Apple Tasting in Pre-K

Pre-K is using their sense of taste this week in an apple tasting!  The classes noticed that they don't look or taste the same, they don't smell the same, but they grow the same way!

We ate a slice of red, yellow and green apple.

"All taste good."

"Red was the juiciest."

"Some aren't sour for people."

"Inside they are all the same color."

After trying all three apple slices, we drew a picture of the apple that tasted the best to us and then put it on our chart.

All three Pre-K classes liked all three apples the best!

Fun at the Harvest Festival!

What a beautiful afternoon for the Harvest Festival!  We harvested basil, cabbage, thyme, scallions, red onions even a few green tomatoes, eggplants beets to be used for lunch this week!  We planted some kale, cabbage and mums as well as readied the rest of the garden for winter! 

Making leaf headbands!

Cleaning out the garden beds.

Getting herbs for sachels.

Cutting lavendar.

Planting kale.

Harvested herbs and cabbage for PS58 lunches!

Thank you Brogan Ganley for sharing some of your photographs!

The Harvest Festival is this Monday, October 26th!

Come to the PS 58 Garden

 after school on Monday from 3:30 - 4:30

 to help harvest our herbs and ready

 the plant beds for winter!

Other activities include

 planting decorative fall plants

 making herb satchels and leaf crowns

a garden scavenger hunt

drink mint water!

Volcanic Rocks and 2nd Graders!

 2nd grade has been looking at three volcanic rocks: basalt, scoria and tuff.

"Scoria has holes! It looks like a lava rock."

"When you rub two of the rocks together
they make rock dust!"

 

"When the rocks are put in water they change color and the water gets dirty!"

"There are bubbles coming from the rocks!"

Pre-K Explores the Five Senses

Pre-K has been looking at how our five senses help us learn about ourselves and the world around us.

What is inside the mystery touch bag?
What does it feel like?

Then we try to draw it!

We are using three senses when making
observations about apples: smell, touch and sight.

How many of our senses do we use when working with magnets?

We are also learning how to handle some of the critters in the science classroom.  We have to be gentle so they don't get squished.

"Mealworms are hard to pick up!"

"The mealworms like to hide!"

"The ants are playing and playing."

"Some are killed.  But there are lots of
 ants in the world."

Kindergarten Goes Out to Look at Trees!

Kindergarten went to Lorianne's Garden this week to take a closer look at the parts of a tree!

 We looked at every part of the tree to see what we could find!

We found strange "tendrils" growing on the branches.

We found ants!

Some of the leaves have started to change.

We looked for roots!

We wondered what the soft brown spots are.

We even found a baby tree growing -
a sapling!

We can't wait to see how the tree changes when we come back to visit next month!

A High School Chemistry Teacher Visits Lower Science!

Ruth Whiteside, Sophie Cross' (2-231) grandmother and former high school chemistry teacher, came to science last week to show us....

What happens when we mix substances together?

The class mixed sodium bicarbonate with calcium cloride in a ziplock bag.  

Then Sophie's Nana added water and bromothymol blue (an indicator) into the bag with the two solids and sealed the bag. We mixed, we watched, we even listened to the bag!

 The mixture bubbled and the bag got bigger!

 The color of the mixture changed
 from blue to yellow!

 We opened the bag and tested the gas with a
lighted splint which went out.

We gently blew on a lighted splint and it went out too! Lastly we all blew through a straw into a cup filled with water and bromothymol blue and saw the liquid turn from blue to yellow!

 The liquid started out blue....

 and after about a minute, the liquid turned yellow!

The gas we exhale contains the same gas as the gas in the ziplock bag - carbon dioxide!

The visit was a huge success!  The class loved creating "potions" and seeing reactions all the while getting to wear the safety goggles!