Day One of Science Lab

We started Day One of Science Lab from Mother Goose Time a little early.  Day one of course included their name tag for the month and some great discussion questions to get the months topic of science started.

Peter was the first to sit down and get started.  I asked him the first discussion question of the day - "What do you do you think a chemist does?"


Mother Goose Time provided us with an answer to this one, which I always appreciate. "A chemist studies things (matter) and their properties (the way they look, feel, change, etc.)."  We talked about water and it's three states of matter.

The name tag activity is called Spicy Name.  They are supposed to first write their name, then trace over it with a q-tip dipped in glue and then sprinkle spices on it to make it smell.  I think my boys will love this, so I still hope to do this.

Peter sat down and wrote his name.  He had just finished the book 0 to 10 and so he decided he needed to write the number 10 in front of his name. 

Of course I am thrilled that Peter can easily write his name.  But this version was written in all capital letters except for the first e which he forgot to write and then squeezed a little one in.  Since I had another name tag, I asked him to re-write his name, this time having him write it with a capital P and lowercase for the rest of the letters.  He still had to put the 10 at the beginning.  After he finished "Peter" it took up so little room that I asked him if he wanted to write his middle name.  So we squeezed it in at the end. 

I always like to take a picture of my planning pile.  This is all the stuff that came in the day bag or the Teacher Tool bag, along with the Teacher Guide.  This is everything I need to do all the lessons in the day.

After completing the name tag we read the new storybook that came in this months box.  It's called Ingenuity! and it's about various inventors and scientist from history.  This book is designed to grow with your child.  If you have a younger group of children, you can read only the bold words in the book to read a shorter version of the story.  If they are a mostly older crowd, like mine, you can read every word.

For the Who Is a Scientist? activity we first asked "Where can you see science?"  I got various answers but the one I remember most is when one of the kids pointed to themselves and said they see science in "me".  Oh boy, were they right.  There is A LOT of science in how a human body works.

In the Read section of this lesson it says that "science is studying and investigating everything around us." Then it asked us to read the story of Alfred Nobel.  Here is the first page of his story in the book and I love that it has the opportunity for kids to find rhyming words. 

"Alfred Nobel also loved to play.  Alfred loved to play with words.  He loved mixing words and creating beautiful rhymes."

The story continues to describe how Alfred accidentally discovered dynamite and how it was the greatest invention of his time.  With the money he made from this invention he established the Nobel Prize to encourage others to be creative and invent ways to help the world. 

Can I tell you a secret, I had no clue!  I had never learned about Alfred Nobel, at least not that I could remember. 

One of my favorite parts of this story was the quote at the end by Alfred Nobel "If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied."  This was so good for my Lachlan to hear.  He has a super creative mind and thinks up all sorts of ideas.  He plans to be a farmer and an inventor when he grows up.  But he also likes things to be perfect and expects perfection from himself.  There is no room for messing up.  So to hear these words from a real life inventor, was a beautiful thing.  I might just have to refer back to it in times of strife.

This was just one of the stories in this great book.  It also includes Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Rachel Carson, and George Washington Carver.  Honestly, I can't wait to read the other stories so I can learn more about these people!

Most of the Mother Goose Time books are up for sale on Amazon, but I can't find this one there yet.  When it is, I will add a link.

The next day we got out our Science Journals and I asked them to draw a picture of themselves on the cover doing something to do with science, which is everything around us really.  Peter drew a picture of himself taking the temperature of a cow.  :)

 Lachlan copied the beaker (I think it's a beaker but it probably has another name) that is on the cover of the journal.  Then he drew a robot and a picture of himself flexing!

Another day later, stretching this one day of lessons into 3, we got out the Simon Says Senses spinner and played a new version of Simon Says.

They would spin the spinner and then call out, "Simon says listen to something that is spinning".  This was my example to get them started.  We have fans all over the house so this was the first thing I heard.  Peter and Autumn kept playing and Autumn spun "smell"  so she said "Simon says, smell your feet".

Of course you have to use all your senses in science.  So this was a perfect way to start the discussion on science.