September/October Update

As a result of my exploration into the importance of play in the lives of people of all ages, I have instituted a 30 minute free play time in my classroom each morning.  The children enjoy building with blocks, reading books, drawing, making their own books, creating things out of recycled objects, working with the math manipulatives, using Legos and K-Nexs, and playing board games.  So far I have left this time completely open to their own interests.  As we move into more thematic learning, I will make more things and activities related to our themes available during this free play time. 

My class is currently in the midst of a unit on matter.  This unit is composed of mainly directed activities and guided discoveries.  My main goals of this unit is to help teach the children how to work with each other, how to make and record their observations, and to introduce and explore the states of matter.  So far my students have engaged in four activities:

• Working in a small group to sort and classify various solid and liquid items, then working as a class to create definitions of solids and liquids, and finally recording their observations in the appropriate spots in their science journal (under soft solids, hard solids, or liquids).
• Next the class worked with a partner to collect samples of various types of solids and liquids, creating labels for each sample, recording the objects in their science journals, and placing the samples in the appropriate location in a class display. 
• For homework the class then conducted a "Solid and Liquid Scavenger Hunt".  They searched for a variety of objects, including a thick liquid, a thin liquid, a liquid light will go through, a liquid that light won't go through, a hard solid, a soft solid, a light solid, a heavy solid, a solid that can change shape, and a solid that can turn into a liquid.