A Place For Wonder Class Meeting 2 Frye and Trathen

NCSCS Science Kindergarten Goal: Students in kindergarten begin their science studies using their five senses to observe animals, earth materials, weather, and other objects. The class setting should provide a stimulating atmosphere in which students are intellectually challenged to explore the physical world around them. Young students’ natural curiosity leads them to investigate the world by observing and manipulating common objects and materials in their environment. Students learn to interpret their observations by collecting data on which they base their scientific explanations. Inquiry: They begin to ask questions that they can answer with scientific knowledge combined with their own observations and simple predictions…this leads to simple sketches and single word descriptions which in turn lead to increasingly more detailed drawings, richer verbal descriptions, and connections to writing.

NCSCS Science 1st Grade Goal: Teachers build on students' natural inclination to ask questions and investigate common objects in the natural world. Students engage in active construction of ideas and explanations as they observe, collect data, and classify, to provide types and levels of order and organization to their ideas about science concepts. Inquiry: From their own observations, they begin to ask questions and make predictions…As students develop concepts and vocabulary from such experiences, they develop the ability to ask meaningful questions, investigate aspects of the world around them, and use their observations to construct reasonable explanations for their questions..

NCSCS Science 2nd Grade Goal: Science education in the second grade builds on the unifying concepts previously introduced in kindergarten and first grade including the use of evidence, explanation, measurement, order and organization. Second graders are introduced to changes through the study of animal life cycles, weather, properties of materials, and sound.. Inquiry: Inquiry involves asking a simple question, conducting an investigation, recording and analyzing results, answering the question, and communicating the results to others.

“Wondering” “Wondering” is simply an introduction to questions and where they come from… Teacher models a question and how you arrived at the question. Students then pose their own questions (Wonder Center). Teachers choose questions and connect them to your standard course of study… Teachers can stimulate questions by reading aloud a book that will pique the interests of the students. Book can be related to science content, to questions or to both…

Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley Teachers can read aloud this simple, yet engaging, nonfiction text. You can ask students what else they may want to find out about the red-eyed tree frog…for example, you may model asking questions by suggesting the following: “Hmm…this book was informative and it gave us specific information about where the tree frog lives, how a tree frog moves, and when and how it catches its prey. But I am wondering about the red-eyed tree frog when it was younger, how it grows and how it became an adult…I guess I am really interested in its life cycle…I am also wondering about the tree frog’s shelter…” This leads you to develop your minilesson on “How We Explore and Answer Questions” (p. 17) A Place For Wonder

Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery by Jamie Lee Curtis http://www.jamieleecurtisbooks.com/teachers-corner http://science.howstuffworks.com/helium.htm/printable http://www.balloonhq.com/faq/howpop.html#whybang Teachers help students answer questions and connect to curriculum; share with students that experiences often lead us to questions…just like the little boy in the book (he lets go of the balloon and wonders where it goes).

Pet Observations and Wonder Journals Teacher and students observe a classroom pet (guinea pig, hamster, fish, ants, tarantula, caterpillar, etc.) or plant. Students write down and draw their observations, make predictions and ask questions (student notebooks). Let’s take a look at the NCSCS Goals and Objectives…

Science Goals and Objectives Kindergarten: 1.02 Observe how animals interact with their surroundings. 1.03 Observe the behaviors of several common animals. 1.04 Demonstrate how to care for a variety of animals. 1.05 Observe the similarities of humans to other animals including: Basic needs. Growth and change. Movement. 1st Grade: 1.01 Investigate the needs of a variety of different plants: 1.02 Investigate the needs of a variety of different animals: 1.03 Observe the ways in which humans are similar to other organisms. 2nd Grade: 1.01 Describe the life cycle of animals including:1.01 Describe the life cycle of animals including: Birth. Developing into an adult. Reproducing. Aging and death. 1.02 Observe that insects need food, air and space to grow. 1.03 Observe the different stages of an insect life cycle. 1.04 Compare and contrast life cycles of other animals such as mealworms, ladybugs, crickets, guppies or frogs.

Discovery Table Students examine objects at a specific location. They record their sensory observations through writing and drawing and generate questions and responses (notebook). Because children are asked to focus on a specific object, their writing often becomes detailed and poetic. The Other Way To Listen by Byrd Baylor http://www.wastatelaser.org/_support/toolkits/stc/organisms/lesson2.asp

Science Goals and Objectives Kindergarten: 3.01 Observe and describe the properties of different kinds of objects (clay, wood, cloth, paper, other) and how they are used. 3.02 Develop and use a vocabulary associated with the properties of materials: Color. Size. Shape. Texture. 3.03 Describe how objects look, feel, smell, taste, and sound using their own senses. 3.04 Observe that objects can be described and sorted by their properties. 1st Grade: 2.01 Describe and sort a variety of earth materials based on their properties: Hardness. 2.02 Describe rocks and other earth materials in more than one way, using student-made rules. 3.03 Classify solids according to their properties: Shape (ability to roll or stack). Ability to float or sink in water. 2nd Grade: 4.03 Show how the frequency can be changed by altering the size and shape of a variety of instruments. 4.05 Observe and describe how sounds are made by using a variety of instruments and other "sound makers" including the human vocal cords.

Careful Observation… One Small Square Observation Window http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/forkids/ Observation Window Listening Walk (Sensory Walk) In your grade level groups, connect your science objectives to the above…

Connections to Writing… “Our goal was that the kids’ newfound skills and looking for details would carry-over into their writing pieces and later into their poetry. We had recently been talking to the kids about adding details to their writing, and it occurred to us that maybe we were asking them to do something they didn’t know. If their observations of the world around them—and recordings of their observations—were general and vague, how could we expect details in their writing pieces during writing workshop? We realize that explicitly showing kids how to get up close and focus in on one thing would lead to writing with more detail.” p. 40 A Place for Wonder…