Mystery Box

Today I introduced the "Mystery Box" in my classroom. I like to call it the "I Wonder...Box." I placed an unknown object in the box related to something we have been talking about in class. The students sit in a circle and pass the box from person to person. When a student is in possession of the box they can shake it and move it around. Then they must ask me one yes or no question about the object. This helps the students gather more clues in order to identify the unknown object. If the object is not guessed the mystery box goes around the circle again and students are allowed to add the sense of touch. Again asking yes or no questions. If the object makes it all the way around the circle again without being identified, I give additional clues.

The children did not guess the exact object, but they asked great questions. They deductedthe object was a seed that would grow a tree, so they were very close. The object was an avocado pit.

Next we watched a "How To Plant an Avocado Seed" video, we followed the steps and put the avocado in our science center with our sunflower plants. Last week we read, "Frog and Toad Together." The characters Frog and Toad grew gardens. We planted sunflower seeds February 11th. The students have been observing the seeds daily and recording their observations in a science journal. Most of the seeds sprouted within seven days.

 

At the end of the day, I told the class we needed ladybugs for our garden. We went outside to observe hundreds of little yellow creatures crawling all over our milkweed plant. I put a leaf full of creatures under a magnifying glass for students to observe more closely. Then, I read them a book called, "Are You A Ladybug?" to see if the information in the book would help them figure out why I made the statement that we need ladybugs. One of my students knew right away. He said because ladybugs eat aphids. This same student made a connection with another book called, "A Very Hungry Caterpillar," because a caterpillar eats, grows and sheds like a ladybug. So we talked about life cycles and metamorphosis. Which led to another book connection, our reading text this week was called, "I'm a Caterpillar."

 

One of my students told me we didn't need ladybugs that we could just spray the plants with soapy water. I asked him how he knew this. He told me his dad was putting soap on their plants at home and he asked his dad why he was putting soap on the plants. His father told him that soap gets rid of the bugs, but does not harm the plants. So, here these boys are spraying the plant with soapy water. We shall see what happens. During this conversation we talked about pesticides and how people should "go green" and use less harmful ways of getting rid of pests. One student asked why do people use pesticides in the first place if it harms animals and our water. That led to a conversation about needs and wants; supply and demand; and GREED (money). I'd like to point out we did not do any worksheets or write any papers, but we certainly had a rich discussion.

 

Next we looked at the aphids under a microscope. We ended our day comparing and contrasting how aphids look under a magnifying glass and under a microscope.