Science is Everywhere

This year our kindergarten science unit started off with a chance for students to feel like real scientists.  They were asked to help the children of Mariposa Grove to solve a problem.  Right away my students were engaged and curious how they could help these children.  The children of Mariposa Grove wanted to find out why there were no more monarch caterpillars in the field near their school.  We were both excited to help and slightly overwhelmed wondering how we were going to find the answer to their question.  Through some discussion, nature walks, observation, and research we gradually uncovered the answer.  What a realistic science experience!  We started with a simple question and worked to figure out.

First, we went on a nature walk to observe living things.  This helped us to understand the difference between living things and nonliving things.  We then found out the the field in Mariposa Grove was changed to a garden.  We realized that the plants in the field and garden were different.  Many of the same animals and insects lived in both the field and the garden.  Brown birds, ants, and bees lived in the field and still live in the garden.  Through some observation and research, we found out that the monarch caterpillars did not live in the garden anymore because they did not have food to eat in the garden.  Next, we used our handbook of plants to figure out what monarch caterpillars eat.  When studying the picture we realized that the milkweed that monarch caterpillars eat was in the field and no longer in the garden.  We were beyond excited to realize that we answered the question!!!

As our science unit was unraveling, we had a very special guest come to teach us a little more about her passion!  We love Mrs. Trabilsy!!! She has visited us a few times already to share information about seeds and plants.  She brought seeds from her garden to share with us and taught us how to plant them.  When she came back to visit we were excited to share the growth of our flowers and had thousands of questions about when they would be flowers and why some grew and some did not and how we could tell which were marigolds and which were nasturtiums.  After she helped us to answer many questions she completed another experiment with us.  We put a variety of flowers in colored water to see if the water really does travel up the stem to the flower.  The kindergartners are so excited to return to school tomorrow to see if the flowers will change color!


All of this hands on science is creating quite a buzz in kindergarten.  We know that Mrs. Trabilsy teaching us about plants will help us to continue solve the problem that began our science unit.  Our knowledge about plants will help when we move to the next stage of our science unit.  We are going to find out if planting milkweed will bring the monarch caterpillars back to Mariposa Grove!