EC 3 students have learned about ‘How The World Works’ during our time within this unit over the last two and a half months. The children have explored, discovered, and investigated some simple science activities which we prepared and offered at our invitation tables. We started with a nature walk as a Tuning In activity into our unit. The children found natural and non-natural materials while walking through the school playground and grassy area. During this activity, they collected and shared what they had found. We prepared some simple hands-on science activities which we offered at our invitation tables every day. We changed them every week to keep things fresh and interesting.
We introduced and exposed them to the scientific method before we did each experiment. It started with making a guess or hypothesis, then allowing the students to have fun exploring the materials given, and then at the end, they made a conclusion about what they had noticed or what had happened.
To discover the third line of inquiry, “How We Use Materials”, we read a book entitled “Bunny Cakes”. As knowledgeable students, they understood that to find the ingredients, we had to go to the supermarket. At the end of February, we had a great experience visiting and shopping at Ranch Market for the ingredients to make a cake. All the students curiously looked around to find the ingredients we needed. Finally, we had fun using those ingredients we bought together to bake a cake. The children helped to mix and stir the ingredients together. During baking time, we discussed the types of matter that each ingredient was and how the cake batter was a liquid. We also discussed how it turned into another type of matter, a solid. After the cake cooled, was frosted and decorated, we shared it with many friends.