I have a few things from the first few days to post at home, but I wanted to go ahead and post what we have been doing this week in Science because it has been so much fun.
In Science this year, we will have a question to answer and learn about each week. This week's question was "Does A Rock Grow?". When we first started to look at this question, we weren't really sure. We have seen big rocks and small rocks, so maybe so...On the first day, the children were asked to draw something that grows. They had great responses! Several chose baby brothers or sisters and many chose pets and flowers. Great thinking!! Then I showed them pictures from their first day of school last year to prove that they grow and change as well!
As we spent more time learning about things that grow, we learned that living things need air, water, and food to survive. We decided that rocks don't need those things, and came to the conclusion that no, rocks are not alive.
We also had a little help deciding from Cookie Monster. The children loved this video and I promised I would share it so they could watch it at home!
After we decided that rocks do not grow, we began exploring the terms living and non living. Cookie Monster helped us learn that living things all breathe, grow, and eat. We decided to use that criteria to sort things into two groups : living and nonliving.
Each child was given several cards and asked to decide and explain where each one should go in our sort. I challenged a few of them asking "Well a bike moves, so is it alive?" or "My TV really looks alive when I am watching a show, is it alive?" and the children responded that it doesn't grow, eat, or change so it must not be.
Observation and living things are a big part of First Grade science, so we will be exploring this more as the year goes on. I hope this will be one of the children's favorite topics!!
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