It is no secret at our school that I almost always have a huge stash of chocolate in my classroom. I've been known to eat more than my fair share of chocolate at school (dark is my weakness), and my teaching neighbor may or may not have caught me eating chocolate before 8am this week;). As a true lover of chocolate, I cannot help but use it in my teaching! This week, since I had a good excuse, we did a fun chocolate investigation to study the changing states of matter. Here's how it went... First, I had the kiddos observe their baggie of chocolate chips. They used a graphic organizer to draw the chips and circled to describe their state of matter. Then, the students "applied heat" by squeezing gently or lightly breathing on their bag for two minutes--for some reason the boys really loved breathing on their bags! Next, they drew what their chocolate looked like and circled to show the state of matter. Then, we put the chocolate baggies in the freezer for five minutes. (During this time, we watched a quick BrainpopJr. video on the Changing States of Matter). After the five minutes were up, we opened the bags to see that the chocolate had in fact returned to a solid shape--this time, the shape of the bag. Afterwards, we discussed what they learned about temperature and its effect on the states of matter. Yay for this sweetie, sounding out temperature! If you'd like to try this fun experiment with your class, click the image below to get the graphic organizer for free! Oh, and don't forget to leave a few chocolate chips for yourself! You know I would! Have a great weekend!