Mystery substances

The time has come for the children to put their five senses to the test with a real actual mystery!

I brought in a jar filled with a mystery liquid.  I wanted the children to think like a scientist to learn more about this mystery substance. 

I let the children know that they would use my mystery substances to create their own experiments.  First though, they had to get to know what materials they would be using.  We will be looking at three total.  Here is what they said about this blue liquid.


Sight:

• blue
• liquid
• water
• gargling water
• gatorade

Hearing:

• ocean
• echo

Smell:

• vinegar
• yucky
• poison
• honey
• glue
• nasty
• salty

Touch:

• cold
• water

Have you figured it out?  It's vinegar!  I added food coloring for effect later when experimenting.


Mystery Substance #2

Sight:

• yellow
• liquid
• apple juice
• honey
• butter

Hearing

• By this point, there was an understanding that the echo sound the children heard was the classroom noises getting trapped in the jar.  

Smell:

• funny
• ok
• lemon lime
• yucky
• pizza dough
• oil

Touch:

• greasy
• liquid
• honey
• sticky
• butter
• wet
• weird

Did you figure it out yet?  Vegetable oil! 

Mystery Substance #3

Sight:

• milk
• sugar
• flour
• powdered sugar
• white

Hearing:

• no sound

Smell:

• powder
• nothing
• flour
• wind
• sugar

Touch

• soft
• powder

And the mystery substance is...... baking soda!

I think you can tell where I'm going with this.  The next steps are for the children to come up with a plan/procedure for a mixing experiment.  I haven't given them any clues as to what will happen when they mix two of these substances together.  They will hopefully find it out on their own in the next few weeks.

Using the 5 senses

If you've asked your children what they've been working on in science recently, hopefully they've mentioned the 5 senses.  We dedicated time to using all 5 of them the past few weeks.

This week they put their skills to the test.  I brought out an item and told the children to play along with me.

"Pretend you don't know what this is."

I asked them to pretend they've never seen it before.  I asked them to not use the word.  If they pretended they had never seen it or knew what it was, they wouldn't be temped to use the word when describing how it smelled or tasted.

How did they describe this "mystery thing?"  Here are a few examples of their work:

What is an author?

Over the next few months you might be hearing your children mention names like Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, or Mo Willems.  These people are prolific children's authors that our class will be studying.  The first name on the list is Dr. Seuss.

I started out with a classic.

Most of the children were familiar with the story.  Some of them could even recite certain passages.  I started off with simple questions:

• What happened in the beginning of the story?
• What was the name of the person who visited? 
• Why did he feel that way?

I then asked questions that would help the children become more aware of Dr. Seuss' patterns of writing:

• What did you notice about Dr. Seuss' words in this book?
• Who were the characters?
• What is the setting of the story?
• Why do you think he made this book?

Through the discussions of his books, the children have noticed some patterns of his writing.

1. He likes to rhyme.  In most (not all) of his stories he rhymes.

2. He invents characters or creatures that aren't real.  He also uses nonsense words to mean real things.

3. He likes to teach children.  With his use of rhyming, opposites, easy-to-read words, and repetition, the books are a fun way to learn new things.

4. He makes books that are fun to read. When he started writing children's literature, he saw that a lot of the books were not entertaining.  The children can agree that every time I started reading one of his books, they were all watching and smiling. 

Next up: Mo Willems!

Balance

The last of our science tools rounded out last week with the introduction of a balance scale.  Measuring concepts like weight and capacity can be hard to understand, so I put it into easier terms for the group.  

This comparing activity got the children used to the balance scale.  One side weighing down indicates the heavier object.  We talked about a seesaw on a playground.  Would they want to seesaw with an elephant?  

The next day the children took this concept further by weighing objects.  How many kangaroos (small counting kangaroos) does it weigh?

There are, or course, many other tools we can use to investigate the world around us, but this is where we will officially pause.  We will use more tools as the year progresses, but this helped the children understand the respect needed for using something purposefully as a scientist.

Next up- the 5 senses!

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!