Candy Hearts Science Lab

Happy Valentine's week, friends!  It's Elisabeth from Literacy and Lattes here to share a some of the Valentine's fun that will be happening in my classroom this week.  You're probably already planning on sorting candy hearts, right?  Keep the fun going with these little science labs. 

You'll need candy hearts, 4 cups, vinegar, salt, baking soda, water and a spoon for mixing. 

Fill one cup with water and a tablespoon-ish of salt.  One with water and about a tablespoon of vinegar and another with water and tablespoon of baking soda.  The fourth cup is filled with only water. 

Add a candy heart to each of the cups.  We decided to make sure we used the same color in each for the "most accurate" results. Little scientists are very serious about making sure their research is carried out appropriately!  ;)  Don't forget to write your hypothesis and predict what will happen to each of the hearts. 

Let your hearts soak for about 15 - 20 minutes and observe what happens. 

Right away you can see some good bubble action as the air makes it's way out of the candy. 

While we wait, we wanted to answer the age old question: Do the different colors of candy hearts actually taste different?



We did a very scientific blind taste test.  Cover your eyes and hold out your hand so your partner can give you a candy heart.  Eat it and guess the color.  Then you partner confirms the actual color.  You can find this taste test freebie here. 

Revisit your hearts and document your results. 

I actually got different results using two different brands of candy hearts, which was surprising. 

With Necco Sweathearts pictured here, all four hearts basically dissolved and turned the water blue.  In the salt water cup, you could see little pieces of the red words floating at the top of the water, along with the little cluster of dissolved sugar.  

salt water                                                 vinegar water

water                                                   baking soda water

After we looked at and compared the four cups, we scooped out the hearts and compared them to the control (un-soaked heart).

Using a different brand of candy hearts (I have no idea which kind since I didn't save the bag) at school, we got some different results.  

 

Salt water dissolved some, the heart in vinegar water didn't even change the color of the water...

and baking soda water was floating!!  I'd love to tell you I understand the difference between the two kinds of hearts, but I have no idea!

You can grab my lab booklet here. 

I hope you have a "wicked cool" Valentine's Day with your kiddos! 



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Winter Science Experiments

Hello there!!  I'm Megan Baker, a first grade teacher born and raised in Kansas, blogger at Mrs. Baker's Dozen, and currently 5 lbs overweight.  Well....it could be ten.  What can I say?  I love Christmas candy! :)

In my first grade classroom, we absolutely love science!  I mean, LOVE.  The second I say the words science experiment, the room is silent.  Even the chattiest of kiddos.  It's quiet because they know by now that they will have instructions to follow and if they don't listen, they don't get to participate.  Sad, but true my friends.


I have two experiment tips for you.  Before you start a major experiment, I would go over your expectations.  I would create a quick anchor chart to hang so that kids can be reminded easily.  

The next tip would be to practice it beforehand!  I tried these two with my daughters.  If it gets my girlies excited, I know it will be a home run! :)  

Our first one is the Arctic Volcano.  Here are the printables included in my Winter Science pack.

We use this same experiment in September when we study apples.  Instead of carving out the middle of an apple, we put the baking soda in a small plastic container, set it in another bigger container, and surround it with ice to create an 'Arctic Volcano'.   We added blue food coloring at the end and it was a success!!

Our next experiment is Baby, It's Frosty Outside.  Totally simple and easy, a great way to introduce a unit on snow/ice/arctic animals.  

Simple, but so fun to write on some frost that we made ourselves!  :)  

I'm so happy to be apart of this sweet collaborative blog!  Thanks for joining me here today and if you'd like to take a peek at the rest of my Winter Experiments pack, you can see it on sale at my TPT Store HERE.  I've included a snowflake life cycle interactive reader, too.  

Thanks for stopping by!!!    

;) Meg

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Candy and the Scientific Method!

Hello all! Once again, welcome to The Primary Punchbowl! I am so very excited to be a part of this inspiring group of women. It is unbelievably humbling to find a group of women that supports one another in the way each of them has done for me and I feel beyond blessed to now be collaborating with them in this new venture!

Today I'm here to talk about my favorite subject to teach, science! There are so many things to love about science instruction. It gets kids talking and working on their collaborative skills. There are so many opportunities for a-ha moments. It can be tied into just about any unit or theme under the sun! So this week, it was all about Candy Science for us!

This week, my team and I introduced our students to the Scientific Method. We have chosen to place extra emphasis on teaching the whole process step-by-step. What better way to get our kiddos involved than with CANDY?! Obviously, it's a huge motivator for everyone. So, today... I'm outlining 2 experiments that my class completed this week. And there may or may not (there will be!) a freebie to pick up at the end! :)

Experiment #1 -- Dancing Raisins

This is an absolute favorite of mine.

Alright... I know that this technically doesn't use candy. I know, I know... but raisins are readily available in our school. Every student is given a free breakfast, snack, and lunch daily... and roughly 3 days a week, that snack is raisins. Now, the kiddos get sick of them pretty quickly, so they love having another use for them (I much prefer this use than the throwing them... stashing them in the backs of desks... and some of the other lovely things our kiddos choose to do with them!).

Here is a quick video from YouTube of just how to complete the experiment.

Side note: For more AWESOME videos of science experiments with kids, search Hoopla Kidz Lab on YouTube! 

What makes this experiment a great choice for introducing the scientific method is that there is really only 1 step to the procedure: put the raisins in the soda.

It's a phenomenal way to teach the 6 steps in the scientific method while completing an engaging experiment! Just look at the focus on my kiddos' faces!

My favorite part is listening to their conversations about why the raisins end up dancing!

Here you can see us doing a Scramble and Discuss activity -- the struggle is real, all. We're a week out from Halloween so I've been pulling this strategy out quite a bit, lately.

Experiment #2 -- Candy Sink/Float

This next experiment doesn't have a nifty video.

And unfortunately, full disclosure here... my phone died this week. And I am a total spaz about the cloud... and therefore, I have no photos of this experiment. :( So for that, I am so sorry!

For this experiment, grab a bag of mixed candy. I prefer the Snickers, Three Muskateers, etc... bag. Then, have your students hypothesize which candies will sink or float. A lot of kiddos will say the same thing for all of the candies. But it's pretty interesting to hear their thoughts on why certain candies sink and others float.

I'll give you a quick run-down of how it plays out.

Those candies with nuts in them... sink

Candies with nougat are more airy and tend to float!

Tasting the candy is an integral part of the investigation, but obviously BE AWARE OF ALLERGIES!

Some of my other FAVORITE candy science experiments are:

• How can we make a marshmallow sink?
• Floating M's (or S's in Skittles)
• Dissolve candy in multiple liquids
• Soak gummy candies in different liquids
• Melting speeds of different candies

What are your favorites?

So how do I guide 1st grade students to complete full lab reports in a developmentally appropriate manner? Well, it's all about the interactive notebook!

I created this page and made about a bajillion copies. My plan is to slowly phase out use of it as students master the steps of the scientific method.

I am so sorry that I don't have many photos of this page in action  (see above for my spastic phone issues), but I promise to update this post tomorrow as soon as I get to school. 

To make up for it, I'm offering a freebie! Click HERE to download your own copy! 

What are some of your favorite ways to teach the scientific method?

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Pumpkin Science

Hey!  It's Andrea from Always Kindergarten.  I'm so glad you stopped by The Primary Punchbowl today.  Teaching science wasn't really my "thing" in my first few years of teaching.  But now I absolutely LOVE to teach science!  

"I have no time," you say.  "It's so much prep," you say.  

Oh, but it's so much fun!

I teach thematically so my science and social studies are embedded in my themes.  This gives me the time to sneak science in with whole group and small group activities.  And yes, as with anything, there's always some prep to do.  But it doesn't have to be a lot.  Kids are curious creatures and love to explore.  That's what science is all about!  

This time of year, we are exploring pumpkins!  I do a pumpkin theme over two weeks in October but it could easily be done in just one.  The prep is minimal.  All you need are a few different pumpkins (many grocery stores will donate the funnier looking pumpkins to teachers!), a tub of water, something to measure with (we use linker cubes), and some carving tools.  

Week 1

Investigating the outside of the pumpkin!

The students begin by talking about the pumpkin and what they notice.  They discuss size, shape, color, texture, temperature, etc.

As all good scientists do, we record our observations and investigation results in our Pumpkin Journals. 

Then we count the ribs (lines) on the outside of the pumpkin and measure how tall it is with linker cubes.

Then comes the real fun!  Will the pumpkin sink or float?!  We always make a prediction before testing it out.

 

We also learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  I love these "Let's Read And Find Out" books for science topics.

 

Week 2

Investigating the inside of the pumpkin!

Students love to get their hands on their learning.  They can't wait to get inside the pumpkin to find out what's in there!  Estimating the number of seeds is always a ton of fun.  It's great for counting to 10 and skip counting.  We use counting mats to help us keep track.

 

It's amazing just how many seeds can be inside a pumpkin!

Last, we work on labeling the parts we see.

After 2 weeks of pumpkin fun, we celebrate by roasting pumpkin seeds!

Want to have some pumpkin fun of your own?  You can find all of the journal pages we used in this unit in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

What are your favorite pumpkin activities?

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