Chemical Reactions

Another super chatty day in 5-6th grade. I woke up with a sore throat (there's a cold going around school), so that didn't help either. But overall we had a good learning day. 

The 5-6th graders had their first lab today. It went pretty well from my point of view. We went over the lab prior to today so they'd know what to do. Before we began, I gave my safety spiel. Boy, they would not keep their goggles on their faces! They had a great time mixing liquids and checking for chemical reactions. I thought they'd have some supplies leftover. Nope. Two groups used them all, dumping various combinations of things together in the test tubes to see if they could 'make an explosion'. The closest they came was mixing vinegar or lemon juice with baking soda. Still, they got the test tubes to overflow! 

I split the class into three groups according to academic level. I don't think the kids realized how I split them up. The upper and middle level groups had three in them and I joined the low level kids to make them an even three. Those two worked at their own pace; I kept them on track and popped over to the other groups from time to time to check in. It worked fantastic! Tomorrow we'll work on conclusions during Writers Workshop. That was a sudden brainstorm I had five minutes before clean-up. In the past, we've struggled to cram the whole lab into the short science time. Conclusions always get gypped. Not this time!