Science Centers and Leprechauns
/The excitement was palpable in our classroom this week! On Monday students designed blueprints for their leprechaun structures. Some students opted to create traps while others decided to create homes or playgrounds. Students planned out the lists of supplies they would need to create their structures. During project time each morning our engineers have been hard at work turning their two dimensional blueprints into three dimensional structures. On Thursday students added finishing touches to their structures and completed a writing prompt about their design ideas before St. Patrick's Day on Friday. On Friday morning when we arrived at school students were surprised to find a giant mess in our classroom! It seems that some mischievous leprechauns visited and left behind a trail of mischief in their wake. We didn’t catch any leprechauns, but we found some golden chocolate coins left in our leprechaun structures! During content time this week we read books, watched videos and explored hands-on science centers. Our students splashed, examined, squished, and weighed a variety of types of matter. At the water table students examined bubbles and tested materials to determine whether they would sink or float. At an ice center students used magnifying glasses to examine large blocks of ice. They were testing their ideas to see what would cause the ice to melt fastest. At the computer station students examined rocks under a microscope and used a balance scale to calculate their weight. They made predictions and tested their ideas about which rocks would sink, which would float, and discussed why. Students had some robust discussions as they debated whether oobleck was a solid or a liquid. Our explorations with gak encouraged many students to revise their previous ideas that solids can not be squishy or soft. In our outside classroom we were delighted to discover that the water pump has been turned on for spring. Engineers were overjoyed to be back to create sand and water pathways.
