Weekly Wrap Up

Our week started out with waking up to news that Papa could not get to work, it had rained so hard Sunday and through Sunday night that there was so much flooding and mudslides. Our home and small town are OK but nearby Aberdeen and Hoquiam got hit pretty hard.

 

Have I mentioned how much we are loving our Green Craft Kits that we receive monthly? We pay 19.95 a month and receive a kit that has at least 3 themed activities and suggested further ideas for STEM activities. Selena loves when they arrive and can’t wait to open them to see what lays inside. I love the fact that they come with everything needed and I don’t have to go hunt down supplies. Sure some supplies, I end up replacing with items I feel will be more suitable but most of these items I have in my home and the supplies I don’t use can neatly be restored in a craft box for future use. January’s box arrived and the theme was rainforest.

We did a recap on rainforests, and of course Selena amazed me with how much information she remembered from our unit study when she was only 4. In the kit were the supplies to make a Rainforest Terrarium, a Rain Stick, and Drum to go with it, and Rainforest Rubber Ball. We chose to make our Rainforest Terrarium first.

The kit was complete with dirt, moss, sticks, bark, rocks, and clay to make creatures for her rainforest. Once placed in the sun she could see the mist on the lid and watch it rain. She also observed that on our cloudy days that it didn’t rain so much in her rainforest.

 

The next day’s kit had the materials to make a Rain Stick and drum. Selena had so much fun making and designing her Rain Stick. I did have to help with the drum since it called for stretching a balloon over a plastic cup. We discovered quickly that the cup that came in the kit was not strong enough to hold a balloon tightly without breaking so we quickly found something else to use. Selena enjoyed making music after her projects were completed.

The third and final kit was everything we needed to make a Rainforest Rubber Ball. Selena was having a little off day but insisted on trying anyway. She was not following the directions as closely as she should have and couldn’t keep her hands out of the ingredients, so though her rubber ball seemed to firm up and feel like rubber it quickly got sticky again. We will retry this experiment down the road and hopefully it will turn out better.

Selena has also been having a lot of fun with her Circuit set, learning all about electricity.

 

We have had a very fun week coming back from Christmas Break. We do have some changes coming along in our school area and organization of the area. I look forward to sharing those ideas with you soon.

Floating Egg

Yesterday I presented Selena with two jars of liquid, and two eggs. My goal was to teach her how to think like a scientist and to learn about density. She of course was intrigued over the egg in jar B floating and immediately went to work on figuring out why. We first defined the words, Dense and Density. Dense is defined as closely compact in substance and Density is defined as State or quality of being dense. We chose several objects such as a rock and a piece of wood, Selena easily determined the rock was more dense then the wood, due to to their make up, the rock would not have room for air pockets where as the wood be less solid and would have room for air pockets to help it float. Let me be clear here I had made sure she realized the weight of the object had no bearings on this experiment.

Now after examining the eggs she determined they were exactly the same in the fact that they were both chicken eggs. She determined it had to do with the liquid. Through yes and no questions she had to come to her conclusion.

Questions:

1. Is A only water? Yes
2. Is B only water? No

1. Does B contain something found in our kitchen? Yes
2. Is that substance a powder? No

1. Is that substance granulated? Yes
2. Is that substance sweet? No
3. Is that substance salt? Yes

Her conclusion then was written, "The egg in B floated because we changed the density of the water, by adding salt."

Why did this happen? She concluded that the salt added more density to the water in jar B, which held the egg up, where as the the water in jar A had less density and not able to hold the egg up. Of course this led to many discussions, such as the difference between the Ocean and a simple lake.

She then became curious over other liquids, so we took out the oil. She discovered that oil is less dense then even water. I know the least dense liquid is mercury, but of course I am not going to allow her to play with mercury.

This was a fun experiment, and even if you have a younger child, it is fun to see the amazement on their face. If you have an older child it is a cool way to introduce density and it's properties. It is simple and a fun way to help your child learn how a scientist think.

I want to leave you with one more fact, it is called the Universal Law of Density:

Less Dense

More Dense

The line represents water or liquid, if an object is less dense it will float, more dense it will sink. By changing the density of the water does not change this Universal Law but does change the results of some objects and their ability to stay afloat. The more Dense an object is will not be changed with the change in the density of the water. 

Hope you have fun sharing this with your kids. 

Science Lives On

We use every opportunity we get to discover the science around us. This summer was no different, especially when we discovered this:

If you look closely, possibly click on the picture to enlarge it you will see a hornet nest hanging from the rafter about center screen. Now to give you an idea how large this hornet nest was, we could observe it from the safety of our kitchen window. We watched as the hornets went in and out working all day long, at times we got a little closer then we should have to observe the action. Fun! Well, yes, but we also knew we still needed to keep our distance, and approached very quietly.

At night this nest was sprayed, a total of three times, then left alone to make sure all the hornets were dead and gone. Finally today Selena asked when it would be taken down. Of course since we had seen no hornet action we obliged her request, with a rake we began the process of removing this nest.

Selena was a little nervous over this procedure, especially when she spied the first few hornets to fall from the nest. Upon a closer look though she soon discovered that they were all dead. She thought it was interesting how the nest itself looked like wrapped up newspaper, yet very hollow inside. I know she had asked all summer when she could see the honey, so I think she truly expected to find some sort of honey like substance inside.

Now for the real fun part, seeing the eggs that had been laid. Selena couldn't believe her eyes. I must admit it was pretty interesting for me as well, I have seen many hornet nests removed, but never had such a close up view, or the opportunity to truly examine inside.

Since I really didn't want to bring this into my house, we took a small piece to feel, and examine while we researched hornets and hornet nests.

 Selena learned that her observations were pretty close to being spot on. She first observed that the nest looked like rolled up newspaper. She said it had the the texture of paper, but rough. As we researched she discovered that the Queen wasp makes the nest out of tree bark. Wait a minute the light bulb went off, as Selena announced, "Wait paper is made from wood!" Yes, that is right the  hornet actually uses the bark from trees and makes probably the most natural form of paper that can be made to make their nest out of. She also learned that most colony of hornets consist of one Queen and as many as 700 workers. As for the eggs, the fertilized eggs will be females, or more Queens, and the unfertilized eggs will be male, meaning more workers.

Now Selena can say she has pretty much watched the entire cycle of a hornet, nest making and actually got to dissect and  investigate the nest at the end. We do love science!

A Child’s World is Full of Science

If there is one thing that is a constant in our lives and our school it is our passion and love for the world around us. What, When, Why, Where, How are all words heard throughout the day, then comes the joy of discovering the answers.

I use to see us doing a lot of work around geography, Selena, however had other plans. While she still loves studying about new places, looking at maps, and our atlas, she is truly into science. Her little world every little creature that creeps, crawls, flies, or inhabits the world around her. She is often found checking every hole or crack in a stump to see what creature may just be making it their home. I love the way she checks every flower in the yard just to make sure it contains pollen for all the bees, or chases ants as they crawl across the path.

She is quick to correct you, should you call a little tree a baby tree, “No, it is a sapling!” Don’t get her started as she will explain exactly what kinetic energy is, how force plays such a huge part in kinetic energy, and exactly what inertia is. She has discovered that science is constantly evolving around her.

I truly enjoy this side of her, and really did not realize how natural it is to teach and study science. I have discovered how much science that I, myself was taught as a child by my parents and how much I have always used in my everyday life. Now come on I have always known that I use science when I cook, but just never really gave much thought to how much I use science when I am looking at the world around me. To see this through Selena’s natural curiosity, and explore every aspect of science together truly has been a blessing. Selena hangs on every detail of science and always recognizes a new concept ready to just dig in and learn even more.

We love how we can incorporate so much through our science lessons, math, reading, and even geography as we reach out to learn where different plants and animals exist. My little girl is very in tuned to science and she is not afraid to tell you her hypothesis but then she expects me to help her do the research to see if her hypothesis is correct or not, if not, then she is on the search to discover the correct path. Her curiosity in the sciences of how her world works truly makes this my favorite subject to teach.

Come on over to the TOS Blog Hop to see what other’s love to teach.

Math/Science

Yesterday was a good day, but because we had to take Pal to the groomers, and I had meetings that evening we did not do math with our math buddies. Instead I pulled out our flash cards. We stayed with the 0 addition facts. Selena impressed herself by figuring out one hand could represent 0 by making a fist, and the other hand could represent the number being added to that 0 in order to get the answer. We made it up to 0+5=5 before Selena announced she was bored. We will do this exercise periodically to reinforce the skills she is learning with her math buddies and story problems.

It was a very nice sunny warm day, so we ventured outside for some fun. I initiated a walk around the yard to investigate what all our plants looked like. It wasn’t long before Selena found this piece of coral sitting in our front flower bed.

She wasn’t happy with just the little piece we found that had broke off to investigate she had to bring in the entire piece. While we were heading in I picked up a couple different rocks, to compare this piece with. Selena’s observations were that it had little holes. We then came and looked coral up on the computer and she learned that this came from the ocean and that indeed little sea creatures once made this their home.

The other rock I picked up came from our red rock, it as well had holes in it. Then the third one was just an ordinary rock.

After she had investigated all three of these, and lost the little piece of coral, we pulled out a dish of water. I asked Selena what she thought would happen when we put the rocks in the water. She looked at me rather puzzled, so I rephrased my question and asked her if she thought the ones with the holes might float. She thought about that and decided possibly because the holes would have air in them. We then began to drop them in.

She dropped the regular rock in first and as she predicted it sank. The red rock she predicted would float, indeed did float.

She got a big surprise when she put the piece of coral in as she predicted it would float as well. She quickly discovered it did not float, but as it sank air bubbles came out of the rock. I truly wanted to explain why this had happened which will wait for another time, but she was too interested in playing with the rocks at this point.

I think by her face you can see she was pretty thrilled with her little science experiment.

Just because I love this picture!

Preschool Corner/Weekly Update

We started the week off with an art project, a science project, and a little reading. We are refocusing our attention in reading back to a little more Progressive phonics. Selena is struggling a bit with her reading due to the lack of understanding just a few concepts, so I popped up the Progressive phonics to reinforce these skills. She is moving along quickly though and is so close to moving into the Advanced books in Progressive phonics very soon here. She is reading more independently these days and even read a couple of little books to her Pediatrician.

It was fun to see Selena using her learned skills the rest of the week while we were out and about. While driving she watches for the traffic lights and makes sure I know if it is red or green, and tells me when to stop and go. She is loving to point out letters to me or words she knows on road signs as we drive. I tried playing the ABC game with her in the car, but she preferred to just call out random letters, words, or numbers.

While at the hospital waiting our turn to get registered for her Ultra Sound, they gave us a number of C128, I explained to Selena we had to wait for our number to be called. She looked around and observed the numbers above the receptionists desks, and began to inform me what number was shown and even informed me how many more were ahead of us. I believe the number was C124, so she informed me that there were 4 people ahead of us. Each time a new number was called, she would announce the new figure of people in front of us. When the person just ahead of us was done, Selena jumped up before our number was called and informed me it was our turn.

Back at the Doctor’s office Selena had to read the entire eye chart for her pediatrician even though they were not checking her vision. When asked to confirm how to spell her last name she spelled out I N G O L D, now this is the name that Selena has chosen to go by, but her real last name is Whisenhunt, so I would have to correct that. Selena looked up at me and announced “No I am an Ingold!” She refuses to even hear her real last at all. She was asked for her birth date, and she again in a big voice announced December 14, 2006.

I am seeing on a daily basis Selena’s confidence in herself in the new skills she is learning. She is never ceases to amaze me over all the new words she is reading, recognizing, or spelling out as we go along. Her skills in math though still need some work on, is just exploding. We haven’t even talked much about subtraction or three digit numbers so her wisdom at the hospital surpassed all my expectations.

To see what others are doing in their Preschools visit Homeschool Creations.

Simple Science/Selena’s Way #2

Selena is just loving all of her science experiments. Yesterday’s was one of the best we did, with making the clouds and rain. I think one thing that made it really special was that Papa was home to watch!

Last night Selena wanted more science experiments. Now it was getting rather late, we were all tired, so I just posed a question, “Why do you think Papa’s hair is turning white?” He has one and only one spot that is completely white. Well I guess you know Selena had to investigate.

She first answered my question:

1. It is turning white because Papa put glue in it.

2. A bird landed on his head and left a white feather.

3. Ummm I just don’t know.

She investigated it very closely, and looked at all the hair around this spot and all over Papa’s head to conclude:

“Well, It is just Papa’s hair!”

Sunday Science/Clouds and Rain

The other day Selena looked outside and informed me that there were rain clouds. I asked her “How do you know that they are rain clouds?” Her answer was, “I don’t know.”

With that in mind today I decided to teach her about clouds and rain. What we used:

I brought the pot of water to a boil, as Selena watched and waited for the water to boil.

Once the water was boiling I held the pie tin with ice over the top of it and Selena watched as her cloud began to form.

She continued to watch as water droplets began to form on the bottom of the pie tin, and started to drip back into the pot. We tried to get a good picture of the water dropping back into the pot but it is hard to get that type of picture!

I decided to take this one step further. I needed to defrost my freezer, so I used this opportunity to do just that.

  As I explained to Selena this is our cold air and that the air in the sky is usually colder then the ground. I then put the pot of boiling water in, and closed the door. In a few seconds I let Selena open the door. She was in seventh heaven to see the big cloud as she called it.

To see what others are doing in Science visit Ticia at Adventures in Mommydum. While your there share with us what science you are doing with your children. 

Simple Science/Selena’s Way

Selena grabbed the flashlight out of our room this afternoon. She informed me that she was doing a Science Experiment. I am not sure what she learned, but she sure had fun examining how the light hit the white poster board from all angles.

She was checking to make sure I had the camera here. Now she insisted this is her science experiment for this week. We’ll see I might have a few other plans for her as well.

The experiment begins, first with the flashlight very close to the poster board. She made sure to point out that the light made a round circle.

Then she held the flashlight as far in the air above the poster board as she could. I think she was actually examining the light in the flashlight it self. She did comment that the circle got smaller.

Then she asked me to hold the flashlight while she tilted the poster board in all sorts of angles. It was getting pretty difficult to get pictures at this point, as she then wanted me to move the poster board around while she examined so very closely how the light changed on the poster board. She examined every dark spot, which she called holes in the light, how the circle of the light changed as the poster board was angled in different positions, and the light was close to the poster board, and then held at a distance from the poster board.

For more simple science visit Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.

Science Sunday/Catalysts

This started out as a simple Science experiment about melting ice. What we used:

4 ice cubes

1 controlled: just in room temperature water

3 uncontrolled: one with room temperature salt water, one with room temperature water with meat tenderizer and one with boiling hot water.

The first discovery that we made was that the ice in the hot water melted quickly.

The ice cubes in the room temperature water and the salt water melted at about the same rate. The salt water did melt a little quicker but not much.

The ice cube in the meat tenderizer actually did not melt hardly at all in fact it crystallized.

Even when placed in the hot water the ice that had the meet tenderizer did not melt as fast as any of our others. Why?

Meat Tenderizer is an enzyme that works as a Catalyst. A catalyst can work in one of two ways, it can speed up the actions in some instances, and that is why it makes meat tender, by breaking down the fats that make our meat tough. While in this experiment when a catalyst is added to extreme cold it slows down the action.

Selena was pretty amazed that I could actually stop the melting of an ice cube.

For more Simple Science visit Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.