Thumper's Science Notebooking Pages!

Thumper and Bambi have been doing a great job on their notebooking pages.  I'm trying to get Thumper to write more and he doesn't groan much when it comes to writing in science.  We are finishing up the Sun, Moon, planets, and Solar System before following Flower the rest of the way with Elemental Science.  They will move onto climates and weather this summer!

Thumper's Creations:  He loved learning about volcanoes and created this picture himself on his dry erase board.  You can check out our volcano we made on the Elemental Science Page. 

Inside Earth Activities!

Bambi & Thumper have been learning Science with Flower for a couple of weeks.  We have been studying Earth Science.  Last week we read about the layers of earth, did an activity with clay, and made an edible earth to eat!  Here are a few pictures of them working together!  You can check out pictures of our yummy edible earth on the Elemental Science page. Scroll down to the bottom.

Casts & Molds

I've been combining Thumper and Bambi in Science lately.....expecting more lab writing from Bambi.  It has been so much easier than doing science separately.  This activity is one of the first activities in our Earth Science course.  They really enjoyed getting their hands sticky with this one!  We were discussing fossils, how they form, and the three kinds of fossils. (imprints, molds, and casts)

We formed a flattened piece of clay thick enough that they wouldn't press through it with their shells.  The kids picked out their own shell and starting rubbing them with vaseline so it would easily come out of the mold.  I told them that we were going to make plaster of paris pancakes so we needed to mix plaster of paris with water until we had our batter consistency.  Then I let them each scoop their batter into their molds.  No fighting who was going first, either!  I was impressed!!   

 

The Molds are ready! 

Making goofy faces is a requirement in our experiments.

Filling their molds.

The casts came out nicely!  You can see a lot of detail, too! 



Science

                                              

Bambi and Thumper have enjoyed studying Earth Science lately and have learned a lot.  It's been quite a bit of planning on my part because I choose not to purchase a science curriculum.  We are working with the resources that we have and it's turning out to be a great science year with the two of them.  I started out separating their Science, but it was just too much to flip flop back and forth.  So they do it mostly together.  Bambi will read harder selections and Thumper will join in with his own younger version book about whatever topic we are studying.  I've posted some pictures of what they have been doing for science class.  Thumper is always doing some sort of science and it would be nearly impossible for me to capture it all! 

Julie (Bambi's American Girl doll) joined us for Science today!

 What is soil?  How do you make soil?  What is in soil and how are they different?  We compost, so this was nothing quite new for them, but it still gave them a chance to observe and make conclusions. 

 I've been trying hard to remind Bambi to show neat work and take pride in her work.  She has been showing improvements in those areas lately and I'm proud of her!

 Science is Thumper's favorite lesson!  He has really beefed up his writing lately and has stretched out of his comfort zone at times!  Love it!

We've been discussing how rocks can crack due to extreme change in temperatures.  We took a glass marble and held it over a candle flame for a couple minutes.  Then the kids immediately dropped it in an ice cold glass of water.  There we watched it crack inside.  Pretty cool experiment!



 

   

 We have been learning about Earthquakes.  We've watched videos from Netflix and Discovery Education .....We read about vibrations and seismic waves.....we are reading quite a bit about earthquakes.  Everywhere we go lately they notice a book or movie about earthquakes and I watch their little wheels turn!
 

Thumper's Science

 Thumper's 1st Grade Science

Classifying Leaves into traits

Thumper Loved making his terrarium with living and non living things from the yard. Now, he wants to make a desert terrarium!

This is our Cactus Sponge all dried up and hard. He is learning about how they store water.

He poured water over the sponge.

He really thought this was cool! Then we discussed the whole meaning of the experiment. He did play with the sponge the rest of the day! It's always the simplest things that my kids enjoy the most!

He made his own lab sheet in his Science Log! Love it!

Here is some BEAUTIFUL coloring of a desert habitat!

Thumper enjoyed creating with clay and making a desert scene.

Here is his Octopus he made while studying the ocean habitat

He is checking out pond water that he collected at the park today. Thumper has been studying fresh water and salt water habitats the last couple weeks.

I thought this dragonfly made with wax paper, tape, pipe cleaners, and a straw turned out cute!

We have been using our subscription of Studies Weekly, which is alligned to our state, as a jumping off point in science.....then we just add fun activities, videos, and books to make it all come together! This week and last we have been studying the moon, sun, and bits about space.

Thumper has really enjoyed this study!

Thumper loves watching birds.....we made bird crafts, did bird watching, and read a lot about birds!

Making bird seed cakes with seed, flour, and corn syrup.

Mash into pan....

Then cut with cookie cutters.

Thumper decided to hang it under his new tree fort.....

I have an avid rock collector....so we are going to learn all about it!

He broke out the magnifier and observed for quite sometime. He picked out his favorite rocks, too, and learned there names.

We are using this & this to add to our study of rocks. Here is the activity we did about the Rock Cycle....Thumper did this along with his sister Bambi.....When finished, they really did grasp the cyle of rocks and were able to retell it back to me.