April 13 Activities
S/E- science and engineering combined! Parents, we’ve all played with vinegar and baking soda before! Let’s find out how it works*, and bring it back! If you have vinegar, baking soda, and a cup, you can make a volcano. Want to fancy it up a little bit? Use strips of paper (newspaper works best, but regular paper will work as well) soaked in a water and glue mix (or flour and water if you don’t have glue) to make a paper mache building material. You can build and shape layers of paper mache around your cup to make it look like a mountain, with a landscape of hills or valleys around it. If you don’t have paper mache materials, you can use clay or Play-Dough (make your own with simple household baking ingredients, with parent supervision). Predict (guess) where the foamy “lava” will go BEFORE you put the vinegar and baking soda into the top of your volcano. Will it follow valleys or go over hills? Will it go the same way every time you try it? Can you change the lava flow by adding or subtracting parts of your landscape? (For example, building hills taller or carving valleys deeper.) If you have already made a volcano, try a vinegar and baking soda-powered rocket! ***
* https://youtu.be/_CYgsqji_0k
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAIAm6BF0fs
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjU1IAgRcQg&vl=en
T- technology. Spring is underway, and that of course makes me think of summer already! One thing I really like to do in the summer is enjoy the lakes and rivers. Let’s get into the summer mindset by designing a few types of boats! Use anything you have at hand: cardboard (pizza boxes work great!), plastic wrap, paper, straws, paper bowls, plastic bowls, food storage containers… get creative!
Let’s try to design three types of boats: a paddle-powered one (think of canoes, kayaks, or Stand-Up Paddleboards), a wind-powered one (like a sailboat or windsurfer), and a good old-fashioned relaxation flotation device (think pool floaties or inflatable kids’ toys).
Bonus: Can you make at least one of your boats move without touching it? Think of ways you can create and use sails, blow through straws, attach balloons, build rubber band propellers* (parent supervision required), and more!
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLwjgDxfLUQ
M- math. If you have sidewalk chalk or masking tape, lay out a hopscotch course* on your sidewalk or driveway or other flat surface (my nephews made one in the hallway to their bedrooms). For beginners, number each square up to ten. As you hop through the course**, do some mental math! Add the first number you hop onto to the second number, and shout your total. Then add the third number, and shout your new total. If you’re starting at the end of the hopscotch and working your way back to the beginning, try subtracting as you go! If you are pretty good with numbers, multiply the numbers you land on instead of adding or subtracting them, or number the squares randomly and try the addition, subtraction, and multiplication with the random numbers you pick!
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmdexzkvMrw
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ikg9qnWrDU
Please continue taking photos of your students' creations and sending them to me at [email protected]
I have really enjoyed seeing your projects!