Scientific method exploration

Hello, families!

Much of what I employ in the classroom is the brain child of someone else.  I found this blog and became enthralled with this teacher's methodologies and care for her kids.  I attempted to replicate her lessons on scientific method.  All credit goes to Deanna Jump, teacher, blogger extraordinaire for these kid friendly posters:

I explained to the children simply:

• Scientists observe (look)
• Scientists ask a question
• Scientists make a guess
• Scientists do an experiment
• Scientists record data
• Scientists come to a conclusion

 We began this unit of study by painting a rainbow, one color at a time.  I didn't want the kids to get their uniforms dirty, so.....I emptied out my drawers and gave them my clean shirts to wear.  I don't think it bothered them at all...

I tried to explain that science is observing change.  So, using color we formulated a question; what happens if we mix two colors?  We mixed water with yellow food dye and water with red food dye. 
I thought they would change to orange. 

No such luck!  But, I told the children that as scientists we could not give up!  We tried again.
This time, we used water with yellow food dye and water with green dye. 
Oh!  How the children's faces lit up when the water turned green!! Yay!!
Next week, we will explore with sorting and graphing.

Enjoy!
Mrs. C.