Glitter, Glue & Giggles: Kindergarten Science Fair Project

At my school, every kindergarten class is required to complete a science experiment and make a Science Fair Project Board. Yes, KINDERGARTEN!

So I spent some time brainstorming different ideas, that would be easy to implement, the kids would get something out of it and I could get it completed in one day. Just being honest, I did NOT want it to take up a lot of time. So I came up with: Store or Name Brand? If we were going to complete a project, we were going to have a little bit of fun and what 5 or 6 year old does not like food? We taste tested 2 different chocolate cookies. YUM!

I bought a store brand chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of Publix) and name brand cookies (courtesy of Chips O'hoy). I showed both packages to my kiddos. Of course a loud, excited cheer was had when they saw the Chips Ohoy! I explained how the store brand cookie was over a $1 cheaper. Compare that to McDonalds Happy Meals and they get it.

I had 2 different colored napkins: blue and pink. Every child received both napkins and my assistant took the cookies out of the package in our office. The kiddos had no idea which package she brought out first. She gave every child a cookie on the blue napkin. Then went and got the next package and placed a cookie on every pink napkin. Do you notice how similar the two look??

If you look at the top picture you will notice blue napkin represented the store brand cookie and pink represented the name brand cookie. We first taste tested the blue cookie. Had a little bite and place it back on the blue napkin. Then tried a little bit of the pink and placed it back on the napkin. I gave a short little spill about how we had to be scientists and keep everything controlled and they could not tell their neighbor which cookie they liked. We did not want to influence someone else's choice. They were then free to eat the cookies and go back and forth and drink a little bit of apple juice along the way.

After all of the yummy taste testing, it was time to take the vote. Everyone placed their head on the table and closed their eyes. They were to raise their hand for their color choice. I was SHOCKED when the majority of my class voted for the blue cookie. The Store Brand Cookie. The Cheaper Cookie!! I then told them to go home and tell their mommies not to spend the money on the more expensive cookie! I was still flabbergasted and I think they were too.

Now the experiment was over but we still had to put together a board. I decided this year, I would call some students over and ask them to explain each part and then write. So our write up may be short but it was their work.

For the purpose a student wrote: "We wanted to find out which cookie was the best!"

For our hypothesis: "We predicted that more people would like the name brand cookie"

For materials: cookies, blue napkins, pink napkins

I placed the title in the middle using some foamie letters: Store or Name Brand?
For procedures: Put out the pink and blue napkins. Place cookies on the napkins. Taste test the cookies.
For the results: a student completed a bar graph.

The last part was conclusion: We found out more people like the store brand cookie.

I told you. It was easy. The kids did the writing. And I think it shows a kindergarten science fair project. Nothing real in depth but they got it.

I did add some pizzaz by placing some chevron border, pictures and foamie letters but it was all completed in one day. I met my goal! So there you have it, a kindergarten science fair project!