Thursday, October 02, 2008

Working with Wood








This week we continued to work with wood during Science. First we explored if it was possible to change the shape of wood. All the students answered, YES! We introduced sandpaper and the children sanded pieces of basswood. We observed what fell onto their paper plates as they sanded. It was both sand dust and wood dust.

Then, the next day, we looked at sawdust and wood shavings. We observed and recorded what we noticed. Then we added both to water and observed. We let the sawdust and wood shavings sit overnight and we were excited to see that all of the sawdust and most of the wood shavings had become waterlogged (our science word for the day). We brainstormed ideas as to how we could get the wood out of the water without making a mess or loosing any of the wood or water. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I introduced screens. The children each had a turn to practice using a screen to separate the wood from the water. I explained that we will be using several different sized screens during our next science unit "Pebbles, Sand, and Silt."

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