Ah, our first Holiday of the year. I've got to admit, I'd rather the holiday come on a Friday. I need my Monday afternoon time to run copies and cut foldables and organize my room. I hate having Monday off.
Drill Team Practice started up this week. We're practicing the Finale dance from the first Pitch Perfect movie right now. Hopefully we'll be ready to go for the first pep rally (not that anyone knows when that is...)
This week was a bit crazy. Some things I got better at, others I'm slacking on. It's such a delicate balancing act.
Tuesday
Scientific Method Lab
Which side of a penny holds the most drops of water? This lab was mostly to get them familiar with the steps of the Scientific Method. They actually did pretty well for their first lab.
The only problem came when I asked them to do average. Most had no clue how to find the mean of 3 numbers. Apparently I was a little overly ambitious with that concept. To compensate, I had them order their 3 heads measurements from least to greatest (21, 23, 24) and then circle the middle one. We used that as our "average." Same for tails.
Tips:
1. Put the penny in a pitre dish or similar plastic container.
2. Hold the dropper at an angle and rest it on the lip of the pitre dish
3. Hold the bulb of the dropper at a constant pressure, don't squeeze and release (helps prevent air bubbles)
Wednesday
I put my kids in pairs and had them do a comic strip that showed them doing the scientific method.
First and second period, I just told them to come up with a question. They were having a hard time, so I wrote questions on sticky notes and passed them out for the rest of the day. This worked much better.
Questions:
Which will take longer to burn...a 70ct notebook or a 100ct notebook?
Which pen can write the word "science" the most number of times (until ink runs out)...blue, black, or red?
Which car will roll further when rolled down a 2m long ramp...hot wheel or dump truck?
Which popsicle stick will burn the longest... regular wood or green colored wood?
Which brand of trashbag holds the most single sheets of paper...Target brand or Walmart brand?
Which battery lasts the longest when inside a flashlight...Duracel or Energizer?
They actually turned out pretty great. I had them writing good hypothesis' and steps to their procedure. They came up with some good fake data and revisited their hypothesis.
Next year, I might have them write out a question I give them, do their own hypothesis and procedure, then give them some fake data tables to interpret for their data. Some struggled with inventing fake data.
Thursday:
My kids took their quiz on the Scientific Method today. I also quizzed them on the tools we studied Friday. I wanted them to know which tool was used to measure mass, weight (force), temperature, and length, and the units for each. They also had to know what to do in each step of the scientific method.
They struggled on it. I need to revisit my scientific method graphic organizer and explicitly say what happens in each step instead of just a real example.
Friday:
We began our first REAL unit! Properties of Matter! Just like last year, our first day is Vocab. I gave them fill-in-the-blank vocab squares and they had to draw a picture for each.
Drill Team Practice started up this week. We're practicing the Finale dance from the first Pitch Perfect movie right now. Hopefully we'll be ready to go for the first pep rally (not that anyone knows when that is...)
This week was a bit crazy. Some things I got better at, others I'm slacking on. It's such a delicate balancing act.
Tuesday
Scientific Method Lab
Which side of a penny holds the most drops of water? This lab was mostly to get them familiar with the steps of the Scientific Method. They actually did pretty well for their first lab.
The only problem came when I asked them to do average. Most had no clue how to find the mean of 3 numbers. Apparently I was a little overly ambitious with that concept. To compensate, I had them order their 3 heads measurements from least to greatest (21, 23, 24) and then circle the middle one. We used that as our "average." Same for tails.
Tips:
1. Put the penny in a pitre dish or similar plastic container.
2. Hold the dropper at an angle and rest it on the lip of the pitre dish
3. Hold the bulb of the dropper at a constant pressure, don't squeeze and release (helps prevent air bubbles)
Wednesday
I put my kids in pairs and had them do a comic strip that showed them doing the scientific method.
First and second period, I just told them to come up with a question. They were having a hard time, so I wrote questions on sticky notes and passed them out for the rest of the day. This worked much better.
Questions:
Which will take longer to burn...a 70ct notebook or a 100ct notebook?
Which pen can write the word "science" the most number of times (until ink runs out)...blue, black, or red?
Which car will roll further when rolled down a 2m long ramp...hot wheel or dump truck?
Which popsicle stick will burn the longest... regular wood or green colored wood?
Which brand of trashbag holds the most single sheets of paper...Target brand or Walmart brand?
Which battery lasts the longest when inside a flashlight...Duracel or Energizer?
They actually turned out pretty great. I had them writing good hypothesis' and steps to their procedure. They came up with some good fake data and revisited their hypothesis.
Next year, I might have them write out a question I give them, do their own hypothesis and procedure, then give them some fake data tables to interpret for their data. Some struggled with inventing fake data.
Thursday:
My kids took their quiz on the Scientific Method today. I also quizzed them on the tools we studied Friday. I wanted them to know which tool was used to measure mass, weight (force), temperature, and length, and the units for each. They also had to know what to do in each step of the scientific method.
They struggled on it. I need to revisit my scientific method graphic organizer and explicitly say what happens in each step instead of just a real example.
Friday:
We began our first REAL unit! Properties of Matter! Just like last year, our first day is Vocab. I gave them fill-in-the-blank vocab squares and they had to draw a picture for each.
That's all, folks! Week 3 done and gone. I can't believe we're about to have our first progress report come out! Before I know it, it'll be Halloween.
Hope you're having a great new year!
~Ms. Kat
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