Sky Inquiry

I was so pleased at the enthusiastic response received after announcing the focus of our Science inquiry this term - the sky. One of the big ideas in the new Science Curriculum is:

• Observable patterns and cycles occur in the local sky and landscape

I told them in the morning so they could ponder it throughout the day. We came together in the afternoon to share our wonders about the sky. I asked them…

What kinds of patterns in the sky and landscape are you aware of? What questions do you have about things you see in the sky? What do you wonder? I charted their questions as they shared, there was no shortage of wonders!

The next day we grouped our wonders into common groups and found three themes emerged:

1. day and night

2. clouds

3. stars

We spent a few days focussing on what causes day and night, reading and discussing and sharing our understanding about the earth, the sun and the moon.

When asked why the sun is important they responded:

• gives us day time - Tanushi
• keep us warm - Shanzay
• we get Vitamin D - Maisy
• Mexico wouldn't be warm - Eli
• we can see (light) - Markus
• animals couldn't survive without it - Hawken

These questions acted as a springboard for more questions. Could we survive without the sun? Could any living things survive? 

The class had a blast making mini plasticine earths which they inserted skewers into so they could practice explaining day and night with a partner while the sun shone through our classroom window. Hearing their excitement in the learning they'd been doing was priceless. I was inspired to share with you on Seesaw.

I spent a morning sitting down with the children and allowing them a chance to show and tell their understanding of day and night with me and you, on their Seesaw portfolios. Here's a peek at the cart - iPads, model earths, questions ready to go. They were exceptional young scientists. So much fun!

This week we shifted gears to take a closer look at clouds. We read and watched a video about the water cycle and did an experiment to help solidify their understanding of how clouds form. The big words we tried to unpack this week were…

Accumulation

Evaporation

Condensation

Precipitation

I'm sure many of you heard about the experiment - Cloud in a Jar - and have possibly tried it at home since! It was pretty cool. They recorded their observations in the form of a drawing/labeled diagram. We'll continue our inquiry into clouds next week, exploring different types and document our learning through art and writing to share our learning. 

The photo below is a quick snap of the cloud forming in the jar. We added warm water to represent ground water warmed by the sun's heat, then sprayed a quick shot of aerosol hairspray in the jar to create pollution, or particles in the air, for the water vapour (invisible), to cling to. The lid was quickly  placed on top to seal the air inside. Ice cubes in the lid mimic the cooler air above. Some of the water vapour condensed into water droplets which clung the walls of the jar. The best part was releasing the cloud, watching it escape from the jar when the lid was removed.