Moon Craters

   In my kindergarten classes, we have been talking about the night sky and last week, we focused on the moon. How long does it take for the moon to orbit the earth and long does it take for the moon to go through all of its phases (29.5 days)? What are the phases? What does the surface of the moon look like? etc.

   First, we used Google Earth and Google Sky to explore the moon. We learned that the moon has mountains and craters caused by different sized asteroids. Brave teacher that I am, we decided to recreate the moon's surface using flour and cocoa powder (for color). First, I let them do it inside. Each group had a round container with "moon dust" and a selection of different size "asteroids" (balls). They were instructed to drop different sized asteroids from different heights to see how this affected the size of the craters. I have since created a lab sheet for this activity which will be posted in my TPT store. After a lot of fun and a huge mess, we moved outside! :)

Whole Brain Teaching

I feel like a groupie! None other than CHRIS BIFFLE is coming to my school tomorrow! Woohoo! I am actually excited about going back to school tomorrow for professional development. :) I have been using whole brain teaching classroom rules in my lab/classroom for four years and now we are using several whole brain teaching concepts at our school in some classrooms. If you have never heard of Whole Brain Teaching, I highly recommend checking out videos on you tube. It will change the way you teach and run your classroom forever! :)  http://wholebrainteaching.com/

Winter Sale and linky party!

Winter Sale and Linky Party with Second Grade Math Maniac!

Candy Fun!

I have been doing several candy investigations and experiments with the kids lately. We are putting those Halloween leftovers to good use! It is amazing what you can do with a bag of skittles! :) I will be posting more about the experiments this week. Great activities that you can use for science and math!

Where does the time go?

     I have been so incredibly busy this school year! We have done every experiment or activity that I could find for pumpkins the last month. We even have our own pumpkin patch and they are growing! We cut the top off of our pumpkins and put soil in. A week later they sprouted and two weeks later, we dug our trench and everyone put their pumpkins in and covered them with soil. The students even hammered in stakes and roped their area off. We are fertilizing them with compost tea we made last year. We have pumpkin memories we will never forget and some we would like to (right, Mrs. Bowman?). These two pictures tell it all...in the first photo, this student brought in the pumpkin size that she was told to bring in and that was stated on the note home. In the second picture, well, you always have at least one student and parent who defy all rules and requests! Yes, the pumpkin was so large, she said it was too heavy to carry to my lab, but she had no problem hurling into our sink/float station when our backs were turned. It sounded like Shamu was in the room! Everything and everyone was soaked at the surrounding area! :)

P.S. Do not forget the cyber Monday sale at TPT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Superlative-Science

Halloween fun!

Need some cool science demonstration to do for Halloween? Look no more! All you need is a raw egg, vinegar, and green food coloring. You can call it "Alien Egg" or "Monster Egg". Have students make predicitons of what will happen when you put a raw egg in vinegar. You can even talk about acides and bases. "What is vinegar, an acid or a base?" "What do acids do?" "What will acid do to our egg?" Place the raw egg in a beaker or glass of vinegar. Add food coloring and wait. Students can make several observations. After 24 to 48 hours, the egg shell will be gone and you will have the coolest looking "alien egg" ever! Your kids will be amazed!

Time Flies!

Wow, we are already at the end of October! The school year is flying by! We have been so busy in the lab, I am taking two classes, and I had the flu for 10 days... Unfortunately, I haven't had much time for blogging. Here are some photos of activities we have been busy with... 
First, we started off the year with our first unit "Mystery Madness" (school wide theme). I use GEMS Mystery Festival
along with my Mystery Madness Detectives unit.  Above is a picture of a first grade science journal. We studied fingerprints for a few days and now I think we know if everyone in the entire school is a loop, arch, or whorl! :) The students love solving mysteries and it is a great way to introduce the nature of science, inquiry,  and all of the science skills/tools we will be using throughout the year.

"Let's Get Physical" is our second unit of the year. We have been slimed, gooped, and we made alien eggs (very cool!) while learning all about matter and its properties. Both found in my Halloween Science Fun packet.  


My assistants: Forrest Gump, Lilo, and I are working on some new things right now, that we will be posting soon. :)


Forrest Gump

Lilo