Garden Fundraiser at Wilma Jean!

Pre-K Dig for Dinosaur Bones!

Pre-K have become paleontologists! They have been busy digging for dinosaur bones and then having to put them together to see what type of dinosaur they found - a T-rex or a triceratops.

Look!  There's one!

I just made the triceratops!

Here's a foot!

The next expedition we were digging for dinosaur skulls.  So many different kinds!!

Which one is this?

Here's one!

I found almost all of the heads.

We made our own fossils too!

I made a dinosaur fossil.

I have a lot of shells on my fossil.

I have a dinosaur in here!

I like the shells.

We have a new favorite song too!  "I am a Paleontologist" by They Might Be Giants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7zo2zY1Zqg

Rocks, Minerals, Fossils and Geodes!

What a fabulous surprise!  Orla (1-114) and Keavy's (4-333) mom, Julie, went on a trip to the Arches National Park (https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm) in Utah and brought back quite a collection of rocks, minerals and fossils for the science classroom! The rocks all came from Moab's Rock Shop  http://www.moabrockshop.com/.  

A beautiful sampling of rocks!

There is even petrified wood at the bottom of the photo.

Megalodon Shark Teeth!

Dinosaur bone fossils!

 Then, a few weeks later, what should arrive? A box of geodes: Moroccan snowballs, Mexican and Utah dugway.

So many geodes!

It was very hard to break open the geode on our tiled floor!  The next class we are trying to break it outside!

The inside of one of the geodes!

 Thank you so much Julie for this amazing addition to our science program!

 Photo credit for the first 4 photos: Julie Fry.

2nd Graders Explore Sand!

Sand.  We walk on it, build with it, but where does sand come from?  2nd graders have learned that boulders break into cobbles, which can roll into a river and break into pebbles and gravel then into grains of sand.  We looked at sand and wrote how it felt, looked and sounded.  Most classes decided that the sand sounded like maracas. 

It feels rough and bumpy.

I can draw in the sand. It looks dirty.

Making a paper plate taco to put the sand back in the vial.

Water was put in the vial, a cap was secured on top and everyone started to shake, shake, shake the sand and water!

It looks like coffee.
It also looks like chocolate milk.

The classes made a prediction about what the vial of sand and water would look like the next time they had science.  Many of the students thought that the water would be darker or would evaporate.  Some students thought the sand would get smaller or larger.  Two students thought the water would be clear.

Look at the water!  And what is that layer on top of the sand?

The next step was tricky!  The students had to gently pour the water out of the vial without disturbing the layer of silt on top of the sand.  Then they tried to feel the smallest grain of rock that we have looked at so far...silt!

Solids and Liquids

1st grade has started their new unit on Solids and Liquids!  We are exploring properties of solids first! We are describing how solids look, feel and sound. Then we are comparing different solids to one another.  How are they the same and how are they different?

The block is loud when you hit the table!

I am going to look at all four solids.

The cloth is soft.

The triangle is red and bendy.

Listen to the noise the tube makes!

The tube clicks!

I'm stacking my solids on top of each other.

The screw is so loud!

The screw has lines on it.

The Popsicle stick is rough.

The screw and the tube are the same shape.

The tube is squishy.