Kindergarten Sinks Wood!

Kindergarteners already know a lot about wood!  They know what wood looks, feels like and that it changes color when it gets wet.  They also know that wood floats.  Our newest challenge is...how to make the wood sink!

Our supplies are a bin of water, two wood samples, paper clips and rubber bands.  How can we use those items to make the wood samples sink to the bottom of the bin?

We came up with the idea to put the rubber band on the wood and put the paper clips under the rubber band!

My wood is still floating!

Some of the paper clips are all connected.

For the wood to sink, it has to be on the bottom!

Adding more paper clips.

I think this might sink!

Yes!  It is sinking!

I need more paper clips!

We did it!

Look at all the paper clips.  I think it's going to sink!

We need more paper clips! 

Attached paper clips can be so hard to get undone!

The paper clips fell off!

A technique that seemed to work was putting paper clips
on all four sides of the wood.

In the end, most of the classes were able to sink their wood samples.  As a challenge, students tried to figure out if both wood samples needed the same number of paper clips to make it sink.  The results were mixed, but many agreed that the pine wood needed more paper clips than the plywood.

Pre-K Explores Seeds!

Pre-K was curious about seeds.  Children will find something outside on their way to school and wonder what it is.  Many times it's a seed - usually from a honey locust or sycamore tree!  So we decided to investigate!

The seeds are all different colors.

The small seeds go through the screen.

I can push the seeds through.

So many seeds.

Wow!  Look how big they are!

All the different seeds we looked at.  Most of them are beans.

Everyone chose one type of seed that they wanted to plant! We all know that seeds need soil, water and sun (or in our case a grow light) to start growing!

After planting we need to water!

The stick has our name on it so we know which plant is ours!

 

How long will it take to grow?

Depending on the seed size, we plant about 3 or 4 seeds.

Now we wait!

A week later....look at how much our plants grew!!

Every day we need to water our plants!

2nd Grade Investigates Sand

2nd grade looked closely at a vial half-filled with sand.  They described how the sand looks, how it feels  and how it sounds.

It feels soft.

When we shake it, it sounds like rain.

It feels bumpy.

It looks dusty and small.

It's gray with bits of black.

It sounds like a maraca.

Next we added water to the top of the vial and described what happened.  Both the water and the sand got darker.

There were bubbles and smoke when you put the water in.

And now the fun part...shaking the vial with sand and water!

If you turn it upside down, the sand falls!

Look at the water! It looks like coffee!

The water looks like the Gowanus!

The students were asked to make a prediction as to what the sand and the water would look like their next science class.  Many thought the mixture would look the same, that the water would evaporate, or the sand and water would stay mixed.

Surprise!The water is clearer a week later and there is a layer of
silt sitting on top of the sand.  Silt is smaller in size than sand.

Carefully pouring out the water to see if we can touch
the silt.

It's not easy to feel the silt.

It's fun to touch!

Gardening with First Graders!

First graders started gardening class in December.  That might sound like a crazy idea, especially when the temperatures are hovering around freezing and the garden looks like this:

But 1st grade has actually been very busy exploring soil...

We found rocks, twigs, leaves and grass.

We found lots of roots.

We even found a strange critter!

The soil from our garden looks very healthy!

 and observing red wigglers from our classroom wormery.

Red wigglers are smaller than earthworms and live in compost.

When they get scared, the squiggle around like crazy!

We even found some baby worms!

After looking at our garden soil and the composting worms, we dissected a lima bean seed.

The lima beans were soaked in water to soften
the seed coat and make it easier to get off.

Trying to get the seed coat off the seed. We
discovered the seed coat protects the seed
just like our coats protect us!

 There is food in every seed which allows it to
grow in the soil before reaching the surface and
the sunshine.

Look!  You can see the root is already starting to grow out of the seed!

The root growing from the seed.

You can see the little leaves.

The seed coat and the food for the seed.

I found the root and the leaf!

 Next we will plant mystery seeds and see what grows!