The Flower Experiment

Perhaps one of the best things about teaching Kindergarten is seeing the "ah-ha" moment when a child figures something out and there is such excitement and life in his/her eyes. Last Friday was one of those days. I showed the class a bouquet of white flowers and explained a friend had brought them to school for me. I then proceeded to tell them that even though I really like flowers, my favourite kind of flowers are bright colourful ones. I went on to say I was trying to figure out a way to change the colour but decided since I have "the smartest Kinders in the world" perhaps they could help me figure out a "strategy" to do such a thing. I posed the question, "how can we change the colour of the flowers?" Quickly the response of, "colour or paint the petals" was heard. We quickly decided that would probably kill the flower and that was NOT our goal!  I posed the question, "if we can't change the outside, can we somehow change something inside the flower?" I passed around some petals and had the Kiddoes examine them and try to find the "lines". I explained the "lines" were in fact veins. Right away some said, "We have veins too". (Great connection) "Yes", I said. "Just like our veins which carry blood through our body, veins in plants carry water to all its parts".

And then it happened.... the moment.... gasps were uttered!

"What if we change the colour of the water and the veins carry red water, will the flower turn red?"

I proceeded to discuss the "scientific procedure" of making predictions, observing your experiment and recording the findings. We quickly (and very excitedly) sat down to begin our experiment. Every Kiddoe received his/her own flower. They had a great time observing it, smelling it, comparing it and having some interesting (and funny) conversations with their friends. Then as a class we recorded our observations on "Day 1" and chose which colour of water we wanted to place our flowers. Our room is very excited to see where our experiment will lead!!!!

 

 

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