Sci-Fri!!!

Hey sweet friends!!  It’s Cara from The First Grade Parade!  I don’t know why, but every year I’m amazed at how much kids LOVE Science.  They get SO excited to explore and experiment.  I think it’s SO important to keep their curiosity and love of science nurtured.   This year, my fabulously creative team leader came up with a fun idea to make sure we keep the kids excited about science.  Her idea was to do experiments with the kids EVERY Friday and we’ll call it SCI-FRI!!!  Do you love that or what?!?!  Major props to sweet Nancy for this fabulous idea!!    My kids absolutely DIE for SCI-FRI!  The first thing they ask me Friday mornings is, “What’s our sci-fri experiment today???!?!”  They love it!  And they’re already such little pros with the scientific process…they’re even using some really great science vocabulary when we’re experimenting!  LOVE IT!!!! 

Our first Sci-Fri experiment of the year revolved around Gobstoppers.  I had to leave early that Friday to take care of a little sickie at home, so I didn’t get any pics.

We did a fun little bubble experiment a couple of weeks ago and the kids went NUTS.  For this activity, we mixed glycerin and water to make a bubble solution.  Then we had our grade level moms make a class set of construction paper bubble blowers for each room. 

We poured the bubble mix into little dishes and soaked the blower for a few seconds.

We had the kids predict what would happen each time we dunked the blower into the mix.  They finally came to the conclusion that the bubbles would be bigger and better the wetter the blower.  We blew bubbles and told the kids to observe what happened when they landed.  Of course, they popped.  Then we asked what would happen if we touched the bubble with our fingers.  Of course, they popped again! 

When we asked them what would happen when we wet a straw and poked the bubble with it, they were SO not expecting the result…

How fun is that?!  They were SO not expecting the straw to go right through the bubble!!!  We came to the conclusion that when bubbles come into contact with wet surfaces, they don’t pop as easy!

 

Last week, we did a science experiment involving food coloring, milk, qtips, and dishwashing liquid.  The kids were nuts for this one, too!

We poured a little milk into a petri dish and set it on a white piece of construction paper {to see the colors easier}.  I dropped a little drop of each color into the milk…close to the center of the dish…and asked the kids what would happen if I dipped the qtip into the middle of the food coloring.  They predicted the colors would swirl together. 

Notsomuch.  The colors pretty much stayed in the center of the dish.  Not a whole lotta mixin’ goin’ on there.  SO…I asked them to predict what would happen if I wet my qtip and dipped it into the center of the dish. 

They predicted the colors would disappear.  HA!  As you can see, that didn’t happen either, but they did spread just a bit.   Then I dipped my qtip into some Dawn dishwashing liquid and asked what would happen when I put it in the food coloring.  They predicted the colors would wash away. 

That didn’t exactly happen, but you should’ve seen the colors SHOOT from the center to the side of the dish in an instant!!  It was AWESOME!  The kids LOVED it!!!  Of course, we had to do this several times because it was seriously the coolest. 

{I should mention that we used a new petri dish each time we conducted the experiment.}

One of my little smarties said, “This is kinda like when we wash our bodies.  When our bodies are dirty and dry and you try to clean it off with a towel or something, nothing happens.  When you clean it with water, just a little dirt comes off.  But when you wash with soap, the dirt just washes away!!!”  Ohmiword.  Kiss your brain!

These were both such FUN experiments and we’re looking forward to a year full of more and more!!!  Sci-Fri is quickly becoming my favorite activity of the week!!!  Each time the kids do an experiment, they complete an observation sheet to add to their Science journals.  I love to see their excitement when they talk about these experiments to their friends.  As much as I love Sci-Fri’s, I think the kids love them even more!!!

I’d LOVE to hear about the fun things you do in your classroom to keep your kids excited about Science!