Science is All Around Us

On our first week back from February break, we launched right into an exciting new science unit on Force and Motion.  This hands on unit captivated the children's interest right away with a challenge to use the forces of PUSH and PULL to move a stuffed animal on a vehicle with only the following materials: a string, a ruler, a block, and a book.  Have a look...

As you can see, "wind" was soon discovered as a source of a push force and gravity was also employed as a pull!

Later in the day, some motivated friends decided to use our marble track and the force of gravity to make an "automatic chimer"- meaning there would be no need for me to strike our chime with the mallet anymore, I would simply drop a marble down the track and ...ding! What a group effort- check it out!

Adding more science to our week was this month's Farm to School lesson about the medicinal and relaxing properties of mint tea.  Here you can see Miss Meg explaining how mint can be added to a salve to sooth the skin.  You can also have a look at myself and one student breathing in deeply to clear our stuffy noses while tasting the tea.

And concluding our week, but kicking off our March sharing theme of signs of spring was Ms. Freeman with her Forsythia branch for us to observe opening right in our classroom! Thanks Ms. Freeman, we'll be checking on it daily.