Kindergarten Scientists

We've begun to learn about what a scientists is and how they do what they do. Our class discussed "what is a scientist" this week and came up with some really great ideas. In the words of our kindergarteners, a scientist is:
*someone who discovers things
*someone who finds dinosaur bones
*someone who looks at stuff to try to make new stuff
*someone who asks questions
*someone who knows a lot about outside

After we thought about what we think a scientist is, we read a book and found out they observe, write, draw pictures, make predictions, experiment many times, measure, and keep on trying.

After we did all of this thinking and listening, we were ready for our own experiment! I asked them to make a prediction of where water would go away faster - the sun or the shade. We had a 50/50 prediction on where it would go away faster, so we decided to jump right in an experiment ourselves.

As scientists, we tried to find out if the water would disappear faster in the sun or in the shade. So, we painted water in both areas.

We painted water lines all over the pavement! 

Most of us found that the water disappeared faster in the sun, others were thinking the shade might make the water disappear faster. 

Once we had tested our predictions with the water, we went back inside to write and draw about our findings. Most of the children noticed that the water went away faster in the sun. Here are some examples of their work: