Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

What happens to Plants and Animals in the winter?

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Yesterday, we had a great day getting back into the swing of things here in Fort Kindergarten. We started our morning off by welcoming each other back to school. We sat in a circle and we all talked about our exciting breaks! A lot of my friends enjoyed opening presents, watching Star Wars and a few even got a trip to the beach!

Then, we took our thoughts we had just discussed about our breaks and wrote them down. My friends remembered to use detail in their drawings, finger spaces AND periods! I was so proud!

Then, we heard from a Park Ranger from Camp Croft here in Spartanburg County. He told us all about what happens to Plants and Animals in his park in the Spring, Summer and Fall seasons, but then he left us with a challenge... he didn't know what was going to happen to plants and animals in the winter! We knew we had to get down to business!

Today, in order to help our Park Ranger friend out, we re-visited our adopted tree to discuss what is happening to plants during the winter. We had a discussion about our different clothes and what the weather feels like, in addition to the changes in our tree.

Then, we came inside and started to record our noticings in our Wonder Journals for our book for our Park Ranger friend. We will be compiling everything we learn into an informational book for him throughout our unit.

We can't wait to learn about animals in winter and how they stay safe during all this cold! Stay tuned for our learning!

Leave a Comment science, Winter PBL, Wonder Walk, Writing

What does a tree look like in the summer?

Monday, October 05, 2015

Last week, we wanted to know what a tree looks like in the summer. As a kick off to our Fall PBL, we wanted to investigate what the trees look like outside (before they change colors!)

We read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and talked about what was happeneing to the apple tree throughout the story. Then, we took a wonder walk outside and recorded what we noticed in our journals.

Then, we came inside and looked at our "Tree of Seasons". We decided that the summer portion of the tree needed to be full of green leaves. We used our finger prints to create the "leaves" of the tree.

We will be learning A LOT about Fall and what happens during fall in the upcoming weeks. I am so excited to share what your child will be learning with you. Stay tuned!

Leave a Comment Fall PBL, science, seasons

Why is it Important To Wash Our Hands?

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Today is Wonder Wednesday, so we wanted to know, Why is it important to wash our hands? We discussed reasons why it's important to wash our hands. Many friends mentioned things like germs and sickness. We had a discussion about what germs are and how germs are spread. Many students said germs are spread by touching things without washing our hands. So, we decided to test it out for ourselves with an experiment.

Here is how we used 3 pieces of bread to find out why it is important to wash our hands.

First, we used our dirty, germy hands to touch one piece of bread.

We put that piece of bread in a baggie and labeled the baggie "Dirty Hands."

Then, we ALL washed our hands! (With soap AND water)

Then, we all touched another piece of bread with our CLEAN hands!

We took this piece of bread and put it into a baggie. We labeled the baggie "Clean Hands". We took the last piece of bread and put it into a baggie labeled "Control". I explained to our friends we need to know what the normal bread would look like when it's in a baggie as well, so we needed a "control" for our experiment.

The pieces of bread needed to be stored in a cool, dry place and I wanted to make sure everyone could see it, so we taped the baggies to the end of the cubbies.

Then, we used our Wonder Journals for the first time and we recorded our predictions for what would happen in our experiment. Some friends predicted the dirty hands bread would turn red, some predicted it would grow spots, and others predicted nothing would happen!