Let’s Do Science!
Posted by Diane Badden on 02 Jul 2010 | Posted in: Planning and Curriculum
Happy Friday to ya! I just had the best time reading the comments for “Squeezing In Science.” Have you read them? I can’t wait to get home to microwave a flower. Actually, there’s a microwave in our kitchen; so if I can find a flower around here, I won’t even have to wait until I get home!
Be sure to check out the post and comments. In addition to some great ideas for squeezing in science, you’ll find the details to our latest book giveaway. In fact, let’s add this post to the giveaway too; leave a comment here, and we’ll enter your name for an additional chance to win! (See, this is what happens when you fire up my curiosity!)
Let’s chat about favorite science topics and themes, great children’s books for integrating science, and simple science experiments that amaze your students. How fun is that?
Bring on the comments! And if you’re traveling this holiday weekend, please buckle up and be safe!
Diane
Congrats to our contest winners: Deanna, Tina, and Debbie!
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34 Responses to “Let’s Do Science!”
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More Comments Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All Comments
With the preschool children, there is so much to do with them in science. The best topic seems to be ” Animals all around us” they enjoy doing all the different activities on animals. The children also seem to really enjoy ‘Exploring the world around us” activities. This topic lets us go outside a lot to explore around us and use all our senses to discover what our world has to offer.There is so much hands on activities for this age. It is so exciting to watch the little ones beginning to discover the world.
I have so many favorite Science topics that it’s hard to choose just one favorite. This year we are planting Milkweed and we are going to have a Monarch Butterfly Habitat at the school and it’s going to be great. There are so many things we can do with it. We are also growing CornEar Worms in our classroom and studying the life cycle of them and getting to watch it. The children are going to get to make posters and a documentary over what they see and find out about them. Cotton is great also and we are planting Cotton seeds to grow for our study of plants and seeds. With Cotton it’s great because the kids love to see it go from the seed we planted to the plant and then we get to examine it and take it apart to find the new seeds inside the cotton that we can plant next year or that they can take home. We also read “The Tiny Seed” and the kids love it.
I am a special education teacher in a middle school. I have the students in the DCD classroom. My students LOVE hands on projects. Science is a great way to have my kids do hands on experiments.
During the first snow, no matter what the lesson plans say, we have a teachable moment to show melting and freezing. I gather a bucket full of snow and show the kids. Before they leave, we look to see what happened. The next day, we review what happened, talk about how the bucket was full of snow, but now is only partially filled with water. Then we talk about what would happen if we put the water in the freezer and make predictions. We stick the bucket in the freezer then review the predictions the next day and compare to the actual experiment.
My beginning of the year Science Lab for 5th graders to teach observation skills is called “The Cat’s Meow”. With just some whole milk, Dawn dish detergent, food coloring, toothpicks or cotton balls, and petri dishes, the students get to observe an amazing sight! When a drop of detergent is placed in the middle of the dish of milk, the detergent pushes the fat molecules and causes the milk to start to swirl. The food coloring is placed in drops so the students can see the reaction. At the end of the year, we repeat the experiment with our kindergarten science buddies.
I’m a homeschool mom of a 6 year old. Last year when I taught my daughter for kindergarten, she loved to learn about clouds and weather. We made a “camera” out of cardboard and we went outside everyday for a week and she took pictures of the different types of clouds and anything else weather wise.
I teach 4th grade and science is my favorite subject to teach. This year we will be “sorta” departmentalizing and I will have 2 different groups of 4th graders to teach science to. My favorite topics are Rocks (Earth Science) and Space. This year we will also be planting a butterfly garden outside my back door so I extra excited about all the science I can teach there.
I did the film canister rockets as a science project with my first graders this year. The first time we did it, we added too much water and it didn’t work. We tried again and it was a great success. It was a great lesson for my students on not giving up. We talked about how scientists have to keep experimenting.
Science is one of my favorite subjects to teach, I teach prek and science is very hands on which is perfect for them. This past year while leaving the library we ran into the 6th graders conducting their science experiments on not breaking the egg. You know the experiment where the student has to create a container that houses an egg- the housing has to keep the egg from breaking when dropped from the 2nd floor landing. My kids loved it and wanted to do it themselves they were creative- I gave them plastic easter eggs instead. However the lesson that we teach every year is growing corn. In November I begin the unit by reading different stories about the first Thanksgiving, and our class favorite Albert’s Thanksgiving by Leslie Tryon. I bring in as many of the differnt types of food that I can or I bring pictures. We cut open a pumpkin and clean it out and I place Native American corn cobs and gourds into the sensory table for investigating. On Friday, the week before Thanksgiving, I ask what would happen if we place the corn into water and put it in the window. It grows, after a good root system starts and it sprouts we palnt the corn and by spring we have little ears of corn. It is great and the kids see the process.
I would love to shoot off film canister rockets- how? My little ones love hands on science and I take every opportunity to allow them to explore. We don’t have classes during the summer and a garden would not work for our classes but we do an apple tree experiment that starts in November with eating apples and sprouting the seeds. Our unit ends the week before Mother’s Day when we decorate the apple tree pots and present an apple tree to each Mom.
One of my favorite units is space. One of the expl rations that we really enjoy are film canister rockets. The kids really love shooting them off.
we also like to do an exploration of geodes. I talk about how things that may not be beautiful on the outside can be on the inside. Then i break open geodes to show the crystal centers. The children each get apiece to take home and share with thier families.
I agree with the others that seeds and plants are my favorite science topic. I really like using “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle when my students are learning about seeds.