The start of another school year brings review and introduction of some vital science understandings. Classifying is the word of the day at Camelot. One of the ways we do this is through the introduction of a box of very common objects. Games can be played in which objects are grouped according to common characteristics and students from other groups must figure out how the materials have been classified. A science word wall is created with a list of ways that the objects can be classified. We later expand the list to include other ways that scientists use classification in the world around them (plants, animals, rocks and minerals, weather conditions, machines, etc.).
The objects in the boxes can also be measured, magnified, compared and manipulated to explore motion, density, conductivity,and a wide variety of other things.
