Gummy Bear Science

My kids had a great time experimenting with gummy bears!

Gummy  bears do some interesting things when put into different liquids.  We wanted to find out what would happen when we put gummy bears into water, salt water, vinegar, and baking soda water. We measured 50 mls of each liquid & added 1 tbsp. of salt or baking soda:

Here's what our overnight results look like:

We recorded length & mass before & after the experiment.

My students completed a lab report with 2 charts and 2 graphs for data analysis, here are 3 of the 6 pages:

All of the gummy bears GREW due to osmosis. I would have expected the salt water gummy bear to shrink so we are going to repeat that experiment & add more salt this time. The vinegar (which is actually a dilute solution of acetic acid) almost completely dissolved the gelatin, those bears were really falling apart!

You can get the complete lab worksheets for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here.

The publishers of the Science, Naturally books contacted me and introduced me to some great science resource for kids.  I'll be receiving a copy of the book One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! soon & will post my review here. 

On their website, they post a Mystery of the Month that will really get your kids thinking! Your students read about a mystery & then must use their scientific knowledge to solve it! Love this idea!

2 great giveaways: Head over to Teaching Fabulous Firsties 300 follower giveaway - I love Corinna's blog! She has lots of great prizes to win, I donated Winner's Choice from my store :)

and another one of my favorite bloggers - Middle Grades Maven is having a great giveaway, tons of prizes for grades K all the way up to 12!

We're still in school here - anyone else? Summer is coming soon, looking forward to fun in the sun!

My Snapping Turtle Visitor

Someone wandered away from her watery home & found herself on my driveway this morning!

Do you have snappers in your part of the world? They are amazing creatures! Their bite can snap your finger off! Snappers can reach over 50 pounds!  It's nesting season - this is what her plan is:

 We found those in a mulch delivery! Snappers will lay up to 50 eggs or so and then wander back to their watery home. She will not wait for those babies to hatch, nor will she look to take care of them once they do. Not known for their maternal abilities. Cool fact: snappers have been around since before the dinosaurs!

Click here for a copy of the turtle worksheet I use with my reptile lessons.

I just finished up a unit on Animal Classification with my kids:

I can't wait to show them the cool reptile pics I was able to snap right in my own backyard. I love nature!

I'm thrilled to be a part of Marie's Summer Giveaway - she has a great blog! Stop by It's a Jungle Out There for a chance to win!

Poison Ivy Freebie

I'm so excited to be featured on Dana from Fun in 1st Grade's fabulous blog! Thank you Dana!

Now that spring is here, I've been seeing poison ivy all over! I just uploaded a freebie to my TpT store - it's a 6 slide PowerPoint, use it to teach your kids how to identify this horrible plant!

My kids love Troll dolls! Thank you to  Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrating for your adorable Trolls!
Here is a worksheet to go along with the PowerPoint, click on the worksheet to get a copy:

Also, be sure to check out The Busy Educator Newsletter End of the Year Special Edition for lots of great teaching resources!

Wishing you a safe & happy summer!

Gravity Freebie & An Awesome Astronaut

Have you seen any of the space videos made by Col. Chris Hadfield - commander of the International Space Station? They're fantastic!

My kids love them! I've been showing them to my older students to reinforce the concept of weight vs. mass & to my younger students to teach gravity . Col. Hadfield made a series of short videos answering interesting space questions like what happens when you cry in a ZERO-G environment? Do your tears fall down?

How do you go to the bathroom? How are your senses affected? How do you sleep? Eat? There's over 100 videos on You Tube -  really interesting & great for kids. Col. Hadfield spent 5 months on board the International Space Station (ISS) which is at this minute orbiting around us at 17,500 mph!!

Every hour and a half, it makes a complete orbit around the Earth. It is the size of a football field!!

 Col. Hadfield came home last week. If you go to the website How Many PeopleAre in Space Right Now (howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com), you can find out the number of astronauts in space at any given time. After I show my little ones some of the space videos, I have them complete this worksheet, click here for a copy.

After seeing the videos, my kids can really understand what gravity is & it is also easy to see how depending upon where you are in the universe, weight changes but mass does not. 

I'm so happy to be a part of a fun giveaway! Pinetreelia (love that nature girl name!) from A Grade One Nut & Her Squirrelly Crew is celebrating spring! Win Winner's Choice from my store & 4 others! Click here to enter.

We're in school for another month here but for those of you who have already finished up your school year- happy summer vacation to you!!

Insect Shrinky Dinks & a Freebie!

We've been learning all about insects and have gone on many bug hunts since the weather is finally cooperating! I love to draw & paint and I think that incorporating art into science is a great way for our little ones to learn. My kids made these adorable  insect shrinky dinks:

I punched a little hole in each, we strung a ribbon through & they are hanging on backpacks now!

First we drew the bugs. The 6 legs are supposed to be coming out of the thorax but I can see that some of my kids decided to let their imagination run wild! In those pics above, I see bugs with legs coming out of their head,  an 11-footed bug, & one of the bugs has a nose - very cute!! To make sure everyone knows the correct body parts of an insect, we reviewed this worksheet, click here for a copy:

I let my kids color the bugs in any way they wanted to - I love to see their beautiful art!

 We will be outside hunting for insects today, I'll post some bug hunt finds next time!

Rainbow Around the Sun

I saw my first sun halo today - it was beautiful!

A perfect circular rainbow around the sun around 1:00 PM. Those are cirrostratus clouds - about  3-6 miles high, made of ice crystals because the temperature in the troposphere is around  -15 degrees Fahrenheit! As light from the sun passes through the ice crystals within the clouds, it reflects as the full spectrum of light. Usually means rain is on its way (forecast says thunderstorms). I know sun halos are not that rare but I've never seen one before -I was so excited & so were my students! I love teachable moments that are not on the lesson plan. 

The Cicadas are Coming!!

Something amazing will be happening all along the eastern United States this spring. The Brood II Periodical Cicadas will soon be emerging - they have been underground for 17 YEARS!!!!!

Soon our days will be filled with the super, loud rattle made by males trying to attract females. The sound can reach 90 decibels! (A lawn mower reaches 90 decibels). There will be millions of huge red-eyed cicadas everywhere! (Please see my 4/29/13 blog post about how insect with compound eyes actually see - they DO NOT see multiple teeny images!!)

This is the Power Point I use to explain all about the cicadas. I use this for my students in PK- 4- they have soooo many questions about these amazing creatures & this answers just about all of them! These creatures went underground in 1996 and we will not see this brood again until 2030, how cool is that?!

 In my region of NJ - the cicadas have not yet emerged but they will soon &  I can't wait! I will be picking up & examining every dead specimen I find! (I know that is gross to most people but I am fascinated by bugs!)  Luckily, I have a very understanding husband who is by now used to being married to this nutty science girl!

Worksheet I use with my kids:

Have the cicadas emerged in your region of the country?? Please let me know!