Making Sense of Our Senses - Our beginning scientists, the Junior Kindergartners, are warming-up by identifying the five senses people use to explore the world around them. Through discovery- oriented experiments, demonstrations, and group activities, we will focus on developing and utilizing these collective powers of observation. The students will learn how our senses are the most important scientific tools everyone carries with them all of the time and will discover that being a scientist begins when you ask a question about what you see happening and changing around you. The magical world of the Quirkles will be the first stop we make to practice using these observation skills. The Quirkles is an enrichment series of stories that capitalizes on young children’s innate love of hands-on science. Each letter of the alphabet begins a story that explores a simple scientific concept in an exciting and fun way. Challenging experiments and related activities follow each reading to enhance the individual experience. The first story features “Andy Acid”!
Exploring the Human Body - Our Senior Kindergartners will begin exploring how various body parts work independently and collectively. They will discover that the human body is a complex and versatile organism and that dozens of systems coordinate to perform the myriad operations that we require of it all of the time. This unit will address the skeleton, muscles, heart, human brain, and digestive system that work together to power the body. As the students observe and investigate the human skeletal and muscular systems they will become aware of the versatility of movement provided by our skeleton. They will gain experience through the use of diagrams and hands-on activities and experiments that will help them develop an awareness of human body structure and function. In addition, they will be challenged by acquiring new vocabulary associated with each system introduced.
Nothing Ever Stays the Same - The First Grade is beginning a new and challenging unit entitled, Changes. They will be investigating the myriad of changes that affect their daily lives. The concept of the three states of matter will be introduced as the students explore the unique properties of each category. The students will learn about mixtures as they combine different sets of solids and liquids, observe the changes, and discover how to separate the mixtures, using the processes of filtration, sieving, evaporation, and chromatography. The class will have many opportunities to predict results, plan and perform simple tests, and analyze, interpret, and discuss the results. They will begin to recognize that change is a constant in our world.
Becky Rehder
Science Specialist, JK-First Grade