Our First Grade Garden

So these next few posts have been halfway done for awhile. I get the pictures ready on my app but then like to type using the computer. I finally finished them! 

In first grade, we plant a community garden.  This year, due to many factors, we only planted beans and radishes.  My class planted the back row of beans and the right side of the radishes. I don't think I got any pictures of the plants as they got bigger.  I will have to go back and check. 

In this next picture, it is a close-up of radish plants.  You can see the red part of the radish right at the soil. 

Below are close-ups of the bean plants. The tan things hanging on the stem just below the leaves are what is left of the seed. 

We also had a rain gauge. Students thought it was interesting to see how the rain fall could differ. 

Students would come outside and record using pictures and words the changes they noticed in the garden. We would often discuss what they saw. Also, at the end, students got to take home radishes and beans to eat with their families. They thought it was so cool to pick them!

Is it a worm or a caterpillar?

Guess what we found on the playground? Well we didn't know for sure at first either.  The students all had an opinion and so we did some research. This was a group activity.  Below is the Venn Diagram we did to decide if it was a caterpillar or a worm.  

After we did that, we did some research to find out.  We discovered it is actually an inch worm which is a type of caterpillar. The students each wrote about what they learned and we made the display below.  

How Many People Can your boat hold?

So there is this really fun and exciting experiment where students build aluminum foil boats.  Before they do, we talk about what a boat is and what shapes might be. After they have all built one, with no tape or glue, we put it in a tub of water and see how many people it can hold before it sinks.  The students love this activity.  I didn't get any pictures of the boats with the students this year.  If I think about it, I can post some from last year later.  The activity takes a long time but it is worth it in many ways.  We have to count each of the people which can be a struggle for some of the students (this year we did it at the beginning).  

After the students finished, we wrote in our science journals.  The students were able to record what they did and what they learned.  

We also had this chart with their estimate and the actual number their boat held.  When we finished, we discussed the best way to fold the boat so that it can hold the most people. 

Science Journal Pages

So I found a way so you can see what the pages in the journal look like. It's not the. Idea but it is pictures of the blank pages. Let me know if you like them and I can email them as a PDF. 

I took a screen shot of them in my pages app which is what I used to create it. If you have Amy questions about it, I would love to answer them for you. 

P. S. I do know how to add video and such but only when I use my computer which I am not currently doing. 

Our discovery!

So in case you didn't know, last year I got moved to first grade. I am still teaching first and I am loving it! Also, for the first time ever I stayed in the same classroom. This might not seem like a big deal but it made such a difference. I feel like I am finally getting more organized and my classroom the way I like it. 

Anyways, enough of that. I have a class with quite a few boys. I am trying to. Ale science and writing more fun. To do that, I created a science journal for them to write in when they are at the writing center. One person at a time can go to the science center and observe something and write about it. Sometimes we will do little experiments to put in there as well. I was going to buy science journals but they are too expensive and don't have everything I wanted. Here is what I developed ( I made this video for my sister but you get the idea): 

Ok well I can't put videos in using the app. Or at least I don't know how. I will try and add what it looks like later. 

Anyways, when my students were outside, working on doing filling out an observation for the first time, they found something. They had a huge discussion on whether it was a caterpillar or a worm. I was going to put a video of it here, but like I said, I don't know how. 

We talked about what we knew about caterpillars and worms and we made a Venn diagram. After that, we looked up some more information and watched the video of it moving. Then, each student drew a picture and wrote about what they learned. I put it all together so we could hang it in the hallway. Here is what the finished product looked like: 

They loved doing it so I got an idea. We are going to partner up and do little science research projects. We started today. They are really excited. They are going projects on birds, bats, owls or a combination. They are also deciding on how they want to represent what they find. I am trying this for the first time so we will see how it goes. Also, I am walking them through it. I hope it goes well. They are super excited.