This post is late arriving due to our spring break, but 2 weeks ago in my feild placement I led a science talk related to the five senses with five students in my first grade classroom. The discussion was led by me at the kidney table, and the kids seemed comfortable sharing their ideas-overall I felt it went very well.

In leading this science talk relating to the five senses, I realized before I even began that the students were unfamiliar with the word “senses” or understanding the concept of “the five senses” when I first selected a group of students for the talk and explained that we were going to do a quick talk about our five senses, and was received with a crowd of blank stares and questions such as “what’s that?”. I immediately adapted my plan by deciding to begin with a brief and basic intro by saying “our senses are what we use to observe and find out about things around us. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting are together the five senses”, and decided that since they weren’t familiar with the term “senses” to change my question a bit.

I asked the students “What are some ways you would use tasting, touching, your eyes, ears and nose to describe something?” I also added that they could use one or a few of these things to describe something, and that using all at once was not necessary, but also okay to do. At first, the responses were very basic, such as “I smell flowers” and “I taste food” and sometimes off track, like when one child said “I eat” or misunderstood when a child said “I use my mouth to sing” (for which, I scaffolded this to we use our mouth to taste, but we can also use our mouth to make sounds which we hear with our ears…” which then prompted better discussion. The responses also became more in depth. One child said “I hear sounds” and that led to things such as “I hear music, and I can make music” (for which I asked what would we do to make music, which led eventually to the sense of touching) and other responses like “I taste and smell and touch food” and another child adding “and I look at food and I can sometimes hear it like I can hear popcorn when its cooking”. The students were very talkative and engaged and ultimately came up with some great ideas, like “I can see clapping when I clap and I can hear it and feel it too”. I thought that, once adapted and with some prodding and some scaffolding, the discussion was successful.

DUE TO PRESIDENT'S DAY, WHICH THE STUDENTS HAD OFF, I WAS AGAIN ONLY IN THE FIELD ONCE THIS WEEK. TODAY THE KIDS WENT TO COMPUTER LAB, WHERE THEY DID A "GROUNDHOG'S DAY" ACTIVITY (BELATED TO THE ACTUAL 'HOLIDAY'), AND THE TOPIC OF SHADOWS WAS ONCE AGAIN ADDRESSED TO THE STUDENTS, WHO SEEMED TO REMEMBER QUITE A BIT ABOUT THE BASICS OF HOW SHADOWS ARE FORMED (LIGHT/BLOCKED LIGHT)...THIS WAS A VERY QUICK EXERCISE THAT WAS CONCISE AND NOT EMPHASIZED, BUT IT WAS THE ONLY BIT OF SCIENCE THAT WAS ADDRESSED TODAY. LAST WEEK SOMETIME, HOWEVER, THE KIDS WROTE 'SNOW' POEMS. I READ THROUGH THEM AS I HUNG THEM IN THE HALLS; MANY KIDS TALKED ABOUT THE COLD WEATHER AND WINTER SEASON AND FUN THEY HAVE IN THE SNOW. THIS WEATHER TOPIC OBVIOUSLY RELATES TO SCIENCE, AND THE TOPIC OF SEASONS COULD HAVE BEEN MENTIONED AND DISCUSSED, AND WHAT MAKES SEASONS COULD HAVE BEEN BRIEFLY TAUGHT AS WELL TO BETTER RELATE THE ACTIVITY TO SCIENCE AND TO INTERTWINE MORE OF A LESSON INTO THIS ACTIVITY.

Due to yet another snow day, I was only at my field placement once this week, and no science lesson was taught during this time. However, during story time, my teacher read a story called “What Makes a Rainbow”, in which a color of the rainbow was introduced progressively as the pages turned. While it wasn’t exactly “scientifically-oriented”, this would have been a good opportunity to share with the classroom how rainbows are formed, and why. Because this is a first-grade classroom, it wouldn’t need to be an in-depth or detailed discussion, but the kids could have raised their hands to share a color in the rainbow prior to reading the story, as well as given thoughts as to when or how rainbows form. After reading the story, the teacher (or I) could talk about how rainbows are actually light reflections (and can be seen through glass and other things, not just in the sky) and that is why the colors are always in the same order. We could explain that light travels in waves, and when the sun comes out after a rainfall and the sunlight hits the rainwater, these waves bend the light, which allows us to see all the colors and for rainbows to form. The kids probably won’t understand a much more detailed explanation than this, but they would at least know that rainbows are formed from light (or more correctly, rainbows are light), which is something I assume nearly all of my students are currently unaware of.

Providing or helping students develop meaningful questions that they can answer in the process of inquiry in the classroom is extremely important. If students are able to personally connect to the material, they will be more likely to learn, and in order for this connection to occur, they must be able to understand the material at a level that allows them to be able to question what they are learning then explore and discover their questions. Also, by presenting questions to students, they are becoming engaged in the learning process, and may become interested or excited about the topic through the pre-lesson questions. Questions, whether they are presented by the teacher or student-driven, are important because they engage the students for inquiry, which is to increase knowledge and understanding-a main focus in the learning process. Questions provide structure to the learning goal, they help develop the main ideas or direction for the students to follow and focus on.
Below are examples of inquiry-based questions for the following benchmark:
SCI.III.4.E.1-Explain how fossils provide evidence about the nature of ancient life
-What clues could have been deduced from a fossil to conclude that it came from a large, meat eating dinosaur?
-If you could interview a paleontologist who just pieced together an ancient whale, what questions would you ask him?

This week, my first graders heard a story during their science time about shadows, which relates to the first benchmark mentioned in the previous post. To assess prior knowledge, my CT asked the students if they knew what a shadow was and what had shadows (people, buildings, animals-everything!), which the kids were able to answer without difficulty. They began to struggle however when asked where shadows came from or how shadows formed. They also knew that shadows couldn't always be seen, only sometimes, but they were unsure as to why. We explained to them that light and in contrast, darkness to block the light, were necessary. I went on to explain briefly the phases of the moon, as well how day and night is related to shadows. The kids were shown the first page of the book, which portrayed several children and their shadows, and I asked them what came first, the shadow or the child. The story explained shadows at a surface level, and asked the question "whose shadow is this" and displayed a shadowed, which actively engaged the kids in guessing the shadow before turning the page to see what formed the shadow-they loved guessing and came up with such funny answers! In response to a shadow of what looked like a large bird, one boy said "its a bush or something cut out like a bird"! The kids liked this lesson because they could relate it to everyday life; they have all seen & created shadows before and know how to make shadows & make shadows move, but they didn't know WHY all of this occurred. This lesson helped them understand the relation between light & darkness and how shadows form from the contrast of both.

UNPACKING THE LEARNING GOALS: benchmarks

SCI.V.4.E.4- Explain how shadows are made. In order to assess understanding of this benchmark, I would like students to be able to answer questions relating to shadows, such as what is necessary for a shadow to form, how the shadow forms(light, reflections, etc.) and other related questions. To assess meaningful understanding, they should be able to explain what causes day and night on earth, explaining that the relation between the earth, sun, and earth's orbit is basically one big shadow. I would additionally like my students to be able to come up with and use their own real world examples of shadows, and be able to explain how & why the shadows are formed, and how they move.

SCI.II.1.E.1- Develop an awareness of the need for evidence in making decisions scientifically. To assess understanding, a student would be able to perform scientific tasks (such as measuring) and record data accurately as well as make observations and generate related questions. They would also be able to generate conclusions with support and reasoning to justify those conclusions. Students would also be able to explain why evidence is important and necessary and give examples of real world cases (i.e. law). If students were using this knowledge to accomplish the task of this benchmark, they would be able to use their senses and observations to explore, explain and back up their hypotheses in a lab or experiment and justify their conclusion.

Wednesday my school was closed due to a snow day, so I only went to my field teaching one day this week. The kids spent most of their time while I was there doing literacy & reading, so I didn't see much science. However, one instance of science that is an everyday occurrence in the classroom happens during their "afternoon message", when that week's chosen "weather person" reports on the weather to the rest of the class (weather it is snowing, raining, sunny, cloudy, or foggy), and records his or her observation on a chart. At the end of every month, the class counts up how many days each type of weather was observed and puts it on a larger chart that represents the entire school year. For such a young grade, this is a great way to get kids active and involved in science, and it is just one way to show how science is a part of everyday life. This everyday classroom happening could lead to a bigger unit covering the basics of weather for the class. Another idea could be to talk about snow and how it is formed, especially right after the snow day.