Pebbles, Sand & Silt

Unfortunately science has become one of those things that we have to "squeeze in". For me growing up, we had science once a week like any other rotating specialist. At my school ( and I'm not sure how this works with other districts) but it is up to the classroom teacher to teach the science to their students using a science kit that is rented from another company. In first grade we have three different science units: Balance and Motion, Pebbles, Sand and Silt, and Plants and Animals. We are currently working on Pebbles, Sand and Silt right now and my students are loving it! Who knew that rocks could bring so much excitement into the classroom. Now the science kits we use are made by Foss and are super outdated as far as guided worksheets. I would be bored working with the worksheets so I know my students would be too. So, I went to the Holy Grail- also known as Teachers Pay Teachers. 🙌 I was able to find a science journal that another teacher had made with lots of student worksheets to go along with each investigation and they were much more kid friendly. So naturally, I paid the $10 and put together 20 science journals. I try to"squeeze in" science on Friday afternoons because it gives the kids something to look forward to during the week and it makes our Friday afternoons fun and easy- aside from the clean up that I have to deal with once we are done. I had my students bring in a rock of their own to start our very own class rock collection and almost every day some of my students will continue to bring in rocks to add to our collection so now I'm stuck with what to do with all of these rocks once our science unit is done. Below are a few photos of our most recent science investigation. Students are given three rocks, basalt, tuff, and scorcia. They were asked to take two rocks from the kit and rub them together over a black piece of paper to make observations about the hardness and softness of rocks. After that, they were told to place each rock into a cup of water one at a time to make observations about the colors and changes in the water and in the rocks. This was by far their favorite part of this investigation (it's the little things I suppose).