Water Cyle

Look right in front of you. Do you see that? Yes, right there all around you.  It's water vapor!  Over the past month, 1st graders have become weather experts.  We transformed into scientists and began a water cycle experiment.  Students were paired up to construct their Mr. Potato head inspired water cup to be filled with water and placed around the classroom. Some experiment cups had nothing on top of them, other had napkins, tissue paper, monkey duct tape and even plastic bags. We need lots of variables for a good scientific experiment.

Once experiment cups were filled with water, students worked as pairs to make a hypothesis about what they predicted would happen to the water in their cup.  Scientists observed all month making notes, diagrams and observations in their journals.  Today was the last day of our experiment because the cup with no covering had only one single drop of water left!  It took a few weeks but the water sure did evaporate.

Not only are 1st graders scientists but they have also turned into meteorologists and learned all about clouds.  We have learned about four main types of clouds: cumulus, cirrus, stratus & cumulonimbus. Students have learned describing words for these clouds, constructed cloud flip books and even went on a cloud QR hunt with the iPads. Once students became experts on clouds, they made their own cloud flip book using cotton balls to make realistic looking clouds then flipped open their books to write describing words.

Do you know which clouds are the dark and stormy clouds? Or which clouds sometimes look like pancakes?

After 1st graders learned all about weather, they used the iPads to go on a QR hunt. Using the app, Qrafter, students worked in pairs to scan the QR codes located around the classroom. When students scanned each code it brought them to a question about clouds. They discussed the answer with their partner and then recorded it on their answer sheet. Try scanning the code below (all you need is any free QR scanning app).

Try scanning this code!

Make sure to take a peek at the clouds with your child. They have tons of cloud knowledge to share! Science is as much fun as being on cloud nine!