Monday:
This afternoon we are going to read, The Story of Sand. (READ)
On Friday, you drew and labeled what you saw in the water and sand vial. When I
call your group you will walk over to the counter, take one vial, bring it to
your desk and observe.
Let’s discuss our observations. What do you see in the
vials? How many layers do you see? Where’s the sand? What do you see on top of
the sand? The layer of material on top of the sand is called silt. Everyone say
that. Silt is a particle of rock much smaller than sand. Shake your vial. What
do you notice? The silt goes back into the water.
Hands on your head. When I say go please take out the sheet
we were working on on Friday. Do not start, we will work through it together.
Go.
Take your pencil; we are going to label the drawings to
identify the layers we see in the vial. What is the space between the top of
the water and the vial cap called? Put your drawings in your science notebook
and put your science notebook in your desk.
Put your hands under your desk and your eyes on me. I have
SOAR tickets for students name. Listen carefully (DEMONSTRATE), each group of
partners is going to get a container. You will carefully pour off the water in
the vial. The sand and silt should remain in the vial. You may carefully touch the
top later of silt.
Tuesday:
Today I have a new earth material for you to observe. You
will make observations using your senses. Each of you is going to get a cube of
material and your job as a scientist is to find out all you can about it. Good
scientists ask questions. What does it feel like? What does it look like? What
can I do with it? What happens to my hands as I work with this material? What
is this material called? When I call your table stand up, walk to the counter,
take a cup, bring it back to your desk and explore the new earth material for 5
minutes.
Let’s take a few minutes to discuss our observations. What
is this material called? Yes, the new earth material is clay. What is special
about this material? What happened to your hands as you worked with the
material? Clay is made of pieces of rock even smaller than silt. Clay is made
of pieces of rock that are really, really small. The dust on your hands is
actually dry clay particles. ----CLAY SHEET----
You will pinch off a small piece of clay from your cube of
clay. The small piece should be about the size of a pea. Roll into a ball. Now
pinch off a larger piece of clay from your cube of clay and roll into a ball.
Punch your hands under your desk. DO NOT touch the clay balls.
What do you think would happen if we were to put a small
ball of clay in a vial with water? Great predictions! Eyes and ears on me as I
give these next directions. You are not doing this right now, you are watching.
Put the small ball of clay in a vial. Pour water into the vial almost to the
top. Watch what happens to the clay in the water for a minute or two. Remember
scientists make observations. Observe the clay in the vial. Observe what’s
happening to the clay. Observe what’s happening to the water. ---VIAL SHEET---
I am going to pass out a cap for your vial. Please put it on
tightly. Once your cap is on and you have made your observations I want to
challenge you to shake the vial until the clay balls disappear. Scientists make
observations as they are shaking. It is your job to determine if the clay ball
is getting smaller. It is a scientist’s job to describe changes in the water.
While you’re at gym I’m going to get a vial and I’m not
going to shake mine. Tomorrow, you’ll compare your vial with mine. We are going
to let the vials sit overnight. When I call your table you go put your vial on
the counter and get ready to go home.
Wednesday:
Today I have a new Earth material for you to explore. HOLD
UP BAG To explore this new material you are going to work in pairs at your
desk. Each pair is going to get a bag. You are scientists and your job as a
scientist is to first look at the material through the bag and then open the
bag a bit to smell and touch the contents. We are not pouring out the contents
in your bag. You are looking at the material through the bag and then opening
your bag a bit to smell and touch the contents. Questions? PASS OUT BAGS
CALL STUDENTS TO THE FLOOR Scientists make observations so
let’s take a minute to talk about what you observed. What does the material in
the bag look like? What does the material in the bag smell like? What does the
material in the bag feel like? The material in the bag is called, humus.
Everyone say that- humus. Humus is mostly plant material so parts of plants
like leaves and roots that have decayed or rotted. Decayed and rotted are two
big words and I want to take a minute to explain what they mean. Visualize a
pumpkin. When it rots it gets soft and mushy. When it decays it breaks down
even more and because pumpkins are 90% water they dry out and shrivel (wrinkle)
up. So maybe in our humus you’ll see a shriveled up leaf or parts of a root.
I have a recipe for an earth material that includes humus. I
have 4 cups- 2 containing sand, 1 containing gravel, 1 containing small pebbles
and we’ll also add your bags of humus. Scientists make predictions so let’s
take 5 predictions. What do you think we are going to make with these
ingredients? DUMP INTO THE BASIN/ NAME INGREDIENTS AS I DO SO
Now it is your turn to add your humus to the mixing basin.
ONE TABLE AT A TIME All the humus has been added so I am going to stir the
mixture. The name for the mixture we just made is called soil. Everyone say
that. Soil. Soil covers almost all of the Earth’s land surface. Soil is a
combination of earth materials like sand, gravel, pebbles, and humus, which is
rotting or decaying plant material.
Our I can statement is, “I can name the 4 earth materials in
soil.” Repeat after me. I CAN STATEMENT To review; the 4 earth materials in
soil are sand, gravel, pebbles, and humus. What are they?
We are going to create a project today. The very 1st
thing you are going to do is list the 4 earth materials in soil. What are they?
Great! That’s what you will write here. As you are writing what is in soil. I
will come around with a large white sheet of paper, a half sheet of brown, and
3 rectangle pieces of paper. The dark brown is your humus. The light brown is
sand. The light gray is your pebbles. This is my example. You are to do all the
cutting and gluing on your own. Remember, a little glue goes a long way. Most
of the time one or two dots of glue is going to be plenty. Questions?
Thursday:
Yesterday, we explored with humus.
We also learned the 4 earth materials in soil. What are they? Today we are
going to separate soil so our I can statement is, “I can separate soil.” Your
job as scientists is to find out how to take soil apart. You’ll start by
placing a sample of the soil on a paper plate. As scientists you’ll examine the
soil, try to separate it by hand, and shake the plate back and forth
(DEMONSTRATE) just like you did with the sand. Your plate needs to stay on your
desk as you shake.
What happened when you shook the
soil? The sand, gravel, and pebbles separated into groups but the humus did
not. What earth materials did we put in the soil? Humus, sand, gravel, and
small pebbles. Remember, you are trying to separate those 4 earth materials.
What are some tools you think we could use to separate the soil?
Remember these screens? (REVIEW
AND DEMONSTRATE) Each pair of students will get 3 screens and 4 containers. You
will combine your soil and work together. First you’ll put a paper plate under
a container. Next you’ll put the large screen on top of the container. You’ll
shake the soil on the screen and save what doesn’t go through. Then, you’ll
move on to the medium screen and then do the small screen. Questions?
We are going to discuss what
happened with the screening. Our I can statement for today’s lesson is, “I can
separate soil.” Repeat after me. Were you able to separate the soil with the
screens? What parts of the soil could you separate out with the screens? Where
did the humus end up? In each container. Why? What do the large pieces of humus
look like? The small pieces?
Friday:
Over the past few days we
have explored a lot with soil. What are the 4 earth materials in soil? Humus, gravel,
pebbles, and sand. What is humus? Rotting or decayed plant material. On Friday,
we separated the soil using screens. We also put some soil in a vial with water
and left it over the weekend. Today, we will observe what happened in your soil
and water vials. We will draw and label a picture of the vial as well.
When I say go you
will form one line towards the back counter. You will get a vial but do not
shake it. You are scientists and your job as a scientist is to make
observations.
CALL BACK What did
you observe in your soil and water vial? Humus, clay, silt, sand, gravel, and
pebbles. You may have noticed some of the humus is floating on the top and some
is mixed with the other materials. POWERPOINT
When I say go you
are going to walk back to your desk, take out your soil drawing sheet and
crayons. Do not shake your vial. Scientists draw an accurate representation of
what they see and if you shake your vial then your soil and water sample is
ruined.
