Science Fair, Art, and Water Cycle

Our class did a class science fair project.  I wanted all students to have the opportunity to go through the scientific method and experience a science project.  Our project was called "Dancing Milk."  We tested our dish soap reacts to different kinds of milk (whole, 2%, 1%, and skim).

We had bowls for each type of milk.  Then we added a few drops of food coloring.  After that, we added a couple drops of dish soap.  The dish soap bonds to the fat in the milk and then pushes the food coloring aside.  Since the whole milk has the most fat, it pushed the food coloring out the quickest.

The students did all of the work in putting the board together.  We also kept journals as we did the experiment.

Our finished product...

Here are some finished products from our most recent art class:

 Students playing a matching game with the vocabulary cards they made on Wixie...

Speaking of Wixie, the kids are loving it!  They love making stories/books!

I introduced a new writing center to the students last week.  They take the head of an animal and have to complete the drawing, including its habitat.  Our focus is to write a complete sentence with juicy words and adjectives.

Our current unit is all about the water cycle.  Even though we will be reading a lot of books/texts about the water cycle, our focus is on the standards that help us comprehend the text.  It's not about the content.  It's more about the skills I am teaching so students can access that content.  These skills will carry on year to year and will help them comprehend more difficult text.