We have had an action packed, intense two full weeks of learning.
Egg-cellent Science experiments and Chumash (the study of Torah) were pushed to the forefront of our studies.
Students learned a song to remember the names of the five books of the Torah, (to the tune of Adon Olam, the final prayer we sing in T’fillah (prayers))
We invited Rabbi Gouze to teach us about the Torah, then walked as a group to the Temple Emanu-El Chapel to pick up a Torah. Students sang
“ Torah, Torah, Torah” as we returned to our classroom in a procession.
With great fanfare, we unrolled the Torah and gave the students a chance to examine the Torah. We used Daniel’s Yad( pointer) which he brought in with his miniature Torah to find the word Beershit (In the beginning) . It was wonderful to hear and see the students excitement to having the the Torah in their classroom!
Egg-celent scientific observations
We began our first experiment with our in-depth investigation of human and animal teeth. Our essential question for this unit:
What do human and animal teeth have in common?
Students were introduced to the anatomy of a human teeth and key vocabulary such as: enamel, the crown, tooth decay, and gums.
The importance of brushing our teeth twice a day was driven home with our egg-speriment.
We compared the anatomy of a tooth and the anatomy of a chicken egg and discovered that the shell of an egg is very similar to human teeth. We then wondered what would happen if we smeared one egg with toothpaste and left another without toothpaste and then soaked both of them in sugary drinks over night.
Many students predicted that the egg with the toothpaste would get mushy or explode. One student declared they would change color.
Students worked in groups of four. Each group was given three cups, three hard boiled eggs, a blob of toothpaste, water and one of the following liquids; Regular Coke, Diet Coke, apple juice and chocolate milk. The students labeled each cup, smeared one egg
with toothpaste and one without. There was also a cup of water for the control group.
24 hours later, we observed our results then returned them to the liquids. After 6 days we took the eggs out again and recorded our results. Students used toothbrushes to brush the egg shells with
tooth paste and then washed them.
Below are the results of our experiment.
- Apple juice and Diet Coke turned our eggs the darkest with a texture of “Venus”
- All the eggs covered with toothpaste were significantly lighter.
- There were no change in the eggs when soaked in water.
- Chocolate milk eggs (though the smelliest) were the only eggs – after being brushed and washed – that returned to their original white state.
Conclusions:
- Don’t drink sugary drinks and go to bed without brushing your teeth or your teeth will turn brown (if you do it every day)
- The shells showed no change in consistency after one day but were easily cracked after 6 days.
Highlights in First Grade!
While conferencing privately with students at the end of the day, I overheard the sweet voices of a group of students singing the Hebrew alphabet and reading from the miniature Torah and using a yad (the pointer)to follow along. So Precious!
Shavouah Tov to all!
(a good week)
Looking forward to meeting all of you on Tuesday!