Every week during online learning, I give my scientists an outdoor challenge. In this activity, I encouraged them to draw a map of their properties or yards, adding as many details as possible. I showed them examples of maps that also included compass roses and keys. The next step was to hide a treasure of some kind, and then place an x on the map to indicate where it was hidden. Finally, the map was given to someone and he/she searched for the treasure using the map.
In honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, kindergarten scientists learned about the history of the penny and how coins are minted. Click here to watch a video about minting.We used hand lenses to observe the pictures, words, and dates on our pennies.
We observed that some pennies are bright, while others are dull. Oxidation causes pennies to tarnish. Oxidation is a process in which a chemical substance changes because of the addition of oxygen. Oxidation also occurs when metals rust and apples turn brown. We tried to clean off the oxidation with five different liquids. Most of us hypothesized that the soap would clean the pennies the best, but we discovered that the liquids which contained acids made the pennies bright again. Click here to learn more about this investigation. Try this investigation at home with different liquids such as, orange juice, tea, milk, shampoo, or Sprite.
We recalled from last week’s lab that water molecules bond together (cohesion). I asked my scientists to hypothesize how many drops of water they thought could fit on the surface of a penny. Most thought the number would be between two and ten. They were amazed when they were able to fit between 20 and 40 drops on their pennies! It didn’t take long for one of my scientists to notice that a water bubble (or dome) formed on top of his penny.
Before we left, I filled a cup of water to the very top. How many pennies can we add to the cup without the water spilling over? Each class was able to drop between 80 and 100 pennies inside!
Try this at home:
Collect pennies, look at the dates, and compare the backs.
If you don’t wash off the vinegar on the pennies, they will turn green. Why? The Statue of Liberty is green for the same reason – oxidation and acid rain. Click here to learn more about the Statue of Liberty.
Scientists classify fruit as the part of the plant that protects seeds. Yes, that means a tomato is a fruit! Click here to learn the difference between fruits and vegetables.
My kindergarten scientists have studied sink and float concepts periodically since October. This time, we used what we knew about density to hypothesize which fruits would sink and which would float. We learned a lot because our results didn’t always match our hypotheses. We weighed the fruit first, but density and weight are not the same. We recalled what happened last October when we placed a jack-o-lantern pumpkin and a candy pumpkin in the water table. Our original thinking was turned upside down when the big, heavy pumpkin floated and the small, light, candy pumpkin sank. Although the apple and the pear were equal weight, one sank and the other floated. The kiwi was lighter than both, but it sank too. The grape, which was the lightest fruit we tested, sank. The orange floated, but when unpeeled sank. Hmmm…
Extend this activity at home. Select fruit at the grocery store and weigh them on the scale. How are the fruit alike and different? Research to discover the kind of tree or plant on which they grow and where those plants are found. Cut the fruit open and find the seeds. How are they arranged? How many are there? Taste the fruit and plant some of the seeds.
We still had time to travel to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights.We used flashlights to shine light on a CD and a DVD to refract the white light and reveal the colors hidden inside. Click here to learn more about Aurora Borealis.
Kindergarten scientists study the Arctic and Antarctica. In this lab, we traveled to the Arctic and looked at igloos built by the Inuits, native people of the Arctic. Inuits live in homes similar to ours today, but igloos are still used for hunting or fishing trips.
I tasked my engineers to construct new buildings of “ice and snow” with Styrofoam. I witnessed problem solving, creativity, and collaboration as they built. They worked on balancing their structures and incorporating three dimensional shapes. Styrofoam allows little hands to build without the use of tape or glue. What a fun way to develop fine motor skills and eye/hand coordination too. We learned that Styrofoam is not good for the environment because it doesn’t decompose, so this is one way to reuse it. We used Arctic animals, but there were no penguins because penguins do not live in the Arctic.
Will one of my third or fourth graders invent something that will rock our world? They are ready to try! We kicked off our fifth annual Invention Convention. I brought in these inventions to illustrate how inventors improve upon the work of those who come before them. After the Invention Convention, inventions will move to our version of the Show Shark Tank which we call Minnow Tank. Click here to view previous blog posts about the Invention Convention and Minnow Tank. (Scroll down.)
Details about the Invention Convention will come home in Friday folders soon.
Click here to watch inventors share their thoughts on inventing.
Click here to watch Molly, a kid inventor, who became an engineer.
The typewriter was especially interesting to my scientists. I demonstrated how the return, the cap lock, and the space bar work in much the same way as they do on the keyboards we use today.
I am inventing a new student desk. I made these changes last year, and I continue to look for additional ways to bring desks into this century!
We made some memories and learned more about earth science on the third grade field trip to the gold mines in Dahlonega.
My preK classes read Mixed by Arree Chung to continue their study of color. In the story, the primary color characters mix to create secondary and intermediate colors. It is a beautiful allegory that can be interpreted on many levels. The overall theme is a message about unity and embracing differences. Click here to see the book on Amazon.
Then we pushed around primary color paint gel to create green, purple, and orange, and to make our cities colorful, like the city in the story.
We also looked at kaleidoscopes. The colorful designs were beautiful!
On this MLK Day, I have been reading some of Dr. Martin Luther King’s writings:
‘A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart’, Strength To Love (1963, 1981)
Third grade scientists investigated compasses in lab to kick off their social studies unit on explorers. After reviewing the compass rose, we experimented with the relationship between magnets and compasses. A compass is a lightweight magnet. The needle lines up with the earth’s magnetic field. Then we made our own compasses. We magnetized a nail and placed the nail in a Petri dish that was floating in a bowl of water. We watched the magnetized nail search for North.
