Experimenting Part 2

The day of experimenting finally came!  As soon as the children saw the vials they couldn't stop talking about it.  Each day a group of children carefully took notes as they experimented.  Ms. Amy worked with each group for 45 minutes!  Together they predicted, wrote down ideas, and took turns pouring.  We made it very important to not talk about what happened in the classroom because only one group could work a day.  The other children had to wait until the next day.  It was very hard to keep it quiet, but we did it!  When each group finished they would come in one-by-one into the classroom and walk around with an all-knowing smile on their face and white powder on their hands. They would then walk right up to me and whisper in my ear what they experienced.  They had to tell someone!

Once everybody had the chance to experiment, we got to take a big breath and declare the exciting news... 

It exploded!  

Well, more like fizzed and spilled over, but still exciting.

We also noticed some changes to the other less-exciting substances- like turning to milk, liquids not mixing, and bubbly blue.  Below are some pictures of the first round of experimenting.  For more pictures (and great faces) check out the Snapfish website.

I chose to dye the vinegar because it would be easy to see when it separates from the oil.  And fizzing vinegar and baking soda is a lot more fun when it's blue.  

One very cool side-effect of the mixing was the way corn starch and water react with each other.  When they are the right consistency, it can both be a solid and liquid.  The behavior is different from what we are used to, as it can be stringy, chunky, liquid-y, hard, and squishy.  If you squeeze it you can make a ball, but as soon as you let go, it "melts."

These experiments are an easy (slightly messy) thing to do at home.  Let your children show off what they learned in school!

Experimenting

Your children may have been talking about substances we have been studying in the classroom.  We were preparing for our experiments this week.  Ask about them!  Here is our story…

Two weeks ago I brought in 4 jars labeled “substance 1-4.”  Without naming the substances, we talked about their properties.  The children were dying to know the names and I wouldn't tell them.  It is important to observe before knowing what something new is because it could affect our opinions.  Earlier in the year we worked with our five senses to explore a white substance (sugar).  Before knowing what it was, we said it tasted like candy and strawberries, smelled like food, felt like sand, and moved like snow.  Once we knew it was sugar, we said it tasted like sugar, smelled like sugar, moved like sugar, and smelled like sugar.  I kept the real identities of these substances a secret as we analyzed them.  We drew, discussed, wrote about, and used our 5 senses for each substance.  

Did you figure out what each of them were?

Blue Vinegar

Corn Starch

Baking Soda

Vegetable Oil

We finally made our guesses as to what each substance was.  Some of the children had experiences with these materials before and remembered them enough to give them the correct name.  We talked about them some more, and started comparing.  There are many similarities (especially between corn starch and baking powder) and it took some time to sort them out.  

Check in to see how our experiments went!

Recipes

With the holiday season upon us, we have had a lot to say about families, celebrations, and food.  I brought in a recipe book and wanted to know what the children understood about this concept.  Everybody celebrates differently, but one thing we all know about is food.  From conversations, we all have spent time in the kitchen.  

After separating our classroom books into fiction and non-fiction, we also decided on making a separate section for the books we create as a class.  We have made a "Down by the Bay" book, a book describing our favorite parts in a Junie B. Jones book, and a book about our families.  We needed to make a recipe book!

When we think about recipes, we think of meaningful, literal language.  Books can provide fantastic stories, but also information.  Recipes show us ordering, sequencing, and real-life applications.

Cake

Ingredients

flour

chocolate

cake dough

sugar

jellybeans

yogurt

some pink frosting

Directions

First you pour the cake dough into a bowl and then you put eggs in it and then mix it up and then you put milk in it and then you bake it and then you take it out and you put pink frosting on it.





Brownies

Ingredients
chocolate
sugar
eggs

Directions
Stir it, cook it, and it will turn into brownies.



Brownies

Ingredients
eggs
sugar
flour
chocolate
frosting
microwave

Directions
Put it in the microwave.





Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
frosting
chocolate chips

Directions
Mix them. Bake them. Eat them.





Pancakes

Ingredients
flour
eggs

Directions
The water is boiling. You put it in the oven. After you put it in the oven, you put the water on so it goes through the oven and it cooks the pancakes. You can make it in the oven or a microwave, but I decided oven.



Casserole

Ingredients
noodles
chicken
milk (so you can eat it with the noodles)

Directions
You put it in a pan with water and boil it for probably an hour or two. You buy the chicken and make it. You grill it in the cooker and season it with pepper- with seasoning. That's it.




Brownie Colorful

When you put the frosting on, different colors come out.

Ingredients
sugar
brown stuff (I don't know what kind)
more sugar
frosting
sprinkles

Directions
I get the brown stuff and put it on. I get the sugar. I think it comes with eggs too. You put the sprinkles on.


Pie

Ingredients
sugar
sprinkles
pepper

Directions
Put it in the stove and when you bring it up, you're gonna eat it. And it's gonna be nighttime.




Brownie Cake

Ingredients
sugar
brownies
frosting
sprinkles

Directions
You need to put it in an oven for 10 minutes. That's all!






Smoothies

Ingredients
ice
strawberries
milk
blender

Directions

The blender mixes it up. It turns pink when you blender it.



Banana Milkshake (with lemon)

Ingredients
bananas
oranges

Directions
Bananas, put it in the blender. Get some oranges, put it in and it's finished. When you put it in the blender, it mixes up and it doesn't turn bitey anymore, it turns squishy.

I liked in Junie B. Jones when...

Each day we set aside time to read a chapter or two of a book.  I started out with the Junie B. Jones series as it is well-liked and has engaging story lines.  Each chapter there is a black and white picture, but most of the imagery takes place in our own heads.  We talk about characters, settings, and plots and revisit our favorite moments often.  We even reference parts of the stories during the day, laughing about what Junie B. did or reenacting a moment with our friends.  

Someone mentioned making our own Junie B. Jones book, so we started small.  I posed the question to the children about choosing their favorite moment and writing about it.

When she was on the crutches.

When she screamed, "Where's the stupid smelly bus goin' to?"

When she got squished on the bus.

When she liked the fruitcake.

When she went in the baby's bedroom and said, "I'm gonna be the boss of that baby!"

When she went to the crutches.

When she had a fire.

When she was in the baby's room and said, "I'm gonna be the boss of that baby!"

When she screamed, "Where's the stupid smelly bus goin' to?"

When the teacher took the fish stick.

When the grandma brought in the fish.

When she got left in school.

We turned this into a book showcasing everyone's interpretations of the same question.  If the interest is still there, we might make our own Junie B. storyline!

"It looks like guacamole!"

During and after making our leaf rainbow, we had questions.  Each day we would discuss our questions as a group to figure out what we might have already known about them.  I mentioned what I knew, but we would often go to the internet to help understand as much as I/we could.

Why do leaves turn pink?

How do leaves change color?

How do they change shapes?

What do they do when they’re grown up?

What are those black spots on them?

Where does the water go in the leaf?"

In discussing the anatomy of a leaf, we understood what the vein, stem, and points were in the leaf, but had a harder time with the idea of the blade of the leaf.  The blade is the flat "skin" of the leaf.  We then saw leaves with missing blades and used that example for our understanding.

This is an example of a leaf with the blade starting to disappear and veins holding it together.

Another question we wanted to know about was where the water went when it came through the stems.  I explained how the water was distributed and then we did an experimentation of our own.  Soft, fresh leaves were floppy and moist.  Moist leaves had water in them.  We gathered some of these leaves and tried to wring them out.  That did not work, so we smashed them.

"It looks like guacamole!"

It is very hard to "see" the water in the leaves, but it is a lot easier to see it on white paper.  What was very exciting was the milkweed leaves we found. As soon as we pulled them off the plant it started to leak.  We broke the leaf down to the vein and saw the liquid distributed all the way through!

This is a leaf with a disease.  We cannot catch this disease.  This disease does not kill the tree, but other diseases might be able to.  

By analyzing the different types of leaves, we come to an understanding of how plants work.  Veins are an important piece of a leaf.  It brings water to the blades.  The blades change color because the tree is preparing for winter.  The packages of color called chlorophyll break down because tree needs to focus on protecting itself.  Leaves will come again when the sun is stronger and the weather is not so cold.

As always, thanks for reading!

"How do leaves turn pink?"

 This question came to me from a Kindergartner on Thursday.  It couldn't have come at a better time.  After discussing/drawing rainbows, watching the leaves fall, and using them for recess creations, I knew taking a closer look at them would be the next step.

I took a walk that night and collected leaves from the neighborhood.  My thought was to start with the idea of discussing leaf color.  It is the season!  

We spent meeting time using our senses to describe the leaves I found.

"They feel fluffy."
"It is as smooth as my pants."
"I see lines in it."
"This leaf is soft in the middle and starts to get crunchy at the tips where it is brown."
"It smells good like outside and I like the smell of outside."
"It kind of smells like apples."

From there we discussed my idea of sorting the leaves by color.  As soon as I mentioned my idea, someone asked me about making a rainbow.  A big rainbow!  As big as our rainbow table!  We went to work sorting leaves.  After looking at them as a group, we saw there were mostly 8 colors.  The leaves started with green, then yellow, orange, red, and brown.  How did they do this?  What made them change color?  I started the conversation of trees preparing themselves for winter, so the packages that create the green color (chlorophyll) we see start to break down. This can be easy to see in the patterns around the edges of the leaves.  This will take more conversation as time goes on, but there is a "kindergarten friendly" explanation here.














During our sorting process we found leaves like this.  How did this happen?  What made them like this?  We put them in a separate "I don't know" pile.  Leaves like this provide examples of unique color changing to explore sometime later.

After sorting we realized we needed more colors.  Our yellow pile was full, but our light green and light orange was pretty empty.  We went on a hunt.  We knew from experience that our playground was full of leaves so we started there.  Outside we found many brown leaves.  It was a lot harder to find what we needed.  We ran around and searched each corner.  At one point, there was a gust of wind and the leaves came to us!

We came back and sorted more.  I carefully measured paper to cover the rainbow table and get the right shape.  We made a plan to make lines on the paper as a guide and a chart was made to help us when we were ready to glue. The "leaf rainbow" was not like a normal rainbow you see in the sky.  This rainbow shows us the way leaves change color.  Starting out with green, they turn yellow, red, and then turn crunchy and brown.

Following the guide, we got to work.

During this process we got a chance to take a close look at leaves.  We have started on a reference for colors, shapes, and general make-up of the common leaves we might see in our neighborhoods.  This time we categorized by overall color.  What about sorting by leaf size?  Shape?  Amount of veins?  Stem length?  And what are the purposes of each attribute?  There are many things to talk about when it comes to the world around us and simple things like a leaves.

Go on a walk through your neighborhoods and take advantage of the great learning opportunities in nature!