Science- Making Things Happen {Project Freebie}

I might have said it before, but as a student I dreaded science in elementary school. I just remember a lot of textbooks and paperwork. It wasn't until I was in high school that I really learned I liked science and was good at it. I mean I took Chemistry for fun in high school and college. Yup...you can say it nerd alert!

As a teacher, I made a promise that I would not make science boring. It would not be filled with textbooks and worksheets. After all, it is about learning about the world around us and what better way then to get involved with it.

Our first unit this year was about light- how it travels, how we can see, what it travels through and how. We did some quick little experiments. Some of them involved using mirrors and flashlights to understand how to bend light. I actually gave them targets to fit on the classroom walls. We used pencil shavings and a flashlight to learn how light travels in a straight line.

We made sundials. This involved going outside three different times on the hour. It was amazing to see how well this worked.

At 1:00 pm. 

We taped them on the sidewalk and they lasted all afternoon. 

A completed one... at least for the school day. We made an estimate where the shadow would be at 6:00 p.m.

We used these directions to make ours.

For our final project, we made light mobiles. Students were required to have five elements:
1. Transparent material
2. Translucent material
3. Opaque material
4. Something that bends light
5. Something that reflects light.
After creating their mobiles they had to write about them in their booklet. It is free for you as well! Click here!

Here are photos of our mobiles in progress:

As you can see some of our materials- a variety of beads, plastic bags, straws, coffee filters, cotton balls, foil, and the favorite- glitter glue. 

 One of our final steps with our booklet had us go outside to observe and record the shadows our mobiles made.

Hope you are all enjoying science even half as much as I am!