We go through waves of learning. I wish the kids would ask to do stuff when they are interested in going something other than playing; instead they get whiny and bicker a lot. While many argue that bored is good and causes children to become creative and figure out what to do, ours just tend to get on each others’ nerves. Today the choice was given as science, books or making a timeline. Everyone chose science.
We have a science kid we bought months ago and have never used it. We’re usually too busy doing our own thing to get out a kit and follow directions. But today we started with Lesson 1: What is Matter? Matter is anything that takes up space and has mass. Well solid objects are a pretty easy start, they very obviously take up space. So we got some playdough out. Playdough is matter – it takes up space. When you squish it, is it still matter? So we spent a while changing the shape of playdough just for the fun of it.
Then we actually did the first experiment. We filled a clear plastic cup about half full of water and marked the level with a pen. Then we rolled all three kids playdough pieces and compared sizes. We made hypotheses about what would happen if we put each of them in the water. The water is obviously taking up space. Adding clay will make the water rise because it will take up space. D was the one who understood that the bigger the ball of playdough, the higher the water would rise. So we put each in and marked the cup’s water level.
Then we talked about the different states of matter. We talked about how playdough is solid and water is liquid. Both take up space so both are matter. But what about gas? Their first thought was that is doesn’t take space – it’s just everywhere. But then something is taking up the space in a balloon; so gas must take up space and therefore be matter.
The next experiment in the book was to place a few ice cubes on a plate and time it melting in the sun. Seemed a little slow. I decided, instead, to place some ice cubes in a small frying plan. It was much easier. Water in a solid state = ice. Put ice on the stove on high. Water = liquid. Slowly the evaporation began. Evaporation rolling off the pan = gas. I’m not sure how much they learned, but it was really fun to watch.
Then, since we were on a roll, we put water in a large clear glass container. We dropped a ping pong in to watch it
float. it was boyant because it was filled with air that wanted to stay on top of the water. The we took the clear plastic cup we were using earlier and pushed down on the ping pong ball. The kids thought the cup itself would push the ball down; by using clear containers, we could see that the air pushed the cup down. First, air obvisiously takes up space. Second, the air in the cup tries to get to the surface just like the ball, making it difficult to push the cup down.
Then I saw one last experiment to do in the book. The kids ran off to play while I chilled a glass coke bottle for an hour (disappointedly too, they wanted to spend the hour doing more science but I was starting to run low on ideas). After in was in the freezer an hour, I rubbed the rim with water, placed a dime at the top and wrapped my hands around the bottle. The dime dances. Very cool. The warming air rises, pushing the dime up. The bottle was only cold enough to do it once. So it went back in the bottle for tomorrow.
