News

It's Apple Time In Kindergarten!

Our kindergarten students spent all of last week learning about apples, and closed out the week with an Apple Celebration! The amazing kindergarten team made up of Mary Jane Watson, Melissa Shockley, Kari Silvester, Braden Cruz, and Alex Alford does a fantastic job of creating fun activities that engage students while achieving curriculum objectives.

“We started the week with each class creating an anchor chart of prior knowledge of apples,” explained Shockley, “and we added to it throughout the week as new information was learned! We did apple sight words, labeled the parts of an apple, and tasted different treats made from apples. We also integrated and incorporated apples in reading, science, centers, and math stations. This included an apple investigation as a simple experiment to measure and weigh apples with cubes.”

Other exciting experiments were also taking place during apple week. Students made Apple Volcanoes by mixing baking soda, food coloring and vinegar together, and placing it into a cored apple.  

“The vinegar made it explode!!!” exclaimed Dakota Mackenzie. “It went everywhere!!” added her classmate Finn Turner with excitement. 

Other classes hypothesized which liquid would stop the apples from turning brown - water, milk, or lemon juice. They soaked apple slices in each substance and then checked on them every 15 minutes until they discovered an answer (lemon juice won)!

The kindergarten classes sure know how to celebrate Fall in an academic, creative, and tasty way!

Skittles & Science: Creating A Fun Connection

The third graders in Mrs. Andrew’s class recently got to play with their food, all in the name of science.

With work packets in hand they set out in groups to answer the question, “Does water temperature affect the decay of Skittles placed in it?” Students dug into the project and took on the role of scientists.

Together students tackled the scientific method by coming up with a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting the experiment by placing skittles in both warm and cold water, tracking their data and coming up with their conclusion.

“Students enjoyed being scientists and following the scientific method!” said Mrs. Andrews. “I love to see the excitement they display as they do the experiments.” 

What was the outcome? Warm water dissolves the dye and sugar more quickly than cold, and as it does, creates a swirl of rainbow colors. We loved seeing these students excited about learning science!