Science Experiment ~ Mayflower Freebie!

It's hard to believe it is already time to go back to school.  I've had a wonderful break and wanted to post about an experiment my class did before the break.  Since our school is a K-5 elementary, I was able to get together with one of our 5th grade teachers to plan an activity involving both her 5th grade class and my 1st grade class.  We began by learning a little bit about the Mayflower and toured the ship online, learning about various sections of the ship. 

The experiment we decided to try with our 5th grade buddies is by no means an original idea, but actually came from Deanna Jump and her Simple Science Volume 1 packet.  I purchased this packet and tweaked the activity a little to fit our needs.  This experiment originally was to be used with the book In 1492 by Jean Marzollo, but since we were approaching Thanksgiving we focused on the Mayflower. 

After discussing the huge ship, the passengers, the cargo and everything the large ship held, it made us wonder how does this boat stay afloat?  Students then went back to stations where they were given a ball of clay, a tub of water and a recording sheet.  The first thing students did was drop the ball of clay in the water and record what happened.

Students did predict that the clay would sink and many students had the same conclusion... the ball of clay sank!  Now it was time to think about how they could turn the clay into a sailing ship.  Could they make this ball of clay float?  Students thought of a design and began shaping the clay with the help of their 5th grade buddies.  It took several tries before finally we began to hear shouts of "Our ship is floating!"

Everyone was so excited to look around at their neighbor's ship to see what theirs looked like. 

The 5th graders were just "helpers" in this activity, but they were so encouraging to my first graders and allowed them to think about this experiment.  It was so great to look around and see the level of engagement of all students. 

The experiment had really just begun, because once students got their ship to sail, they must now see how many bear counters it can hold (and record their information).  Let's just say it became a little bit of a competition.

This ship only held about three bears.  But the next ship held much more.

And some learned just how many their ship could hold before it started to sink.

Once students had recorded all their information, they cleaned up their area and then went to buddy read around the room until all students were finished.  I think they enjoyed this as much as the experiment!

Once everything was cleaned up and put away, we came together again and each partner was able to share with our group just how many bears their ship held.  We had punched out some bear dicuts that we wrote the number of bears on for each partner and placed on a large bar graph based on the amount of bears.  I was so caught up in the lesson, I forgot to get a picture of this.  I can tell you though, that the largest number of bears a ship could hold was 23!  We were all amazed! 

I made a recording sheet to go with this activity to include more writing space for my first graders.  It is a freebie and click on the image to get your sailing ships experiment recording sheet.

Overall this was an excellent experience for all involved and we have decided to try and get our 5th grade buddies to visit again for another activity soon.  We hope to get together again before Christmas.  Do any of you have upper grade level "buddies"?  How often do you get together and what type of activities do you do?  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I guess Christmas is just around the corner. (I'm not sure I'm ready!)  Have a great evening!

Colonial Houses Project Freebie

Happy Friday!  Today we read the book William's House by Ginger Howard.  The video of the book is also available on United Streaming (Discovery Education). 

This book is about a pilgrim from England who arrives in the new world to build a house.  It describes the building process and then the conflicts he faces as he realizes the new world is different than England. We talked about how difficult it must have been to make these homes and what they were made of and then made our own out of a few simple and cheap supplies.

Yesterday all of my kids saved their milk cartons from lunch.  We rinsed them out and allowed them to dry overnight.  This was the frame of their house.  I bought a LARGE jar of peanut butter, some stick pretzels (2 bags) and a box of shredded wheat. So today we worked hard, making our colonial homes.  Here are a few pictures of the process:

Students began by smearing the peanut butter all over the milk carton.  This is the daub (or mud) they used to hold the logs together.  Then they used the pretzel sticks to cover the base of the carton to represent the logs of the house.

The top of the carton of course was the roof and after smearing the peanut butter (daub) students crumbled shredded wheat on top for the thatch.  They were so proud of their houses.

Some students were very tedious about the placement of their logs.  And some students spaced them out a bit more.  They were all original and they all turned out awesome!

I took a picture of each child with their house.  I will then print them out and will use them for a writing project.  The students will describe how they built their house. 

I made a writing page for both girls and boys.  Since the book was called "William's House", they will write their name so that it is "Julie's House" or "Sam's House".  We will do the writing portion of this project on Monday, but thought I would share it with you in case you would like to make some colonial homes next week.  Here is the writing paper.

This project was a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon.  Monday we will write about our homes and share those with you when they are finished.  We have two days of school next week and then a FIVE day break!  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving Break and time to spend with family.  I would love to know what you think about our colonial homes.  Have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving Line Up Chant

Have you ever heard the expression when it rains, it pours?  Well, I think I just went through a hurricane!  Let's just say, I am still here and so very much want to share what we've been doing but just haven't managed to upload photos and documents and everything else.  I have been sick and my voice has improved from a squeaky whisper to a cracking hum. In the midst of it all I have had sick kids, master's class homework and a list a mile long that I'm sure you don't want to hear about.  I was so excited to post about a project we are doing tomorrow... along with some freebies but I left my jump drive at school (Ugh!)  I plan on taking lots of pictures tomorrow and share them with you this weekend.  In the meantime, I wanted you to know that I'm still here and am looking forward to catching up.  I literally could not muster up the energy to sit at my computer.  I'm feeling better, sounding better and hope I am on my way to a full recovery!  I wrote this little line up chant for my first graders as they are so into Turkey Books, Turkey Stories, Turkey Facts.... so my little turkeys line up singing this:

I can't wait to do some of the activities I've already found online tonight! You guys rock and I'm so excited to be cruisin' in blogland again!  My printer is working overtime.  Until tomorrow... have a wonderful evening!