Scientists at work

Friday afternoon mad scientists buzzed from laboratory to laboratory doing amazing experiments. By the end of the day, it looked as if a tornado hit the school, but the only actual explosions were explosions of laughter.

Bravo to Will’s class for being great teachers. They researched experiments to do with the other classes, tested them, and revised them. On Friday, they were ready to helped the younger children discover the excitement of Chemistry.

Thank you to Mrs. Carpenter and her class for the weird scientific snacks.
Also, thank you to Mrs. Carpenter for making “lab coats” and “mad scientist" photo ID for everyone.

Weekend Event

Ruth Marks, Amelia's mom, is displaying her art at the River Gallery in Chelsea. Her work will be displayed in the 2nd floor gallery. A woodworker, Michael Kapetan, will have his sculptures on the first floor. The show’s opening is this Saturday, January 24th form 5-8 pm but the show will remain up through March 8th. For more information about the hours and location of the gallery, visit www.chelsearivergallery.com.

Pippi

This month, I am reading Pippi Longstocking by Lindgren, Astrid to the class. In just three chapters, we have already had many laughs at Pippi's antics.

More Chemistry

Friday morning, we went to Will’s classroom and listened to Tom Lehrer’s element song. If you would like to hear the song or listen to it with your child, you can find the link on Will’s classroom blog, http://ms-sk.blogspot.com/. Llistening to the song, the children discovered that they already knew some element names: gold, oxygen, helium, and carbon dioxide.


You may have already heard about the experiment we did Friday afternoon but if you didn’t here is what we did. The children were given a question: Will the temperature of the water change the time it takes the tablet to dissolve? Working in groups of 3, they used basic scientific principles to discover the answer. First, they predicted what would happen.


Then they conducted the experiment: they dropped an antacid tablet in hot, cold and room temperature water. The children had to measure the temperature of the water, use a stopwatch to time the reaction time, and record their results. The last step was to draw a conclusion about what they observed. All the children came to the same conclusion: the hotter the water the faster the tablet dissolved.




Coming events:
Friday, January 23 – MAD SCIENTIST PARTY
Will’s class is preparing chemistry experiments to do with Susan and our class. To make the day more exciting we thought it would be fun for each child to have a lab coat. If you, or some one you know, has any old lab coats they would like to donate, please let me know. Thank you.

Friday, January 30 – SCIENCE FAIR
Each class will be presenting a chemistry related project to the other classrooms. Our class will be making a poster board that explains one of the chemistry experiments we did during the month.

The Science of Change

This month’s theme is Chemistry. It may sound like a lofty topic for a K/1 class but due to the hands-on nature of this discipline, it is actually very suited for young children. During this chemistry unit, the children will study substances and the changes they undergo. They will have numerous opportunities to experiment with different types of substances and compounds. They will make mixtures, separate mixtures, and cause chemical reactions. While experimenting, the children will be introduced to the basic scientific principles: predicting, questioning, observing, recording, and drawing conclusions. Sound like fun? It’s bound to be very exciting for everyone.

During the month, the children will hear about early chemists and chemistry theories from the ancient Greeks to Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern Chemistry. We will also revisiting September’s theme (Careers) to see how people use chemistry in their work.