Fun Book Day

We had such a fun time visiting the library for a second time today for our Fun Book Day.  We earned this opportunity by getting six stickers during our scheduled library times.  Mrs. Horton awards stickers for classes based on their library behavior and if everyone returns their library books each week.  We were so excited and proud!  Mrs. Horton had some awesome books out for us to explore…lots of 3D books, I Spy and Where's Waldo books, some lift the flap goods and the most fun were yearbooks and photos from years past at Northview!  We loved looking at these books, especially all of the old yearbooks to see photos of Mrs. Kurt!  Many thanks to Mrs. Horton for always going above and beyond and for making our weekly visits to the library something we ALL look forward to!

   

   

   

   

   

   

How Do You Sink Wood?

Our investigation on Thursday was about how we could sink wood.  Most of our scientists expected that the samples of pine and plywood would easily sink to the bottom of the basins of water.  Only one problem…they didn't!  We needed to investigate and discover how we could make them sink.  Since Ms. Kieltyka was here, we were able to split up into two groups of scientists.  We examined the samples of pine and plywood and set off to work.

Since the wood samples did not sink, we had to figure out a way to make it happen.  One of the scientists suggested that they needed to "be heavy".  Great idea…but how could we do that?  We used paperclips for weight.  We added five paperclips to each sample of wood and attached them with a rubber band.  Surely this would make them sink!

   

   

But they did not sink.  They flipped over so that the paperclips were on the bottom, but no sinking.  So now we added five more paperclips to each wood sample.

   

   

   

   

Then things got interesting…the plywood sample actually sank while the pine sample was still floating!

We wondered about why the plywood sank but the pine did not.  Derrick suggested that it was because of the glue that is used to make plywood.  He was correct!  Now we had to make the pine sample sink. You guessed it…more paperclips!

   

The group working with Mrs. Kurt needed 20 paperclips to sink the pine.  The group working with Ms. Kieltyka needed 21 paperclips to make it sink.  As usual, we recorded our observations in our science notebooks and reported out to the group when we were done.

What Happens When Wood Gets Wet?

Today our kindergarten scientists investigated what happens when wood gets wet.  We made some predictions about what we thought would happen, and then set out to find out for ourselves!

   

First, we needed to get our lab coats and safety glasses on.

   

Then we had to learn about some procedures and gather all the materials we would need.  We needed a cup of water, an eyedropper, a sample of red cedar wood and a sample of particleboard.  First we learned how to use eyedroppers and  got to practice with them.

   

   

Next, we had to see what would happen if we added water, using the eyedropper, to the wood samples.  We did some observing…that means to look at something closely!

   

   

We gathered back on the rug to discuss our observations.  We had some really good things to share!

   

When scientists observe things during an investigation, it is important for them to record what they observed and then report their observations.

   

   

   

Many thanks to Ms. Kieltyka and Mrs. Radermacher for helping us out during our investigation.  We are excited to see what our next investigation will be!