Salt Solutions!

Gargling with Salt Water!

Our lesson on Monday went really well! We started off with all the materials on their trays to make it easier to transport. My awesome partner Jen got the poster ready and hung our focus questions and process skills sheets on the board. We made them simple and colorful so the kids could read them from the back of the class and they could use them throughout the lesson to remind them what was going on! We decided to keep them in their seats today, breaking them into 6 small groups instead of pairs. Jen gave one student from each group the same colored sticker to designate who would get the materials, add and stir the mixtures first, second, and third. This was a great way to keep the chaos down and let each student have a special role in the group!

 We quickly went over the instructions with the class first because they were complex in steps. One of our process skills was to make inferences and we asked the kids what they knew about inferences. A lot of them said guessing and using their brains to guess. We asked them to observe the gravel, toilet paper, and salt  before they experimented with it, and we wrote it on the chart. We restated what the kids wrote and then told them they could add the gravel to the water and just observe without mixing. The kids seemed unimpressed with the lack of a reaction with the gravel but enjoyed trying to stir it with the flimsy wooden coffee stirrer! Many kids picked up on the fact that there is a small amount of sand in/on the gravel that was mixed with the water. They were more impressed/grossed out (!) by the toilet paper in water and loved swirling the salt in the mixture. Each time they observed before and after stirring and had a lot to say about each substance!

After we stirred and observed, we asked them what changed with each mixture, where they think the salt went, and to describe the properties of the new mixture. Many kids said the salt looked like a snowstorm or a hurricane! One student said the gravel looked like a fish tank! They were very descriptive in their observations and I'm so glad they were having fun with the lesson! We wrote about what changed with the water in each situation and then referred back to the first observation of the substances themselves. The kids were having a great time coming up with what "dissolving" meant and what a "solution" is. I think next time we'll go over both again enough to remind them and make sure they really understood. It was hard to get them to understand the salt is still in the water without having them drink it!

Next time we'll definitely continue with discussing the lesson's focus question. Also, our teacher made room to hang up our process skills and I have the focus questions so we'll be able to go over the vocab for each lesson.The flow of the class was fairly smooth! The designated stickers for group leaders really helped each kid understand we weren't choosing some kids more than others and allowed maybe some less-confident kids lead for a bit in each group! During out conversation on solutions, we addressed the misconception (and observation) that the salt disappeared in the water and tried to express that it was just uniform with the water. I'm excited for next lesson!