I loved seeing old friends this week and meeting newcomers to Kingston. My first grade friends and I took a moment to say hello, I was mercilessly quizzed on names (a terrible weakness), and then we moved on to the real fun – science! Much like in Kindergarten we talked about how we know what we do and came to the understanding that, like scientists, we learn by observing (thinking while seeing) and asking questions. Of course we have to use our five senses (a review from kindergarten) as well, but agreed that we wouldn’t taste anything from the nature tub.
We will be taking on the role of scientists quite a lot this year as we focus on inquiry and elements of the scientific method. We defined scientists as people who ask questions and conduct experiments to learn more about the world. We will study more about what skills scientists use next week. We also made list of the tools we think scientists use in their jobs.
Then it was time to practice our observational skills and students happily dove into the nature tubs to examine the items and select one item to carefully observe, draw, and label. They were also asked to write questions they had about their object and to record what connections they could make to the object. Many students who selected shells drew lovely pictures of the beach as their connection. One student drew several pictures including clothes because clothes often have shell designs on the.
Students love tools and they enjoyed using magnifying glasses on their items and each other. The three Creature Peepers were a big hit that let us see the top, sides, and bottom of any object we put in them.
Our big focus this year is on inquiry - asking questions to learn more. I'm sure you have noticed that young students often confuse asking with telling and you can help them develop critical questioning skills at home by asking them what more they would like to know about any topic that comes up in conversation. Ask why they would like to know more, why is it important to understand, and what else they'd like to know more about. If your child answers a question you can ask how he or she knows that they are correct, and what evidence they have to back up opinions. We’ll be continuing our questioning skills as we study scientists next week.
We will be taking on the role of scientists quite a lot this year as we focus on inquiry and elements of the scientific method. We defined scientists as people who ask questions and conduct experiments to learn more about the world. We will study more about what skills scientists use next week. We also made list of the tools we think scientists use in their jobs.
Then it was time to practice our observational skills and students happily dove into the nature tubs to examine the items and select one item to carefully observe, draw, and label. They were also asked to write questions they had about their object and to record what connections they could make to the object. Many students who selected shells drew lovely pictures of the beach as their connection. One student drew several pictures including clothes because clothes often have shell designs on the.
Students love tools and they enjoyed using magnifying glasses on their items and each other. The three Creature Peepers were a big hit that let us see the top, sides, and bottom of any object we put in them.
Our big focus this year is on inquiry - asking questions to learn more. I'm sure you have noticed that young students often confuse asking with telling and you can help them develop critical questioning skills at home by asking them what more they would like to know about any topic that comes up in conversation. Ask why they would like to know more, why is it important to understand, and what else they'd like to know more about. If your child answers a question you can ask how he or she knows that they are correct, and what evidence they have to back up opinions. We’ll be continuing our questioning skills as we study scientists next week.