Materials in Our World

We began a new unit of study this week called Materials In Our World.  We started out doing a shared reading exercise in Writing Workshop with Ms. Kieltyka called Are You A Scientist?  Through this shared reading, we discovered that scientists observe, compare, and report.  

   

After reading and discussing this part of the book, we concluded that we are scientists!  And if we are going to be scientists, we need to look like scientists!  We got these lab coats from the Northview Science Lab and set out to work!

We divided into five research teams.  We began by observing five types of wood samples.  They include basswood (from the linden tree), cedar (from the cedar tree), pine (from the pine tree), plywood and particleboard (both types of man made wood).  Then we compared the wood samples and reported what we found on our data sheets.

   

We gathered back together and talked about what we had observed.  On Friday, we went on a wood hunt.  We hunted around the classroom to find things made out of wood.  We made lists on small white boards then made a big class list.  You wouldn't believe how many things we found!

   

   

   

   

Like real scientists, we took some time to report what we had learned.  We wrote about the wood samples that we compared, telling how they are the same and different.  We are excited to do move investigating with wood next week.  Stay tuned...