Science Fair Fun!
January is the time of year when all the Junior High students are completing and displaying their science fair boards for judging. The kindergarten has always taken the opportunity to join in the fun! The board we enter usually has a winter theme to it. This year, we decided to study ice and snow crystals and our project turned out to be really fun.
First we determined everything we already know about snow. Then we spent some time reading about them to gain some new knowledge. The munchkins now know that snowflakes are made of crystals and that every snowflake is different and special (just like them!). They also learned that each snowflake has six sides and that it must be below 32 degrees for snowflakes to form.
Our munchkins took this new information and each one used it to create a paragraph (yes...a paragraph) for our board. We focused on writing two new facts combined with a conclusion sentence about snow. The writing was amazing!
We then set the writing aside, ready for our experiment.
We wanted to see if we could grow our own crystal!
We used the recipe found here.
The munchkins added the borax to the hot water and let it dissolve.
Then we formed a blue pipe cleaner in to a six-sided snowflake which was suspended into the mixture.
We let that sit overnight. In the morning, we were so excited at what we found!
A crystallized snowflake!
Our experiment, combined with our writings, made a perfect display board. But it was missing something!
So we took some time to create several hand-made snowflakes to decorate our board, too.
These little sparkly pipe cleaner snowflakes were a real exercise in fine motor skills, and they were beautiful when they were done.
Then we moved on to folded paper snowflakes...
Cutting the folds was harder than it looked!
Unfolding was so exciting! What would they look like?
So pretty!
And the munchkins know enough about their teacher to know that we never do anything without food being involved...
So...
Nothing better than edible snowflakes!
We put it all together and our board made a great addition to the Junior High Science Fair.
Great job, little scientists!
Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.
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