Children Explore

-

 August 23, 2023


The Art of Exploration


Last Friday, my students had an opportunity to experience their own phenomena. In science, I led them with a time lapsed video of melted crayons. Their job in science is to “Notice and Wonder.” We had a class discussion and agreed on what we noticed in our video. 

Notice: The crayons were melting. 

Then, we continued our discussion with what wonders we had. How fast did they melt? Was it messy when they melted? What caused them to melt? What if one crayon was melted one way, and another crayon melted differently, would it change anything? It was a great discussion! Finally, we landed on one wonder. 

Wonder: How did the crayons melt?

At this point, the students were eager to find their answers. They created a list of supplies they would need to test and find answers to their questions. The science experiment began. It was absolutely amazing to watch them work in partners to determine how they would prepare their crayons for melting. It was great to explore which heat source melted the crayons for how long or fast. It was also interesting to see different results based on the different donated crayons. 

Why??

It’s so easy as teachers to jump right into the lesson with all the facts and knowledge we want our students to know. However, there is more magic when they create their own questions and experiment to find them no matter what the subject. As we explore physical science this 9 weeks, we will reference our melted crayon experiment as an example and foundation to our learning. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 35- Life

-
Image
  July 6, 2024 PIVOT!!!  Man, this word could be no truer in this moment than in any other moment of my life. I'm excited for year 35! There is so much change happening right now.            Some change comes with peace.            Some change comes with fear and lost of the great unknown.            Some change comes with excitement.            Some change comes with letting go.      I'm truly in a season in which I believe I am letting go of what I've always known and letting God take the lead. I could sit here and tell you ALL the times God has stepped in for the past 12 months, but instead... I'm going to let you watch the magic unfolfd. I'm excited for this coming year.  Let's begin with "The Road Trip!"  July 8, 2024     We traveled from Florida to Georgia. It was about a 5 hour drive. We stayed wi...
Read more

Classroom Buzz

-
Image
September 10, 2023  What does your classroom sound like?  For some, this seems like an odd question. For me, this is one of my favorite things to talk about. As humans, we have a natural desire to talk and share ideas. It’s what we do. Children are humans and no different. It’s not natural to have a quiet classroom. There should be noise and sound. The sound should be productive sounds of learning and discovery, but silent should be more rare than the norm.  In my classroom, I accomplish this in a couple of ways… One way is my “no raise hands” rule. My students are not suppose to raise their hand to answer questions or for permission to talk. Instead of raising hands, I encourage students to talk to their peers, answer the question as a whole, or shout out answers when prompted. This sounds messy, but it’s actually more effective than raising hands. It requires 100% participation and engagement. Students are no longer sitting there focused on remembering what they have t...
Read more

I will write.

-
Image
  September 24, 2023 Writing…  It is crazy to me how many people think writing is a subject. Yes, I said it. People think writing is a subject. When students work in reading, do they write? When students work in math, do they write? When students work in science and social studies, do they write? When students pass a note in class, do their homework, and so on, do they write? The answer is obvious, YES!  Writing is more than a subject. It is a foundation to everything we do. In life, we have a process. We learn to think. Then, we learn to talk and say what we are thinking. Finally, we learn how to read what others are thinking and saying… or we learn how to write what we are thinking and saying. It’s natural. It’s human nature. Why then are there teachers who confine writing to a subject?  Yes, we need to teach writing. Yes, we need to practice writing. BUT, writing is way more than a subject. It is the one thing we need to record our thoughts and share them with oth...
Read more