Scientific Method

Hailey loves to do science experiments and she would gladly do one every day if I would let her.  I don’t want her to do experiments just for the sake of doing experiments (although that is fun too!) so I have been trying to help her see the purpose behind experimenting.  I started teaching Hailey about the scientific method and how that works with experimenting.  I found a really easy experiment to try to help her understand the scientific method.  We went through all of the steps as we did the experiment.

We had three glasses of water- one cold water, one room temperature water, and one hot water.  Then we had three effervescent tablets.  We asked questions, formed a hypothesis, observed what happened, got results, came up with a conclusion, and finally shared what we learned.

Hailey’s hypothesis was that the tablet would dissolve fastest in the hot water.  So, then we put the tablets in to test it out to see what would happen.  The tablet in the hot water dissolved the fastest, within just seconds it was gone.  The cold water took the longest.  It was a fun way to put the scientific method into practice!

Contraction Review

Hailey needed a little contraction review, so here are some of the fun activities we did to review:

We played a matching game.  First she turned over a blue card, which had the contraction on it.  Then she turned over a pink card and purple card, trying to find the words that made up the contraction.

The person with the most matches won.  Hailey really liked this game and requested to play it several times.

We made these, which are a great visual of contractions and how the first word always stays the same.

Here’s a look at one of the finished papers.  (Inspiration credit: Pinterest)

As a fun wrap up to our contraction review we did word surgery, using an idea I found at Buzzing About Second Grade.  Hailey (and Hunter too :-)) dressed up as surgeons to perform surgery.

Hailey getting ready to do surgery.

The surgeon at work.

Stitching up her patient (using a band aid as the apostrophe).

She performed several successful surgeries and really loved the activity!

Preschool in Review

So, what has Hunter been up to the last couple of months?  He still says that school is boring and he doesn’t want to do any school.  While Hailey does school I usually set up some learning type activities and manipulatives for him to use to keep him busy.  He thinks he’s just playing, but I know he’s learning 🙂  Here is a little sample of some of the things he has been doing:  (It’s funny to see him using a pacifier in some of the pictures since he finally gave it up back in the beginning of December.  I was beginning to think he’d have it forever.)

Hunter has a great time building with these.

He made lots of different towers.

Mickey and Minnie got to check out his building.

Using pegs to work on the letters in his name.

We made some cute turkeys back at Thanksgiving time and Hunter actually decided he would participate in a craft.

Everyone in the family had a turkey.  On the front is a little pocket.  We put little notes inside the pocket to say why we were thankful for each other.

Hunter’s turkey

Another Thanksgiving activity that Hailey did was to disguise a turkey as a pigeon.  Hunter wanted to make one too.

Hunter’s finished pigeon.

Hunter absolutely loves this book!  He was a little sad the first time we read it when I told him there weren’t any pictures in it.  But very soon he was laughing and really enjoying the book.

He worked on a train puzzle.

We set up a Christmas tree in our classroom.  (It was pajama day :-))

Hunter really enjoys the gears.

Practicing some cutting

Working on an ABC puzzle

So, even though Hunter isn’t doing any “school” these days, he’s been keeping pretty busy 🙂

Third Grade in Review

So, now that the holidays are all over I am finally getting around to finishing up posting about what we did at Thanksgiving time.  I am really going to work on posting things this year when they are actually helpful 🙂  But maybe someone can use this idea for next year.

After we learned about what life was like for the pilgrims, we learned what it was like to be a Wampanoag Indian.

I made this little wetu- the type of house the Wampanoag lived in.

Then we read If you Lived at the Time of Squanto and wrote down information that we thought was interesting and added it to our wetu.

Hailey made a book of facts about the Wamanoag using her 5 favorite things she had learned.

She wrote what she had learned and drew an illustration to go with it.

Hailey also made this cute turkey.  Then I had her write a paragraph about why she thought a turkey would or would not make a good pet.

From now on, I’m going to post things when we actually do them.  Promise this time 🙂