Sound Experiments

This week in science our focus was energy. We discussed light, heat, and sound energy and how they can change things.  We did some really fun experiments this week to explore these forms of energy. 
For heat energy we used an air popper to see what would happen as corn kernels were heated.  It was quite tasty! For light energy we taped a cut out shape  to a piece of construction paper and then put it in a window toward the light.  After a few days we realized that the construction paper that was not covered by the shape faded from the light.  For sound energy we discussed vibration and how a faster vibration creates a higher pitch and a slower vibrations makes a lower pitch.  We  had a lot of fun exploring percussion instruments this week. Here are some of the pictures from our exploration!  

Color fun

We have learned a lot about color over the last few weeks. I especially loved all of the experiments we were able to do with color. Look below for some of the highlights! 

Here is our shaving cream and primary colors experiment!! Before 

Here it is after!  They loved making all the secondary colors.  

This one took some time but we were amazed to see the paper towels move the blue water and the yellow water into the center cup to create green water. 

Students used their science journals to record what happened when they mixed color water together in different ways.  I loved hearing all of the "WOW's" with this one! 

What fabulous scientist they are already becoming! 

Sharks!!

We have been having so much fun learning about fish and sharks. We listened and watched several videos about different types if sharks and their adaptations and attributes. For example, did you know that the hammerhead shark uses his head to steer in the water. They also use their rad to pin rays and other animals down so they can eat them.  

After lots of learning we made these adorable sharks and wrote down some of the awesome fact we learned! 

Kindergarten Cars

A few weeks ago during our motion and movement unit we had our first ever Kindergarten Car Derby! They had a really fun time racing their cars down the ramp.  We learned a lot about which cars did well and why. We also thought about ways we could alter our cars to do better in the future.  Here are some highlights from that fun event. A special thanks to all the parents for supporting their child and helping them with their car at home.  They were fantastic!

Racing Cars 

Look at all of our fabulous creative cars!! 

A lot blurry, but these were our top finishers! 

Zachary and Kate are racing down the hill

Parts of a Seed

We have been learning recently a lot about the things that plants need such as food, water, sun, and air. This week we started looking to see what happens when a seed starts to grow. We soaked some lima beans in water overnight. After they had soaked we were able to easily open the seed and find the baby plant, and stored food. We had a lot of fun exploring our seeds.

New Science Materials

We have some really exciting news in our classroom!! I submitted a project to a website called www.donorschoose.org a few weeks ago, and thanks to Chevron's Fuel for Schools Program we just received some wonderful science materials for or classroom. I can't wait to use these in our classroom.

Absorption of Heat From the Sun

For our experiment we wanted to find out if a cup of water covered with black paper would be hotter or the same as a cup of water covered with white paper.   Some of the students suggested that their wouldn't be a change at all, but others thought that the cup with black paper would absorb more heat from the sun.  We measured the temperature before our experiment and then set them out into the sun for about an hour to see what happened. 

 

This shows the temperature before and the temperature afterward.
We noticed 3 degrees difference. 

When we brought them back in we used a thermometer to measure the temperature of both cups.  The black cup was 3 degrees warmer than the white.  We learned that a darker color will absorb more heat from the sun.  

Columbus Day and Science Fun

This week we had a lot of fun talking about Columbus Day.  We read books, watched a movie on Discovery Education, and learned a fun poem.  The students made their own Columbus Day scene that they will be bringing home next week.  (They wanted to bring it home today, but it was still wet)


Below is a video of the poem we learned.

In Science we learned that the color black is made up of all the colors of the rainbow.  We did an experiment with a coffee filter and a black marker to see if we could find the colors. 

They turned out pretty cool!!
Have a wonderful restful weekend,
Mrs. Smith