Hi, Folks,
Still the most popular place to be, the Water Center (AKA the “Sink and Float, Experimental Mess Making, What the Heck is That Nasty Thing Floating in the Tank? Don’t Open That Test Tube!” center) was full of new discoveries this week.
Here are some observations from the Center’s Experiment Log, along with some questions we came up with to investigate next week:
“How many squeezes of the turkey baster does it take to fill up a plastic cup? 15. To fill the baster you suck up the water by squeezing it a lot and that way you can get it all up. Also, a bowl sank when I filled it with water from the baster.” Bo
“27 squeezes of the turkey baster to fill up a plastic cup.” Gabriel
Q: Wait...I’m confused. Gabriel says it takes 27 squeezes, Bo says only 15. I wonder why?
How many squeezes did it take to fill the bowl? Did it have to be completely full to sink?
“When I put my spider in the water it opens up and floats because it absorbs water and the legs are heavier and fall.” Oliver
We talked about how paper is made up of a lot of tiny fibers. In between the fibers are tiny holes. Water slowly soaks into the holes; the paper absorbs water. The students decorated and then cut paper spiders and flowers. Legs and petals were folded into the middle and the crafts were put in the water. The petals and legs opened as the paper absorbs water.
Gabriel and Aidan H. took this investigation further
“It takes 15 seconds for the sponge to absorb water so it is all wet.” Aidan H.
Q: The whole sponge? Did you touch it, or just let it sit in the water? Did it soak through to the top? How long would that take? What if we used a bigger sponge? How long does it take other objects to absorb water?
When a paper towel absorbs water, it still floats.” Gabriel
Q: For how long did you observe the towel? What if you left it in for an hour? 2 hours? What about different kinds of towels? How about toilet paper?
The Water Center is also home to our Mystery Potion.
What IS that crazy stuff? It looks like water, but has an odd blue blobs floating on the bottom.
Shake it and the blob splits into more blobs.
Shake it REALLY hard and the whole thing turns blue.
Leave it alone for the day (not an easy task for these curious kids) and the liquid is clear again!
What is in there? All will be revealed when the kids get to experiment with making their own mysterious concoctions next week.
Help us with our water experiments: Please send in any clear glass jars with lids or clear plastic water bottles. We’ll also take contributions of funnels/containers/measuring cups/2 liter soda bottles.
Other highlights from our week:
*Greek myths: Pegasus, Medusa and a surprise Hercules movie. Ask your child to teach you the “Snakes Asleep/MEDUSA!!!” game.
*Little Red Riding Hood told from the Wolf’s point of view. What really happened?
*Math Graphs:
*Tricky weight challenges:
*Story cubes:
*A rousing discussion about the word conflict and where we see it in our stories and in our class.Talk about it at home--watch this video with your child to get the conversation started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3e-OUnavQ
And, last but not least, an awesome hike with your children today!
Have a great weekend!
Amanda and Erin
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