End of the Year Memories!

Hello Science Friends,

We have been busy this week working on our Memory Books. It's been nice to have the time to work on this between all of the end of the year events. I was able to introduce each page and talk to the kids about what we would be writing about. I was surprised to discover that in an entire year my class liked Science the most. It was a great discussion when we got to the page about our favorite Science experiment. As we brainstormed and discussed which Science experiment would be considered our favorite. we quickly learned that it was hard to narrow it down to just one. We decided to each write about something different so that when we shared our writing we could all remember the Science fun we have all had.

I knew rocks would be at the top of the list. We had a lot of fun investigating rocks this year. Earlier in the week the children asked me to copy some more rock investigation pages and I was happy that they were asking for investigation recording pages as they discovered new rocks. As I came to work today, someone (thanks Mrs. G) brought me a package of these to go with our investigation recording pages. I was walking by and we were talking and I put the rocks on my desk. When I finally sat down and actually read the package it finally hit me that these were CHOCOLATE rocks! The best part is that they look completely real, no kidding. I guess our last rock investigation might just be the best! If you want to try and find some chocolate rocks head to your local Wal Mart.

Another favorite investigation was what we call The Cave of Darkness. We did actually make complete darkness. We learned how to work through inestigation steps together. This was very early in the year but it made a lasting impression. It was one of my favorites too! We even got out our Science Notebooks and looked to see what we had recorded.

It makes me sad that Sience and Kindergarten will soon be ending. We have had fun and we have learned a lot. I guess it is time to start looking ahead and brainstorming some new investigations!

Cave of Darkness!

Hello Science Friends,

We previously posted about our Light Scavenger Hunt and since that hunt we have been busy preparing for our next investigation. I needed some inspiration to get this investigation going so I turned to Sid the Science Kid for help. As a class we watched several of the Sid Investigations on Light and Shadows and I asked the children to vote on our next investigation. What we decided to investigate was Sid's Cave of Darkness. Since we knew about light sources, we were interested in this investigation. We viewed the Cave of Darkness investigation several times to determine what materials we needed, we even went back through the video clip to list the materials and count them and we had to discuss and plan for alternate materials. The children were in charge of this investigation process and I was the recorder. 

We determined that our sand and water table would be a good structure to use for the cave base. We decided this because the children did not think we had enough blankets to cover a regular table. 

We took turns adding blankets one by one. 

We worked together on our design. 

We became pretty good about using positional vocabulary to help cover the cave. 

We saved the biggest blanket for last to cover up all of our blankets... smart idea!

We turned off the lights and searched with our flashlight for areas where light would enter into our cave of darkness. We adjusted our cave design and then we took turns one by one going in... The room was almost silent as the first brave person went inside. We wondered if they would be scared. We wondered what they would see. We listened as they told us which areas that light was creeping inside the cave. We relied heavily on each others oral directions and you just can't imagine how precise some of the directions were. I was amazed at how much position and location vocabulary words were used to repair our cave. It took about seven tries before we were able to really create our cave of darkness and then we did it! Each child went inside one by one and experienced total darkness. As each child was inside, another child was outside using a flashlight asking if the child inside could see the light to the left, to the right and so on. I have to admit I was getting a little curious and wanted to go inside too!

This is what I saw... total darkness! I can't believe it worked! We did it! While I was inside, I could hear the children directing me to look for light sources everywhere but none could be seen in the cave of darkness. I started to think it was kind of peaceful in there. I guess I stayed a while because I heard a few children asking me if I was ok in there! Once our experiment was over we had to have some notebooking time to record our observations and experience.

This is exactly what our investigation looked like inside and out. What a vivid observation!

Another great observation! I was not afraid either!

We all agreed that planning our own investigation was fun. We learned a lot about investigation design and how to work together and communicate like a Scientist. We now can say we have experienced total darkness and it wasn't so scary. Total darkness is simply the absence of light!

So now you want to try your own Cave of Darkness? I knew you would so click HERE for the lesson plan. If you want to see how Sid and the kids did it? Just click HERE and go to investigations and then look for the clip Cave of Darkness!
PS. I soooooooo want to be Miss Susie!