🐝 Pollinator Project Update!

Our class is learning all about pollinators and how we can help them in our community! 🌸

We’ll be joining the Bee the Solution: Global citizen science project using the iNaturalist app to collect real pollinator data.

Our first data collection day is Monday, Nov. 17, from 12:45–1:30 p.m.
📍 Meet in Mrs. Kahn’s office for a quick iNaturalist orientation before heading to our classroom.

We’d love adult volunteers to join us! Please email [email protected] if you can help.

🔸 Volunteers must have a completed background check
🔸 Please download the iNaturalist app ahead of time

Thank you for helping our young scientists make a difference for pollinators! 🐝💛

⚙️ Hello Science Families!

Hold on tight—this week we’re diving into the world of motion with our new unit: Pushes and Pulls! 🧲💨

Our little scientists will become force explorers—experimenting, testing, and discovering how objects move when we push or pull them. From rolling balls to sliding books, we’ll learn that every movement starts with a force!

🌟 Big Science Ideas

We’ll explore:

• What it means to push (move something away from us)
  
  
• What it means to pull (move something toward us)
  
  
• How pushes and pulls can change an object’s speed, direction, or position
  
  
• How different surfaces (smooth, rough, sticky) can affect motion
  
  

Key vocabulary: push, pull, force, motion, direction, speed, friction

🧪 Science in Action!

Here’s how you can keep the discovery rolling at home:

🎾 Rolling Races

Use a ball or toy car. Try rolling it on different surfaces—tile, carpet, grass.
Ask: “Which surface makes it go fastest? Which slows it down?”
You just explored friction!

🪀 Toy Test Lab

Gather toys that you push or pull—wagons, toy cars, yo-yos, doors!
Ask: “Am I pushing or pulling right now?”
Try both and see how it changes the motion!

🧺 Laundry Basket Pull

Tie a string to an empty laundry basket and have your child pull it gently.
Then fill it with a few soft items and try again—was it harder to pull?
That’s because heavier objects need more force!

🎈 Balloon Power!

Blow up a balloon and let it go. Watch it zoom!
Talk about how the air pushes out, making the balloon move forward.

🧍‍♀️ Push or Pull Scavenger Hunt

Look around your house or neighborhood for things you can push or pull:
doors, drawers, wagons, swings, grocery carts!
Make a chart with two columns—Push and Pull—and draw or list examples in each.

💬 Ask Your Scientist

At dinner or in the car, try asking:
• “What’s something you pushed today?”
• “What’s something you pulled?”
• “What happens when you push harder?”
• “Can you think of something that moves both ways?”

🚀 What We’re Building

In class, we’ll do hands-on experiments to see how force changes motion.
Students will:
✅ Make predictions and test them
✅ Use everyday materials to explore cause and effect
✅ Record their observations with pictures and words

🧠 Big Takeaway

A push or a pull is called a force, and it’s what makes things move!
By exploring how objects start, stop, speed up, or slow down, your child is learning the foundations of physics in a fun, hands-on way.

Keep experimenting, exploring, and asking “What will happen if…?”—that’s how scientists are made! 🔍💡

This is our seventh week of Service Learning. This week, we did a review game of pollinators and how to help them. We ended the lesson by coloring a pollinator. 

During Science this week we will be learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Your students will learn how pumpkins start from a seed and grow into a pumpkin. On Friday, we will get the opportunity to dissect pumpkin as a class. We will review what living things need to live and grow. Plants need air, light, space, soil, and water to live and grow. 

Pumpkin Life-Cycle

Seed → Sprout → Vine → Flower → Green Pumpkin → Pumpkin

We are continuing our science unit on nature walks this week! Students will once again explore the plants and animals around our school as we take walks through the campus. Our focus will be on how we can help protect nature and keep it safe. For example, keeping sticks and rocks outside, leaving leaves on trees, and not picking flowers. We’ll also talk about what plants need in order to survive.

In our service learning lesson, we’ll continue our discussion on how we can help pollinators by planting flowers, leaving dandelions for bees, providing clean water sources, and being mindful not to disturb their habitats. Students will reflect on the small but powerful ways they can support pollinators in our area.

It is our second week of Social Studies, we will continue learning about our community helpers and what it means to be a part of a community. Encourage your student to identify community helpers around your neighborhoods and discuss what they do and why it is important. 

BONUS: Thank a local community helper. Create a card or just say thank you to the community helpers.

This week in Science, we are going to be starting our first Service Learning lesson, in which we will begin to talk about what service learning is. At Westgate, we describe service learning as: doing something helpful. We might help clean up our school, write kind notes to seniors, or plant a garden.​

• We learn how to be kind, work together, and take care of our world.​
• In Kindergarten, we will be learning about pollinators and helping support pollinator populations through small projects in our community.

We will also be starting our first science unit as a class, in which we will be taking a look at each of the seasons. We will be creating a ‘doll’ and then dressing it up for each season as we go!