Taught this poem to our kindergarten classes. I love children’s artwork! These masterpieces were completed in Mrs. Hornsby’s homeroom.

God made the birds.
God made the bees.
God made the flowers,
And God made me!

God made the sky.
God made the sea.
God made the animals,
And God made me!

Have you seen this yet?  It was filmed with a drone by Brewer Engineering.  I am a founding teacher and it is so amazing to see how our prayers have been answered.  We are blessed!

Lab helpers come to my room each day to help me feed the fish, turtle, crabs, frogs, and ducks. I really enjoy spending some individual time with my students and it is a great opportunity to teach them how to care for our lab animals.

They are only 12 days old and just opened their eyes!

We used Steve Spangler’s solar bag to demonstrate that hot air rises, but our bag didn’t go as high as last year. We did the experiment in the afternoon, so possibly the outside air may have been as hot.

Watch below to see the bag demonstrated by Steve Spangler.

King’s Ridge just built new shelves in the science lab.  Happy dance!