Oh my goodness. This past week was SO MUCH FUN. When we shared what our favorite part of the week was on Friday afternoon, one student shared, “I wish this week would NEVER END!” They all concurred with that statement. {Which made me SUPER happy.}
To recap, this week our focus was on Force and Motion. We learned all about gravity, forces, motions and had a science investigation each afternoon to help us understand these concepts. After each investigation we wrote about our experience and then shared our findings. It was such a fabulous week of learning.
To help us understand motion (speed, pushes and pulls), we used marble mazes. I put my students into three groups and they each worked on building different structures. They had to use their new vocabulary words while they were building and were given a few different tasks. The first structure they made had to show speed. They worked together to get their marbles down their mazes quickly.
{This was a fantastic activity for team work and on problem solving.} My students worked so nicely together and the conversations were GREAT.
This activity was such a HUGE hit, we did it again the next day. However, the second day, my students had to create a maze where it would take the marble a long time to travel through the maze.
To say they loved it is an understatement.
To explore gravity, our Friday science experiment was an “egg drop experiment.” Last week I emailed my parents these directions.
On Friday, my students came to school very proudly with their shoe boxes.
{Even the parents were excited about our experiment! Some of my kids tried the experiment at home multiple times to ensure that their egg would not break!}
To do the experiment, I brought all my students outside with their boxes and I had them bring them to the top of the playground. Then, I dropped each box one at a time. After all the boxes had been dropped, my students opened up their boxes to see if their egg “survived.” Surprisingly, MOST of them did!
My students loved it so much that they asked if they could do the experiment again. I said sure and they closed up their boxes and tried it for themselves!
I have to say, they created some awesome boxes because we were able to do this multiple times!
Some of my students were SUPER creative. The little boy on the left suspended his egg in his box using spray foam and the little boy on the right hid his egg in his sister’s penguin! (The poor penguin did not make it !)
My students really enjoyed trying the experiment from different sections of our playground to see if their egg would “survive.”
I loved watching them scurry up the playground, count each other down (5-4-3-2-1- DROP!) and then excitedly open their boxes to see what happened!
Sometimes we were successful!
Sometimes, we were not.
All in all, it was a FABULOUS week and my students learned so much!
If you would like to complete these activities, they are available in my force and motion pack. The pack includes lesson plans, recording sheets, parent pages, and more! You can get the pack by clicking on the cover below! I hope you enjoy your weekend! Sorry to all of you who are still buried under feet of snow!
What fun!!!!! Your candid shots are THE BEST! I can’t wait to teach this!
It sounds like you had a great week, now I want to drop some eggs
Sara
Frampton’s FUNdamentals
How fun is this!
I love whatever camera you use. Your picture are great! Could you tell me what you use?
This is such a fun and engaging experiment! I bet your kids couldn’t talk about anything else the whole day. Great job!
Happy Teaching,
Cassie
Adventures in Teaching (A First Grade Blog)
My TpT Store
Where did you find your marble mazes. Did you need several sets or were you able to split the sets between the kids? Thanks
I love this unit! Where can I purchase a set of the maze structure pieces? We teach Force and Motion in the fall, so I can get everything together for next year. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful teaching ideas.
spotteddog@austin.rr.com
I also teach this unit on Force & Motion, so I believe these marble mazes would be wonderful. Where did you buy them? Would love to know so I any help would be greatly appreciated for next year. Thanks, Jackie
jmcmanam@w-sioux.k12.ia.us
Super ideas for teaching force and motion to 1st graders! I loved it! Is this unit in your curiculum for A class in Texas? In Greece (where I teach) we teach science only to 5th & 6th graders, but you surely excite me so much, that I think I’ll try your egg experiment before painting our eggs for Easter…
Greetings from the island of Crete and my 2nd graders!
http://14b2.blogspot.gr/
Hi! Thanks for this great ideas and for a great unit! I bought it and am using it with my class. I would just like to know how you explained the egg drop experiment to your kids? DDid they understand why some eggs survived and why some didn´t?
Thanks!