Phases of Matter - Liquid

2nd grade students at RES have been studying phases of matter. Two of the 2nd grade classes I have worked with generated questions/wonderings they had about liquids and wanted to test them out. It was amazing to see the difference in the questions generated by both classes. One class focused more on the freezing of liquids and the other focused their questions more on the mixture of liquids.

The questions generated by each class were put into a graphic organizer for the students to discuss, test, and make their observations.

The graphic organizer below, focused more on the changing of liquids to a solid by freezing them. We live in Connecticut and this experiment was done during the coldest week we have had in a long time. So we used that variable to our advantage. We made two sets of liquids and placed one outside and one in the freezer over night. Students checked out their liquids in 15 minute intervals throughout the day and discovered that most liquids, except the oil, were frozen within 90 minutes.

The next day when we worked on this experiment the students tested out their predictions to see if they were correct. In the "What happened?" column they made their notes or drew a picture about what they observed.



In another 2nd grade class had the same theme for our experiment, but used different questions to test out and observe. The questions that were generated are in the picture below and we selected five questions to test out.

Once we narrowed down the questions to five we put them into a similar graphic organizer (see below) to record our data. We supplied the students with all the materials they needed and put them into five different rotating stations. The observations the students made and the discussions that happened during this experiment were amazing and the discussions that happened during this experiment.

The next day I went into the classroom to complete our science notebook entries. Up next the classes, which are next door to one another, are going to use FaceTime to share their data and observations.

Blog for Liquids

Adaptations and Skype

Our 3rd grade students at RES have been studying adaptations during science. They have done experiments and read tons of non-fiction text during this unit. Mrs. Blessey's class had the opportunity to Skype with a Yellowstone Park ranger and discuss animal adaptations in their park. The students read up on Yellowstone Park using non-fiction books from our school library, as well as some links from the Yellowstone Website (see below) and play a WolfQuest game.

Animal Alphabet Book

Windows Into Wonderland

The students really put in a lot of hard work to researching the animals so they were able to ask strong questions about the park. It was an amazing way to wrap up the unit on adaptations. Check out the link below if you are interested in participating. It was an amazing experience for our students and a great way to be connected using technology!

Yellowstone National Park Skype link