To get our brains working we played Riddle me this 'What am I?' I gave them the clue "I have a siren on top." No guesses. I added "Sometimes I am black and white." Student 1: "A zebra?" Teacher: "Do zebras have a siren on top?" Student 1: "No. (giggle)" Student 2: "A panda?" Teacher: "Do pandas have a siren on top?" Student 2: "No, that's silly." I added "I am driven by a person who helps you when you have someone break into your house." Guess almost in unison "A police man!" Teacher: "Do police men have a siren on top?" Students: "No." Teacher; "What does a police man drive?" Answer: "A police car!"
We then guessed the riddle: "I too have a siren on top, I am usually red, and sometimes my people help get kittens stuck in a tree." Guess "A fireman." Teacher: "Do firemen have sirens on top and are they red?" (Giggles) "It is a firetruck." The last riddle was easier for them to guess. "I have a siren on top and I take people to the hospital."
Thursdays are our Science days so we did a couple of cool science experiments. Firetrucks and firefighters prompted the question, "Why do firemen close doors after they extinguish a fire in a room?" This question lead right into our experiment question, "What happens to a lit candle when a glass jar is placed over it?" After reading the question and giving the students time to think, I took each student aside and had them state their hypothesis (this is to encourage individual thinking and hypothesizing). One student thought that you would be able to see the fire, the other thought that the "fire would run out".
We gathered our equipment: a tea light, matches, a baby food jar, our recording sheet, and a pencil. I lit the candle and placed the jar over the lit candle and we watched with baited breath. The one student immediately stated, "I was right, we can see the fire!" and she was right!
After a minute, the oxygen started to run out, the flame flickered, and finally went out. The second student declared, "I was right, the fire runned out!" and she was right! Now with both of the students' being right (at one point in the experiment) how did we know which hypothesis answered our question?
We tried the experiment several times just to make sure our findings were consistent. After four or five tries we decided that our findings were consistent each and every time. The fire could be seen for a while and then it ran out.
During the experiments my little scientists discovered a couple of very interesting facts (we decided that they were facts because they happened every time so they were consistent!). As we watched the flame, the students discovered that the bottom of the flame was always blue, then it turned a clear orange a little way up, and finally on top the flame was brighter and they decided it was yellow. Even the flame on the match followed the same color pattern. The second discovery was that as the flame ran out of oxygen the clear orange part disappeared first, then the yellow part on top disappeared, and finally the blue part of the flame disappeared. I learned something new!!
All of this learning and thinking and we were hungry. For snack we made firetrucks! We had an instruction sheet to follow and the students made adorable firetrucks to eat, found at http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/edible/firetruck/.
We used 1 & 1/2 graham crackers; strawberry cream cheese (4 oz. cream cheese softened; 1 Tbs. strawberry yogurt, 4-5 drops of red food coloring); left over candy hearts for sirens; string cheese ladder; small Ritz crackers with cheese wheels; and a pirouette cookie for the fire hose. During snack time we discussed why firefighters close doors (stop oxygen from going in) so the fire doesn't burn in the room any more.
Outside we used our hula hoops to practice our jump rope skills. It is getting to be a real skill; meaning that it is getting to be a fluid motion and not a three step stop-and-think process. For fun we set up a runway with the cones and rolled our hula hoop down the slide and hoped that it would stay on the runway. Most of our tries the hula hoop didn't even make it to the second set of cones before veering off the runway. We decided that we would never fly in a hula hoop because they went off the runway!
Our second science experiment of the day was to learn about how hibernating animals knew when it was time to stop hibernating. I adapted an idea from http://www.hummingbirded.com/groundhog-day.html. I cut a bear shape out of newspaper in place of the groundhog. I folded the paper bear in half and laid it gently on the warm water and the bear opened up. We talked about how the warm weather wakes the sleeping animals and then they know that hibernation time is over.
Since it was getting warmer (some days) and we needed the hibernation cave space for other projects; we woke up all of our hibernating animals and put away the hibernation cave. Next time we do a hibernation cave, I will start with the covered card table and then when the students lose interest in playing in it we will move the hibernation cave to a smaller box so the animals can get all of their rest, the will not be woken early, and we will have the extra room. (The student at the top of the page had a naughty frog jump on her head while we were cleaning up. After this picture was taken,
the frog was put on the calming chair with the calming jar to help it focus. It was nice to hear the students repeat what they have learned.)
The homework assignments were: to do a firetruck craft from http://dbsenk.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fire-truck.jpg; help the car get to the gas station in a car maze from http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/Shape_Mazes/car-maze-2.html; color and read a firetruck reader from http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/2012/09/peek-at-my-week-fire-and-freebie.html; and do their Book Buddy Bag.
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