Digital Movies!

The students worked with the digital technology program animation-ish today to show what they learned about the sun from our ice cube experiment.  Each partner group created several slides of a melting ice cube that was either in the sun or the shade.  They used these slides to create a movie of their melting ice cube.  They looked so comfortable on the laptops and were great problem solvers while using this new program!  Check out our work!

Aidan and Alli's Ice Cube in the Shade

Carter and Molly's Ice Cube in the Shade

Charlie L and Caroline's Ice Cube in the Sun

Charlie S and Michael J's Ice Cube in the Sun

Claire and Eric's Ice Cube in the Shade

Connor and Lauren

Jake and Keira's Ice Cube in the Sun

Maddie and Grant's Ice Cube in the Shade

Michael S. and Grace's Ice Cube in the Shade

Sophie's Ice Cube in the Sun

Here Comes the Sun!!

Yesterday our scientists set out to explore how the sun affects the weather and to learn more about it's "job."  We set up an experiment in our courtyard to see what would happen if we placed some ice cubes in a shady spot and some in a sunny spot.  The children had a fabulous time searching for the differences between these two sites.  We used the mimio pen to drag some facts that we learned from our experiment into the appropriate section of our venn diagram.  This helped us to think about all that we learned while observing our ice cubes.

Each table group had a photographer who took pictures of our ice cubes in both the sunny and shady spots.  

 

 
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Look for our animation-ish movies coming soon!!!!  We used a digital technology program to show how our ice cubes melted in both the sun and the shade.

Using the Thermometer

The students learned all about using the thermometers this week.  We explored the thermometer and talked about how it measures the temperature (how hot or cold something is).  The students then practiced using the thermometer by placing it in ice water, room temperature water and hot water.  They loved seeing the red shoot up on the hot thermometer!  They practiced reading the thermometer to the exact degrees and talked about the colors on our thermometer that can be associated with different temperatures.  Here are some pictures that the student photographers took during our explorations.

 
 
 

What is Weather?

The first grade students spent some time sharing their thoughts on the question, "What is the Weather?" They practiced using our digital cameras and the application Photo Booth (on the computers) while videotaping their peers.  Check out our slideshow of their responses below!

Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.



After looking at weather pictures and items brought in from home we had a great "Science Talk" about weather. We realized that weather is how the sky looks and feels. Here are some of our developing thoughts about weather!

                         What is Weather?

• Weather can be hot or cold.  This is the temperature.
• Weather is what is happening in the sky and the air around us.
• Weather is the things we feel outside like wind and temperature.
• Most weather comes from the clouds.
• Weather can be sunny, cold, rainy, wind, etc.
• The stuff that happens in the sky.
• Every place has weather.
• It is hail, rain, sun and snow.

Weather collages made from the items brought in from home.

 

 

Fungi, Fungi Everywhere!

To conclude our collecting and examining life unit, the children learned about fungus.  They learned that different fungi such as mushrooms and mold are living things.  We collecting mold spores on bread to create our very own mold farms.  We then provided our mold farms with a moist, dark environment.  The children took pictures of their mold farms using both the digital camera and proscope to compare the different kinds of mold that we found.

  

  

We found green mold, black mold and some white mold.  Some of our mold was also "fuzzy" looking!




Here are pictures of our mold under the proscope digital microscope:

More Plant Parts!

After learning about leaves, the children learned about roots, fruit and seeds. We learned that the scientific definition of fruit is any part of the plant that contains seeds. We talked about how this is different from what we typically think of when we hear the word "fruit." We looked at many different types of fruit and dissected them to look for seeds. We then compared many of these seeds with seeds that we brought in from home. The students watched a short YouTube video on how seeds travel. They then sorted their seeds based upon how they predicted that they would travel from place to place. Finally, we placed both a lima bean seed and a corn seed in a warm moist environment to see what would happen!
To conclude our learning about plants, we dissected flowers to find the different parts of the plants that we have learned about. The students took pictures of their flowers and flower parts using a digital camera and the digital microscope. These are becoming very comfortable using both of these technologies to enhance their learning!
During the next few weeks, the students will be completing a performance assessment in the LMC to show what they have learned about plants and their parts.  They will use the pictures that they have taken with the digital camera and proscope to complete this project!  Check back often to see these projects!

Here are some of the pictures that the students took:

Our Flower!

Petals from our flower

Our Petal under the digital microscope

Leaves with digital camera

Pistil with Digital Camera

Pistil with Digital Microscope

Stamen with Digital Microscope

Stamen with Digital Camera

Stem with Digital Camera

Leaves, Leaves, Falling Down!

The students recently spent some time observing leaves during our Collecting and Examining Life Unit. We preserved leaves from our fall wild walk for this special activity. The students worked in small groups to sort our leaves by various attributes.


Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.

Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.


Our little scientists are quickly becoming experts on using our digital microscope (proscope) to make observations about living things. They looked closely at our leaves and recorded some of their observations. Check out their thoughts below!

Untitled from Julie Cowen on Vimeo.

This activity helped the children to learn that leaves and flat in order to collect sunlight that is then turned into food!