Field Day 2

Today in placement the students had a science lesson on sorting. To begin the lesson, my CT talked about how in the last science lesson the students watched an episode of the Magic School Bus about recycling. They discussed how in order to recycle; one must be able to sort. They then practiced this on a sand table! There were magnetic letters in the sand table, and the students had to try and figure out how to get the letters out of the sand. The CT had a small plastic shovel and tried to sort the letters using the shovel. They discussed how you could use a shovel to try and get the letters out, but that the shovel really wasn’t the best tool to use. The students and my CT talked about how a colander or magnets might be more useful. There was a discussion about how using either a colander or a magnet would be a more productive way of sorting the letters out of the sand. My CT showed the students out these tools worked. She explained to the kindergarteners that the sand would not stick to the magnets, but that the letters would. The students then had a chance to come up and help sort the letters themselves! Each of the students had a chance to get some hands on time experiementing with the tools. After each student had a chance, my CT counted the number of letters that they as a class had sorted out of the sand. Twenty-four letters had been sorted, which meant two more were still somewhere burried in the sand. The students crowded around the table and excitedly watched as my CT used a magnet to find the last two letters.
This seemed to be a really fun lesson for the kindergarteners to watch and participate in. They were interested in learning about sorting, and they were excited about the hands on part where they each had the opportunity to use the tools. The next lesson they do is going to be about sorting as well. They will be practing sorting magnetic objects verses non-magnetic objects. I think the students will be equally enthusiastic about this next lesson as they were about today’s lesson. When I was talking to my CT today, she said that because there isn’t too much time for science everyday, she always tries to have some sort of hands-on activity in order to get the students interested and paying attention.