Students worked on classifying, sorting, and describing solid shapes today for science. They described them by color, shape, size, texture, etc. We will be working more this week on learning specific vocabulary and concepts related to solids and liquids.
This uninvited guest spent the morning in our classroom, and was affectionately named "Charlotte" in honor of the book we were reading at the time. The girls were excited to try out their new drawing techniques, and I was just happy to get rid of the spider by the end of the day.
On Monday we did a lesson in science using whirlycopters. These paper creations are similar to helicopters and the seeds that fall from the maple trees. Students loved comparing the different copters, and I hope you had fun with the three versions at home. 
Last week our expert, Mrs. Randle, left us some agar plates to conduct our own experiments. The students picked three places in the school to swab and see if anything grew on their plates. Here are their results. 
This is the plate from the bathroom urinal handles.
This is what grew from the floor swabbing. 
Here is the swabbing from the walls around the building.
She brought in some agar plates that she had set up for us yesterday. On one, she had rubbed her hand on the bottom of her shoe and then placed her dirty hand on the agar. Then she washed her hands thoroughly and placed her clean hand on the other plate. Here are the results:
This is the agar plate with the handprint after washing her hands. It did not grow anything.
Students also made observational drawings of the agar plates and also of the microscope that she brought in. It had all the same pieces and parts as the microscopes we use here in the classroom, except it was biocular and an oil immerison microscope.
Students enjoyed looking at the prepared slides that our guest speaker brought to share. She also showed us a website that had animated characters that looked like real germs. The children really enjoyed seeing them come alive.
We are entering phase two of our project about "Germs". Today the students learned about the importance of handwashing and how easily germs are spread. I had received a germ glow light kit from Mrs. Bastin that has a bottle of fake germ powder that glows under a black light. We used this kit for our exeriments today.
Mrs. Laudadio brought in some new critters to our classroom this week. We have quite a few caterpillars making a home here. They eat dill weed, and are getting fatter every day. One has started his pupa stage already. These caterpillars look very similar to Monarch Butterfly larvae, but they are fact another butterfly variety called an Eastern Black Swallowtail.
Today we said good-bye to our butterflies. We had 9 caterpillars spin chrysalises, and we waited patiently for them to emerge in the butterfly pavillion. Five of the butterflies were released today, but unfortunately not all of them survived. The students were very excited to crawl inside the tent with the insects. They loved seeing them up close.
Today we started our FOSS kits and our new unit on insects. Each student received 3-4 mealworms to keep on their table area. We will be watching to see what changes occur over the next few months. (Don't tell them if you know what's going to happen.) We made lots of observations today and noticed our mealworms have segments, six legs, and either mouthparts or antennae. We learned that they need air, water, food, and space to live. Students will be documenting their observations in their science journals as we progress through this unit.
Today for science we went on a Weather Scavenger Hunt. We looked for items on our list such as "where rain has washed away soil" and "something that could be carried by the wind." Students are really enjoying the fact that we are able to do more lessons outside due to our lovely recent weather. I think it is supposed to rain this week though, so we may have to enjoy what we can now.
Whirlicopters are like little paper helicopters. Students made 3 different ones and we designed several experiments to test their flight patterns. We learned about variables and how important it is to be consistent. There were so many things that could impact the results of our tests. We explored the effect of various copter materials on descent time, and set up and conducted scientific tests using a control, making predictions, observing and recording tests, and drawing conclusions.
We read the Eric Carle book Hello Red Fox for our author study, and as usual the children loved it. It is a story of a birthday party that shows that things are not always what they appear to be. This book is filled with characters that change colors before your eyes--a green fox turns red, a yellow butterfly, purple, and many, many more. It uses an optical illusion phenomenon called complimentary afterimage 
Congratulations to our science fair participants! They did an excellent job of researching and learning about a new topic. We were all so interested in their ideas, and the students, eagerly listened to their presentations. I am very proud of you all!
We planted an amaryllis bulb this week that one of the students gave me as a Christmas present. It was a great science lesson as we discussed bulbs and plants. Students predicted how long it will take for the flower to bloom, and we recorded our guesses on a chart in the science center. I know the students are anxious to find out what it will look like once it matures. We will also be measuring the stem as it grows and keeping track of its progress.
