Another tune guaranteed to break into the top ten (for kindergarden science songs), provided for your playing and listening pleasure by Nina Steinberg from Bancroft Elementary School in Walnut Creek CA.

Click here to listen the audio file of the Wood Song perfromed by Nina Steinberg and her class. To play the file you will need Quicktime Player, availible for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. To download the audio file, Mac users should option click the link; Windows users should right-click the link.

You can download the sheet music here.

To view or print the sheet music, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in. Acrobat Reader is available for free at http://adobe.com.

Here are some suggestions from Leigh Agler, FOSS Developer, on making the perfect cornstarch matrix.

I’ve always cooked the matrix on medium heat with great success. [Older editions of the national edition of the teacher guide may still say "low" heat.] Here's what I do, and it shouldn't take more than 5–10 minutes.

1. The FOSS Science Resources book is very engaging for students and relates well with the activities. The reading pieces are short, so they can be done as homework and re-read multiple times in class to reinforce understanding of key content.

2. To help with time management, we highly recommend using the students, older students, and volunteers to set up and help clean up materials needed for each activity.

3. We recommend teaching science in the morning, first thing or after recess/lunch, so that you have an opportunity to set up materials. The morning also has the added bonus of having both teacher and students fresh, with plenty of energy to give to these fun and engaging activities. Afternoons often find both students and teacher tired and lacking the energy necessary for focusing, problem solving, and making thoughtful connections.

4. A rolling materials cart is useful as a space saver. The cart can be positioned centrally with the materials needed for an investigation activity and then rolled out of the way once students have their materials and are ready to start the activity. It can again be rolled out for collecting materials and easily taken to the sink area or counter area for clean up.


5. We have noticed that when activities are introduced with a question, both teaching and learning are improved. You will find that this lead question helps frame the lesson and ensures that the inquiry process leads eventually to the data and interpretations needed to develop an explanation of the original question. Students will find that writing this lead question in their notebooks will help them develop a context for the various parts of the investigation and collection of data and lead naturally to an attempt to explain their answer to the original question. Their notebooks will make more sense and be more likely to show an understanding of relationships and connections and a clear expression of a conclusion supported by evidence. We noticed that when this lead question was missing, lessons and notebook entries tended to look more like unconnected statements and data charts. In FOSS CA, K-2, these questions are revisited in the Wrapping Up sections found at the end of most parts.