What does a Scientist do?

Let me begin by saying, "I love Science!"  I especially love to teach science to first graders.  Maybe it is because everything amazes them or maybe it is because I actually have the answers to their questions, who knows, the main thing is "I love Science!"

This is what we have been up to in science for the first few weeks of school:

What does a Scientist do?

I began by using the posters created by Deanna Jump,  they are perfect for introducing the scientific method in simple terms for first graders.

Next, let me say how much I also LOVE my document camera!

So we have been talking about the 3 states of matter and also doing color review, so this little project is perfect to combine the two.

I used clear cups with the three primary colors and then asked the question, "What will happen if we mix blue and yellow?" I ask students for their hypothesis and then we test their hypothesis.  They ooh and aww as they see, live and in color on the big screen, green magically appear!  I continue the same routine and make orange and purple.

The finale for this lesson is the little experiment I saw on Pinterest, (another thing I LOVE!)

 This project absolutely amazed me!, (oh, and the kids too!)  I started with blue water and yellow water, tore a paper towel into 2 strips and then stapled the 2 pieces to make the middle.  I put each end into the water and then placed the center into an empty cup.  I knew the towel would turn green in the middle, but I actually wasn't expecting the cup to fill with green water!  You should have heard the kids as they watched the yellow and blue climb up the towel, and then the next morning when they saw the final results.

And because we do rotations every day, I got to do it again with another class and we made orange!  For whatever reason, I tried to make purple 2 different times.  The first time we ended up with blue in the middle and a little purple on the towel.  The second time we ended up with a dark red in the middle.  Weird. I'm sure it must have something to do with the amount of food coloring.

Finally, along came fun Friday and it was time for my kiddos to get to play, I mean experiment, with making their own colors.

My favorite part of this was of course listening to the kids ooh and aww as they made their own colors.  I actually laughed out loud when I heard one of them tell another,  "Look, I'm a scientist!"

Gotta love it!

 

        

I hope everyone is having a great year!  Happy experimenting!

Until next time.....

Deanna