Prediction Experiment with Forces!

15 May, 2018

As we dive deeper in to all the amazing things we have learned this year, we are also learning how to perform experiments like real Scientists in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab. This time, we got to use forces to conduct our experiment, but what we were really practicing is making Predictions!

Ms. Gillis explained that Predictions are when you take all the wonderful information you already know, and make an educated guess about what will happen! Since we just revisited Forces and Motion, we got to predict how far Ms. Gillis's toy bus would travel along the floor of our classroom. Ms. Gillis showed us how far she would PULL the bus back. If she only pulled it back a little, we knew it wouldn't go too far because there wasn't a lot of energy, and we always knew it would stop at some point because the force from the carpet, (FRICTION) would bring the Bus to a stop every time!

We gathered around the room and saw the smily faces on the ground. We predicted what color smily face the Bus would get to, and then we got to conduct our experiment and see if we were right! We learned that it was okay if we didn't Predict correctly, that is part of being a Scientist!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

How Does Rain Form?

7 May, 2018

In the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab we got to conduct a fun experiment to really explore how Rain forms! It was also a great introduction to the Water Cycle as well. We learned how water changes from a liquid to a gas, and then when it goes up high in the clouds, it cools back down in to a liquid, and becomes water droplets! Then, when the clouds get too heavy (because liquid is heavier than a gas) it rains! We loved getting to watch it happen in our experiment!

Since we are also getting so great at writing, Ms. Gillis wanted to have us work on taking notes about an experiment, like a real Scientist! We wrote about what we saw happening in the experiment, and then we discussed how we can use this information to let us know it is going to rain when we look up at the clouds!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Cottonball Clouds!

3 May, 2018

As we dive back in to the world of Weather we are exploring the clouds in the sky. Did you know there are 4 different kinds of clouds? We do now! We got to create a fun art project using cotton balls to recreate the different types of clouds. We worked on saying the name of each type of cloud, but more importantly, being able to describe the different types of clouds!

Take a look at our amazing Art Projects! Ms Gillis was very impressed:

Then, after finishing our art project, we discussed how we can observe the different kinds of clouds in order to find out more about the weather! Next class, we will get to conduct an experiment to see how rain forms from clouds!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Revisiting the World of Weather!

30 Apr, 2018

Since we already have learned about Weather this year, we are going to dive deeper in to the learning about all the different parts, and practice conducting experiments using the Scientific Method! First, we talked about how we measure weather by using a thermometer. Since we are still learning our numbers, we first learned how to decide if it is very hot, hot, warm, cold, very cold by checking where the red line is on the thermometer. This is a great way for us to start learning how to read a thermometer while we learn our numbers.

Next, we got to discover that there are 4 main types of clouds we are focusing on. We didn't realize there was any difference and loved making an art project with our table! We had to collaborate and cooperate as will to be successful with this art project! Take a look:

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Finding Forces all around Us!

23 Apr, 2018

This week, Kindergarten got to put all their knowledge to the test by doing a Playground Scavenger Hunt to look for the Forces all Around them!! What did we do?

We all got clipboard and a piece of paper with 3 categories: Push, Pull, or Both!. Then, we got to explore our playground to see how many forces we use to play on our favorite things! We wrote down our findings, and then came back to the classroom to share. We really put our critical thinking caps on for this one and showed Ms. Gillis just how much force we use every day! Take a look:

and

We are learning so much!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Jump back in to the S.T.R.E.A.M.!

12 Apr, 2018

We are revisiting the world of Forces and Motions by exploring other forces besides us! For instance, did you know Wind can be a source of force and can cause motion in objects? We got to explore this by experimenting with Balloon Rockets!

First, we discussed our problem: How can we get the straw on out string from one side of the string to the other, WITHOUT touching it? We tried blowing on the straw, we tried raising one side of the string so gravity would be the force pulling the straw down, and more! We were very inventive. Then, Ms. Gillis introduced a Balloon, and asked us how we can use a Balloon to help get the straw across!

Our ideas were:

1. Use the balloon to help one side float up high so the straw slides down to the other side of the string using gravity!

2. Have the balloon tied or taped to the straw to help the straw float to the other side.

3. Tape the balloon to the string and let the air escape to help it move from one side to the other.

4. Tape the balloon to the STRAW and let the air escape to help it move from one side to the other.

After exploring all these ideas, we saw how effective (and quick) our Idea #4 worked at getting the straw from one side of the string to the other!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Have A Great Spring Break!

23 Mar, 2018

Since our Parent/Teacher Conference Week is next week, we will not have any more Enrichment Wheels until we return from Spring Break!

When we do, we will dive back in to the world of Weather, Pushes and Pulls, and the Effects of the Sun!

Stay Safe and Keep Exploring!

Ms. Gillis

Did our Flowers Change Color?

14 Mar, 2018

After letting our flowers drink the colored water for a week, we went back to check on our experiment. Look at our results:

We saw that part of the flower was changing color! This really helped us see that the flower drinks the water and then the water travels up the stem to reach every part of the flower, even the tips of the petals! We loved this experiment!

We also got to take a look at our Plant Need Experiment one last time, because we could finally see the roots growing in the soil! We saw how the roots helped the grass grow tall and it looks so healthy. See for yourself!

Next, we will wrap up our Living Things unit and when we come back from Spring Break, we dive back in to the world of Pushes and Pulls and Weather to learn even more about different forces! How how the world "force" can mean so many different things in nature!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

How Do Plants Drink Water?

9 Mar, 2018

Since we have been learning about the needs of a plant, and experimenting with those needs, it is time to dive even deeper and learn the "how" behind what plants do! We are going to start with water, and focus on how a plant drinks water!

First, we all had a discussion of how we think plants drink water with our tables, then as a class! We have learned about the roots of a plant, and how they live in the soil. We decided that when we pour the water in our pots, the water is soaked up by the soil, then sucked up by the roots to every part of the plant!

Now time to test our theory! First, we got White Carnations (flowers) to use in our experiment. We also got food dye that changed the color of the water to blue, green, red, purple, orange, and yellow! Then, we gave our flowers a fresh cut and put them in water. We can't wait to see if they suck up the color in the water, and where it ends up! We will know where the water travels in the plant by where the color goes!

Some friends think the plants will stay white, some think they will change colors! Some think they will have spots or stripes. We can't wait to see what happens!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

My Living Thing and Plant Explorations!

23 Feb, 2018

Kindergartners have been working hard in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab! Not only did they all get to choose a Living Thing to focus on as we demonstrate our learning (by drawing all the needs and characteristics that make it a Living Thing!), we also got to start a fun experiment with PLANTS!

Each class discussed what the NEEDS of a plant are. We all decided that in order for a plant to survive it needs: Air, Water, Sunlight (which is its food!), and soil). Then each class decided to take away just one need from their plant to experiment if it can still survive without that need! What did each class decide?

Ms. Whitehead's class decided to take away water!

Ms. Overlock's class took away sunshine!

Ms. Underwood's class took away water!

Each class has two plants - one that is getting all the needs, and one that is getting all the needs minus the one they decided to take away. Now we learn patience as we wait to see what happens!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Living vs. Non-Living

14 Feb, 2018

After exploring the world of Living and Nonliving things, we got to learn about what all Living Things NEED to survive!

We came up with:

-Food

-Water

-Shelter

and

-Air!

We explored how living things will use all these 4 needs differently. For instance, we talked about how animals eat food to survive, but not all animals eat the same food! Some animals eat plants only (herbivores), some animals eat only meat (carnivores), and some animals eat both (omnivores)! Then, we really put our thinking caps on and thought about what a plant eats for food! We had a lot of great answers but weren't quite right. We thought about the needs of a plant, and knew sunlight was very important to all plants. Maybe sunlight is what it uses for food! Next up, we get to pick a living thing (person, dog, frog, tree, or flower) to draw and write all about them!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

The World of Living and Non-Living Things!

9 Feb, 2018

This week, Kindergarten got to dive in the world of what is Living and what is Non-Living. Most of our students thought that it meant when you are alive you are Living, and when you pass away you are considered Non-living. They were surprised to learn that they mean something different! When I told them there are Living and Non-Living things in our classroom, they tried to figure out just what that meant. So, we had a group discussion of what it means to be "Living". After they came up with amazing answers like, "Things that move", "They need water", "They eat food", we started to explore what it meant to be a "Non-Living" object. Here is what we came up with!

After our group discussion, Ms. Gillis handed every student a card with a picture of an item that was either Living or Non-Living. Each student got to come up, present their card, and put it under the section they thought it belonged. Guess what, every Kindergartner got it right! We were so proud of ourselves, and Ms. Gillis was too. Take a look:

and

Next up, we will get to explore more about what Living things need to Survive. We can't wait!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Time to Test our Shade Shelters!

30 Jan, 2018

Last class we got to build our Sun Shelters. We decided that we needed to make sure our shelters have one main thing: SHADE. If our ice cubes have enough shade, they will hopefully take longer to melt since the hot Sun is not beating down directly on them! While we were building our shelters, we got to take them outside to check if it would cover our ice cube using a fake ice cube Ms. Gillis made. If we decided there were any changes to be made, we got to fix it right then before our experiment on Friday!

Check out one of our Designs:

Here we are testing with our pretend ice cube to make sure it is ready for our experiment:

Since this fun project marks the end of our Fun in the Sun S.T.R.E.A.M. Unit, we also got to make take home Read-Along books that tell us all about the Sun! Read it with your child tonight to see what they have been learning about in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M Lab throughout the year.

Let's Get Building!

25 Jan, 2018

We have been learning a lot about the Sun and the affect it has on the Earth! Now, it is time to become Engineers and put all this new knowledge to the test!

First, we got to have a class discussion and come up with different ideas to answer the question, "How can I protect my ICE CUBE from melting if I put it outside in the Sun?"

Every class decided that we need to build something that will give the ice cube shade or shelter from the sun. We thought about building something that would cover the ice cube like a box, or just a wall that would block the sunlight. Then we got to use Maker's Space materials to practice building our shelters and seeing what would work and what doesn't work for when we get to build our real shelters!

Next, like any great Engineer, we got to make a blue print (drawing a picture) of a shelter we will be building in the following classes. What is the goal of our shelter? To protect us from the Sun and, specifically, to reduce the affect of the Sun on the Earth's Surface! We have some rules to follow though:

1. Make it unique! Don't just build an umbrella, how can you make an umbrella even better?

2. Use our materials responsibly! If we plan ahead, we can make sure we don't waste our resources.

3. Have fun! It isn't about making it look "perfect", it is about making it "perfectly unique"!

We can't wait to see what we come up with!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Time to Experiment with Earth's Materials!

19 Jan, 2018

Now that we have learned about the affect of the Sun on the Earth's Surface and made observations about Earth's Materials, it is time for an experiment!

What did we do? We started off by gathering the 4 Natural Resources we observed and discussed last week: Sand, Soil, Water, and Rocks.

First, we learned how to mark the starting temperature of each material. Then, we put all the materials outside for about 30 minutes, and brought it back in to observe if the Sun was able to raise the temperature! It was so fun seeing how quickly the Sun heats things up. We all worked on making predictions too of what material would heat up the most. Most of us guessed water or sand, and guess which one it was...

ROCKS!!!!

We loved getting to conduct an experiment and putting our Scientist hats on. Next stop, we will work on creating a design to help reduce the affect of the Sun on the Earth's Surface, just like an umbrella does at the beach to the sand underneath it.

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

What do you See? What do you Feel?

16 Jan, 2018

In order to prepare for our Earth's Materials Experiment next week, we learned how to make observations about the things we see and the things we feel with Soil, Rocks, Sand, and Water!

We used Magnifying Glass in order to observe the surface of the Earth's Natural Materials. We made observations about the colors of the materials, the texture of the materials, the size of the materials, and more!

Next step, we get to test the Effect of the Sun on Earth's Natural Materials!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Sunlight on the Earth's Surface!

16 Jan, 2018

For our first week back from Winter Break we got to start a new Unit to help us learn all about how the Sun affects the Earth's Surface!

First, we needed to learn about all the different natural materials on the Earth's Surface so we can study how the Sun affects different materials. We decided to focus on these 4 Natural Resources:

Sand

Soil

Water

Rocks

We learned that the Sun heats up the Earth's surface, and it gives us warmth. Without the Sun, we would be so cold! Without the Sun, we decided we probably wouldn't have plants either which wouldn't be good because they help us get the air we need to breathe! This helped us understand just how important the Sun is to all living things. Then, we got to put our new knowledge to the test by mapping out a pathway we would take if we were barefooted at the pool and wanted to get to the other side (to an Ice Cream Truck!). What would we look for? We would look for shade, puddles of water since the water would cool the Earth's surface, and grass because it would be cooler than walking on pavement. We loved getting to work with partners to figure out the best pathway to avoid the hot surface from the Sun!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Forces with Flubber!

18 Dec, 2017

Since Winter Break is right around the corner we are going to get to conduct an Experiment in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab this week! In honor of our Forces & Motion unit we will get to make FLUBBER by using all different kinds of forces to mix the ingredients up! For example, we can shake the bag to mix the ingredients, we can squish the bag, we can push/pull the sides together and apart to help it mix, etc. We will then determine which force is best to use to complete this experiment! Best part? We get to take the experiment home! But we know we need to leave the bag closed and can only open it after asking a teacher and/or parent!

Have a fun and safe Winter Break!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Forces & Motion

11 Dec, 2017

As we dive back in to Pushes and Pulls, we are reviewing the vocabulary we use when talking about Forces and Motion. Words like: PUSH, PULL, MOTION, FORCE, GRAVITY, SPEED, FRICTION, DIRECTION, and more!

We are learning how to use these words to describe the motion of an object. We also learned about big machines that are used all over, like the Excavator! We then stepped in to the minds of Engineers and thought about a machine we would love to create to help us with something in our lives. Some ideas were to create a machine that cleaned our rooms, walked our dogs, ate our vegetables for us, and so much more!

Next up, we will get to conduct different experiments to give students an opportunity to play with all different Forces and Motions. Students will also get a chance to create pathways that allow objects to move, help objects stop when they are moving, and make objects move in all kinds of directions.

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Weather Watcher Experiments!

5 Dec, 2017

Last week our Kindergarteners had 2 experiments to show them about different kinds of weather! First, we mimicked how rain falls through a cloud when it gets too heavy using a big glass Mason Jar, Shaving Cream, Water, and food coloring! We learned how to be patient while waiting for the rain to come through the clouds! We also learned about all different types of clouds and how they look different. That way as we continue to be Weather Watchers throughout the year we know when a storm is coming!

Next, we got to make "Snow" in our Mason Jars! We used Shaving Cream and Baking Soda and sealed our jars up tight. Then, we got to all take turns shaking jars and see the snow form! We also got to use some of our senses for the experiment. We touched the jar to feel the reaction (it was so cold!), we got to smell the "snow", we got to open up the jar to look at the snow, and then we got to hear the sound of the snow as we were shaking the jar! What a fun time with Weather!

What's up next? We are revisiting Pushes and Pulls before Winter Break comes!

Keep Exploring,

Ms. Gillis

Check this blog out to learn about what is happening with Kindergarten in the S.T.R.E.A.M. Lab throughout the year.

Create your website or online store with Mozello