Magnets

Magnets are something everyone in the class is familiar with.  The children see magnets at home all the time.  We took time this week to get to know magnets more and learn a bit more about how they work.

What does it mean to attract?  A simple experiment was done to show how a paperclip on a string can interact with a magnet wand.  At a certain point, the paperclip moves toward the wand.  We talked briefly about the force of a magnet and how it is invisible.

In doing this, the children could feel the effect of the magnet on the paperclip.  They couldn't see the force of the magnetic field, but they could sense it was there.  We talked about the word "attract" and experienced it in person!

Here are the children's drawings of their experience.

How have you used magnets at home?  

Eyedroppers and an experiment

This week the children did their first experiment.  I introduced the eyedropper tool and let the children test them out.  This was helpful for the next step.

How many drops of water can fit on a penny?

The children made quick guesses before they went in the hallway for a quiet area to test.

Do you have a guess?  This is an average representation of the results from the students.

Magnifying glasses

Last week I asked the children what they thought about scientists.  I was impressed by a general understanding that scientists are learners of the world.  By the end of these investigations the children will have different answers and ideas.  

In order to be a scientist you will need specific tools.  We looked at a variety of tools and the children signed a safety contract.  After that, they were ready to start using tools for their purpose.

I started out by showing the children some video clips of a few entomologists at work.  What does a "bug scientist" need to do their job?  Why would they need those tools?  In fact, what is their job?  How can using tools make their job easier?

One of the students mentioned a magnifying glass so we started talking about it.  We talked about how an entomologist could use a magnifying glass.  I then provided some guided activities for the students to get used to the tool and use it scientifically.

The first activity was a letter search.  What letter did they see?

I noticed how most of the children held the magnifying glass right up to their face.  We talked about how that actually makes things more blurry.  The children then were asked to find an item in the room that they would like to see up close.  They examined it and shared their findings.

If you'd like to see what your child did, come in the classroom and ask for their science notebooks!

What is a scientist?

To start off the first project of the year, I got the children's prior knowledge.  I wanted to know what they knew about what a scientist was.  I let them know whatever they knew would be fine.  It is the beginning of the year and my job is to help them learn new things.  At the end of our project we will compare their knowledge to see how much they have learned.  Here is what our class thinks:

"A scientist takes a bottle and makes it into another potion."

"A scientist is somebody that can do stuff that nobody else can do.  They do stuff that explodes like a volcano."

"A scientist is someone who makes bottles of things and sometimes they can explode and they're also geniuses."

"A scientist is somebody that makes potions to see what it can do.  It blows up."

"Scientists are great.  Learning is great.  They make new stuff."

"I don't know."

"It's something that collects dino bones and puts them together."

"A scientist is someone who makes special crafts.  If you add too much baking soda it will explode."

"A scientist would make a potion.  A scientist can be a boy or a girl."

"A scientist makes potions that is a cover for zombies."

"A scientist is brave and they like to explore a lot.  They learn about the past.  They learn about the animals.  In the old days they made houses out of straw.  They like to make inventions and sometimes electric.  Like they flew a kite with silk and a key.  Lightning came and got electricity.  The storm was getting close.  They were almost toast!"

"A scientist is somebody who looks for things and makes potions.  They find stuff out from a long time ago that people didn't even know about."

"Scientists make experiments."

"A scientist raises their hand."

"A scientist is when you have some fun and like when your scientist explores.  When you're being shy being a scientist in kindergarten you just have to be brave."

Welcome 2018-2019

Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year!

This is my classroom blog where you will find a lot of information regarding your child's time at Branch Line School.  I use this blog to explain the children's work with projects and provide links to other helpful pieces of information.  Spend some time looking around the blog to visit past projects, other classroom blogs (coming soon), and links you might be interested in learning more about.  

If you haven't visited (or would like another look) here is a tour of the classroom!

This is the reading space.  This is a quieter space where you can get comfortable with a good book.  Right now there aren't too many books on the shelf, but this area grows and grows as time goes on.

For now this is the drawing table.  After some time this will become the writing table.  Right now you can draw, write, and create.

This is the science area.  This is where you can investigate, predict, and explore by yourself or with a friend.

This big rainbow table is where I do a lot of my teaching.  I help kids learn in a lot of fun ways in small groups of 3-4 kids at a time.  You will learn more about this later.

This is the small group space.  This is where kids can practice teaching each other, learn together, work by themselves, and play games.  Here you can practice collaboration and independent learning.

This is the block area.  Here is where you can build, pretend, work together, and communicate with each other.  This is also where we have our class meeting times.

This is the snack table.  When you get hungry during the day you can pause and eat the healthy fruit or vegetable you brought to school.

Our classroom has our own bathroom.

On the left when you walk in is the water bottle station.  When you arrive every day, take your water and put it here so you can grab it whenever you're thirsty.

Those are the most important things I could think of for now.  I can't wait to meet everyone!