Can we see inside our duck eggs?
Showing posts with label Wonder of the Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonder of the Week. Show all posts
How Much Rain Can a Cloud Hold?
We had so much fun today! In our weather PBL this week, we have talked all about rain, the water cycle, and what happens to the water we see come out of the sky (evaporation, condensation, precipitation). We have been keeping track of daily weather patterns and we have been journaling our learning about the weather every day.
But today, we had SO MUCH FUN. We did an experiment to find out how much rain a cloud can hold before it rains. To get our brains ready to remember what we learned this week, we watched this video:
http://safeshare.tv/w/svdtyFUdPA
Then we got to work! We had droppers, a cup full of water with blue food coloring, and a cup of water with a shaving cream "cloud" on top. We used the droppers to transfer the "rain water" into the cloud. At first, the cloud absorbed the rain water and it did not rain. Eventually, with enough rain water in the cloud, the cloud released the water and it rained!
Some friends had cups that started out "sprinkling" and then it turned into a steady rain...
Other friends had cups that looked like a storm! All the water fell out at once!
This opened up conversation for why not all rain storms are the same. Sometimes the rain is heavy and sudden, other times it is light and gradual. This is a connection my friends made solely from working on their own clouds and watching their friends clouds! What little scientists I have in my classroom!
Then, like always, we wrote! We wrote about what we knew or learned about rain and clouds this week.
"Sometimes clouds are full of water and they rain."
"Some clouds can't hold that much rain. Some clouds are small and big."
"Sometimes when it rains it stops and it makes a rainbow."
"I know that rain comes down out of the sky."
"Do you know that the water goes up in the sky? And you can't see it. I can't show you. You will see it in this picture."
"Sometimes the rain vibrates in the dirt and makes mud! Why?"
"Some clouds when it rains, the winds blow it to a different direction."
"I know the rain goes up in the cloud and the cloud cannot hold the water."
"The clouds pull up the lake water."
I absolutely LOVE this unit! Stay tuned for more of our learning and fun, all about weather!
Why Does Food Decay?
This morning, we started an experiment that we will refer to all week long. As a part of our Fall PBL, we wanted to know what science is. We read the book, What Is Science? and noted some things about science. All together, we concluded science has a lot to do with asking questions and finding things out on our own.
For our wonder of the day, I pulled up a picture of a brown banana and we talked about how the banana was going bad. One of my friends eventually asked, "Well, why did it go bad?" right before another one asked, "Can you stop it?"
So, I introduced our Wonder of the Week... why does food decay? We are looking more at if we can stop the decay through our experiment. We are testing apple slices to see if we can stop the apple slices from turning brown. We put the slices into 3 solutions (salt water, vinegar, and lemon juice) and left one in air as a control. We will be recording our observations during our wonder of the day all week long and will finally conclude on Friday if we can stop the decay of our apple slices or not.
Stay tuned for more awesome wonderings!
Wonder of the Week
Why does food decay?
**we will be doing an experiment with this next week... keep an eye out for what we learn!**
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Our Wonder of the Week this week was, "What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?" Yesterday, as a culmination to our community helpers unit, we dressed up as what we wanted to be when we grew up. Can you take a guess?
