How Do We Use Soil?

Expanding the little soil disks.  You can buy these at Walmart in the gardening section.  A great way to start plants!

Planting lima beans and sunflower seeds.

Now we wait.

Settling Cups

PM settling cups 
How are they different than this morning?

Settling Cups

We made settling cups today by adding 3 types of soil to water.  Then SHAKE!  We are waiting until 1:00 this afternoon to see what they will look like then.  We think some of the materials will do what Kool Aid does...dissolve in the water.  Some students think the larger particles will stay the same.  We shall SEE!

And now we wait....

What's Left?

28 days of school left!  What do we have left to accomplish?  In math we are going to continue on fact fluency.   We will do 2 more units of study:  3D shapes & fractions.  I have several Text Talk books to complete with the students, so they will learn 18 fabulous new words.  In science we are in the middle of our earth materials unit.  Students have learned about properties of rocks & are working on soil right now.  We will finish up with water.   Hopefully, we will have a little time for some dinosaur fun before it's all over!


Officer John Bauer was here on Monday, April 16 to talk to students about community helpers, making good choices and the consequences of bad choices.  Of course, we had a LOT of questions!



Study of Soil

What is soil? 

Where can you find soil? 

Is all soil alike? 

Where do you think soil comes from? 

What is soil good for?

These are a few of the questions we will be answering this week as we begin our study of soils!

Pet Rocks Rock!

Grrrrr....

Eeew Science!




What happens when you add
Red Bull to different milks?



The Red Bull started to bubble when added to the all the milks. Part of the milk changed from liquid to solid. The solids floated up.  The chocolate milk and strawberry showed the most solids.  Was this because they had more sugar?

Skim and 1% after the Red Bull

Chocolate and Strawberry after the Red Bull

Observing using 5 senses!



My husband, Justin, came for a PIE visit today.  He works for the City of Storm Lake.  He was here to speak to all 2nd grade classes about storm water. 



We started with Jose the fish, he was clean and placed in a clean jar of clean water.  Students participated as different items were added to simulate soapy water from a car wash, dog mess, oil, toxic waste.  As you can see poor Jose's water got dirtier and dirtier!

Students wrote about this and decided that they want to work hard to keep our beautiful lake clean and healthy for them to swim in and the fish too!

Following the clean water demonstration, each student was able to make a rain stick! Mayra and Jennifer from City Hall were here to help students remember to keep that water clean as it makes its' way to the lake!  Thanks ladies for the fun project!

Young Geologists

 

Keeping data is an important part of being a great scientist!



 

Teamwork is essential to getting the job done well.





Vinegar drops.  What happened when they hit the rock?




Water test.  Does it float?  Are there air bubbles?  Why?

 

Floating!!



 

Sunk to the bottom!











 

Sandpaper test.  What did you observe?



Sorting

Students learned about properties of rocks today. 

Smell, streak, luster, texture, hardness, partical size, & weight are a few that we defined.  They used their knowledge of properties to create different sorts and describe them.  I was impressed! 

We have set up a rock museum.  Students worked together and voted on rock names that were created while using their 5 senses.  They were very creative! 

Several students were interested in sharing their own rock finds from outside of school. 

I am encouraging kids to bring them! 

We will use a black permanent marker to write their classroom number on them and when the unit is over they will be able to take them home.  We are only 2 days in to this new collection and we already have quite a variety!

5 Senses


 

We used our 5 senses to describe our rocks.  What do you SEE?



Box of Rocks!

Monday we started a new science unit named, "Earth Materials."  Today we pulled out the cart containing our science supplies, tools and materials.  We looked through it all, making predictions about what we will be studying.  The kids went crazy!  There is such excitment over our bags of dirt and boxes of rocks!

Brainiacs

This week we read nonfiction books about the nervous system.  We focused on the brain.  To end the week we made brain hats!

What is that?

Skittles + water = the "S" label floats off!

Eye See It!

Sneak Peak

What are we up to today? More to come....

Something Smells Fishy

Today students recieved arm bracelets labeled with their cooperative group job. Each child played an active role in the set-up of their science experiment. Children have watched the teachers sneak in and out of the book room...wondering....What's in there? What's that smell? What will our new pet be?

The following pictures show you step by step how kids set up their experiments within small groups. They were so careful and proud to each recieve their own goldfish.

After cooperatively setting up their tanks, students worked alone to write observations about their goldfish and draw a detailed pictures showing body parts. They are creating fantastic science journals they will be so proud to share at confernces with their family.