Grade 3 scientists have been investigating the human body.  Bones give our bodies form and protection.  We have used different kinds of models to study our bones—our own bodies, paper drawings, plastic models and now, look—real bones!  These bones are what an owl had for dinner—in an owl pellet.  Owls eat their food whole and then spit up the bones and fur.  Scientists can collect these owl pellets and study the bones inside—that’s what we did in lab.  The pellets are heated to make them safe from bacteria and ready for investigations.  Our pellets came from California and the Pacific Northwest but we have owls in Hawai’i.  The pueo is the Hawaiian short-eared owl, we also have barn owls here.  Some families have the owl as their amakua.  Owls have many stories and meanings for all kinds of people around the world.  What else would you like to know about owls?

For our lab investigation, we collected pieces of the different bones we found and sorted them out to find out more about the animals that were on the owl’s dinner menu.  Some of those bones really looked like bones we have!  Did you know you have bones that are similar to a mouse, rat or vole?   Which bones are interesting to you?  You have over 200 to choose from!

Our next adventure has started at our home science labs.  We are taking a chicken bone and putting it in vinegar.  I wonder if people chose different bones?  This is a chemistry adventure because vinegar is a kind of acid.  It takes a week to 10 days.  I wonder what people are finding out as they do this experiment at home?  We will share our results but there is this holiday coming up that has great bones!  Will you have this big bird skeleton at your house to study too?

Grade 2 scientists have been investigating insects.  They may bug us but they are the only animal with 6 legs!  We have been keeping and caring for our own beetle larva to see how they change as they grow.  It is pretty easy to observe your own insects in the lab.  This year they took the longest to make it to pupa, now we await the change to the adult darkling beetle. We went outside to our garden at Keanakamano to look for insects and plants in the wild.  What parts of their life cycles could we find?  How do insects and plants help each other survive in a natural habitat?  We found some other animals too like birds, snails, rolly-pollies and our favorite mongoose!

Insects need plants for food and shelter, but do plants need insects?  Could they be partners in nature?  Share an insect you know, what plant could be its partner?

First grade scientists created their own aquarium habitats.  They are very different from the garden we just studied but they still have land, water, air, plants and animals.

We took a closer look at the fish at the Waikiki Aquarium, in our aquariums and in the lab.  Check out the fish specimens from the fish market! They are soooo much bigger than the guppies in our tanks.  We could carefully touch their scales, find their lateral line and even feel their teeth.  Did you know some fish have tongues?  What does a fish eat if it doesn’t have a tongue?  Some fish had spines to protect themselves.  We had a lot of good questions and observations with our adventures.  All of our fish drawings will make our science lab window look like an aquarium!

What kind of fish is interesting to you?  Is it on your plate to eat?  Do you know what the animal looks like in its habitat?  Do you like a fish from fresh water or salt water?

Kindergarten scientists explored a unit with plants and the garden habitat.  Taking a closer look at how fruits and seeds are related offers learning opportunities with the big ideas of structure and function.  They took a closer look at fruits and found seeds inside.  Did you know that scientists don’t classify plants as vegetables?  Cooks and chefs think of vegetables in food.  If a plant part has a seed, to a scientist—it’s a fruit!  Pumpkins, cucumbers and tomatoes are all fruits to a scientist.

Students invented their own fruits with seeds inside using pipecleaners and beads.

We found a book with an idea that a fruit is like a suitcase for seeds.  Suitcases protect what is inside and like to travel—just like real fruits.

What kind of fruit do you like?  What is the seed like inside?