By: Frances Stanford
Many teachers agonize about planning science lessons for Grade 1. They think that the students are too young to take part in science experiments. This is because they associate science experiments with using chemicals and Bunsen Burners. At this grade level, there are many experiments you can do in class with the students that are perfectly safe and do not put the students in any danger.
For example, it is easy to plan a lesson related to using the five senses. A taste test, or an experiment where the children are blindfolded and have to identify certain foods by the way they taste, smell and feel, is perfectly acceptable. The only precaution you would have to take in this type of lesson is to make sure that none of the children have any allergies to the foods you plan to bring into the classroom.
To teach the concept of using the sense of hearing, it is quite easy to make a tape recording of certain noises and see whether the students can identify them. In order to evaluate the lesson to see whether or not the students have achieved the objective, you can have them draw a picture to tell what they learned, retell it to you or have them write a sentences in their journal or learning log.
If you wish you can also have the students create noises of their own using materials that you bring in, such as scraping a comb over glass or the sound of chalk on the chalkboard. Many of the activities that you use with science lesson plans dealing with sound will also achieve the objectives for your music curriculum as well, so you might want to work with the music teacher on this section.
Some of the outcomes that you need to address in Science lessons for Grade 1 are:
1. Students will be able to identify the five senses
2. Students will be able to demonstrate ways that materials can be used to alter their smell and taste
3. Students will demonstrate ways we can use materials to make different sounds
4. Students will describe ways in which materials can be changed to alter their appearance and texture
5. Students will demonstrate how each of the senses helps us to recognize, describe and safely use a variety of materials.
You can teach all of these objectives using fun activities to keep the students interested. You have to think of the age of the students and realize that these activities are very simple, yet relevant to students in Grade 1.
What kind of activity could I use to teach Objective 3 – Students will describe ways in which materials can be changed to alter their appearance and texture? You have to keep in mind that you don’t have to get the students to do all the experiments. You can do some with them watching and then ask them questions about what happened. For this objective, you can take a piece of paper towel. Pass it around to all the students so that they know what it looks and feels like. Soak it in water and then show the result. Students can immediately see how the appearance and the texture of the material have changed.
When you are teaching Science lessons in Grade 1, you should always look for appropriate children’s literature so that you start the lesson off with a story to peak their interest.
“How Paper is Made” by Arthur Lockwood is a good book to use for this lesson because it describes the changes in the appearance of a tree from the time it is cut down until it is made into paper.
