Archive for the 'activities/experiments' Category

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: Sound and Light

Published by Molly on March 21, 2010 in activities/experiments, physical science and science. 0 Comments

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Introduction and Summary
Sound and Light by David Glover gives a great overview of what sound and light are and how we use them. This book provides a section for topics like: lightning and thunder, sound waves, feeling sound, making sound, making music, moving sound, bouncing sound, how do you hear?, light waves, light and shade, look in the mirror, amazing mirrors, bending light, how lenses work, how do you see?, and light of many colors.   For example, on the section about bouncing sound they talk about echoes by saying, “Echoes are louder when they hit a hard barrier, like the walls of a tunnel.  Soft materials, like carpets and drapes, absorb or soak up sound.  That’s why you will hear and echo in an empty room but will not in one that is full of furniture.”  For each topic discussed, there are experiments or projects that you can do at home.  There is an experiment that discusses color blindness in some people by using the colored dot “eye-spy” pictures.   This would really interest the children. Overall this is a great book that covers many specific topics and provides easy to read and understand explanations and experiments.

Curriculum Connections

Students can learn about sound waves, how they travel, vibrations, how music is made and heard, wavelengths, and overall how sound is transmitted through different materials like rope, straws, rubber bands, and even air (VA SOL 5.2 a,b,c).This book offers easy explanations of how sound waves work, are transmitted, and how we as humans hear them.  The other half of the book discusses light, light waves, light in mirrors, bending light, reflections, and seeing colors through a prism (VA SOL 5.3 a,c).  Again, there are some great experiments to go along with these topics like bending light and making you own rainbow with a mirror and dishwater.

Additional Resources
1. Sonic Speed Activity- This activity uses rulers and a paper towel tube to show how lightning and thunder actually occur at the same time even though it does not appear that way to us.  This is a cool experiment and gets students learning about what really happens during a thunderstorm.
2. History of Sound- This website would be great to provide background knowledge for teachers on the history of sound.  It starts in 1877 when Thomas Edison made the first machine that could record sound and goes until 1990. So, this website does not provide the most recent information (1990-current).
3. Light Vocabulary- This page offers a light vocabulary crossword puzzle.
4. Reflecting light- This is a worksheet that deals with reflecting light. It provides and activity for the students to complete and then asks follow up questions.

General Information
Book- Sound and Light
Author- David Glover
Illustrator-Ben White (designer)
Publisher-Scholastic, INC.
 Publication Date-1993
Pages-32
 Grade Range- 4th-5th Grade
ISBN-0590487078

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Magic School Bus Gets All Dries Up

Published by Amy on March 16, 2010 in activities/experiments, process skills, nonfiction and book review. 0 Comments

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 The Magic School Bus Gets All Dried Upwritten by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen is a fun and adventurous children’s book about survival in the desert.  The book starts off in Ms. Frizzle’s class, where things are not normal for long.  The students are making a diorama and observe that they are missing something important, animals that live in the desert! Carlos does not think that the cute little stuffed animals that they have put in the diorama will survive the hot, dry desert; and Phoebe is determined to prove him wrong.  She decided they are going to for a committee called S.A.D.S. (Students Against Desert Scarcity).  “Scarcity because food and water is hard to find in the desert.”  Surprising Arnold decides they should take a field trip and the next think you know, the students are boarding the Magic School Bus which turns into an airplane.  While the class is at the desert they learn what it would be like to be a Gila Monster, lizard with spikes, a rabbit, and a tortoise while comparing and contrasting the ways of survival. It does rain over night and in the morning there are beautiful flowers everywhere in the desert. Ms. Frizzle ends the field trip by saying “All things that live here have special features-adaptations-for survival.”

Curriculum Connections

This would be a great book to read aloud to the younger elementary school grades. A kindergarten teacher or first grade teacher can use this book to help teach and relate the book to scientific investigation, reasoning and logic (SOL: K.1 or 1.1) by observing the different attributes of surroundings, physical properties such as the mountains vs. the desert, predictions and conclusions.  If the children in the classroom have difficulty reading, they can looked at the detailed pictures and still understand a majority of the authors content.  This is a good book for teachers to stop and ask questions to the students about what they think will happen next, while they are using their processing skills.

Additional Resources

Scholastic has a web-site just for The Magic School Bus adventures. Teachers, parents and students can all find something to do! Teachers can find free engaging activities for their students.

All Kinds of Weather is a worksheet that can help students process what activity can go along with each season. Students can process the following as an example: the boys and the kite go along with the wind blowing. 

Preschool coloring pages of the desert can help to tie in the climate and what things can be found in the desert after reading the book, such as, cacti.

A to Z Teacher Stuff is a great resource for teachers.  It has free lesson plans, coloring activities, games, etc. for the classroom. There is a whole section on the desert and each grade is broken down into sections for easier findings.

Book: The Magic School Bus Gets All Dried Up
Author: Joanna Cole
Illustrator: Bruce Degen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: 1996
Pages: 30
Grade Range: K-1
ISBN: 0-590-50831-8

Teaching Physical Science Skills with Children’s Literature: Squirts and Spurts Science Fun with Water

Published by Eric on January 23, 2010 in activities/experiments, physical science and book review. 0 Comments

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Introduction and Summary
Squirts and Spurts Science Fun with Water was written by Vicki Cobb and illustrated by Steve Haefele.  This author has written many books like this one focusing on all different areas of science.  In this particular book, Ms. Cobb, details different science experiments involving simple machines, water, air and oil to teach the reader about forces, pressure and motion.

A Balloon Water Shooter

Rubber is a material that is said to have a ‘memory.’  You can stretch a balloon and change its shape.  If you release it, the balloon snaps back to its original shape.  You stretch a balloon when you blow it up.  When you let go of the open end, the balloon shrinks, forcing out the air.  This same force can be used to shoot a jet of water.

Curriculum Connections
Due to some of the experiments complexity and the nature of the science learned, this book would be recommended for upper elementary students.  While a lot of the experiments are fun and the kids will love doing them, the actual learning about force, motion, and simple machines could be hindered if the audience is too young to understand these concepts as they relate to science.  This would result in a glorified playtime for them.  With regard to the Virginia SOLS the curriculum can be tied to 4.2 a, b, c, and d.

Additional Resources

  • Newton’s Third Law of Motion Students  Students will  experiment with balloons and send their balloons across the room by using various techniques.
  • Forces and Motion  Students will create different size parachutes and with an egg as its passenger.  The students will drop the egg from a distance of ten feet and hypothesize which eggs will land safely.
  • Daily Doings with Simple Machines  Students will make a hypothesis as to how many simple machines they use during a day.  Using the worksheet provided in this link, students will take the sheet home and record all activities they might do during the day using a simple machine.  Then the students will write about their results as compared to their hypothesis.

General Information
Book: Squirts and Spurts Science Fun with Water
Author: Vicki Cobb
Illustrator: Steve Haefele
Publisher: The Millbrook Press
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 48 pages
Grade Range: 3-6
ISBN: 0-7613-1572-1

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Science Book of Water

Published by Paul Hicks on January 18, 2010 in activities/experiments and process skills. 0 Comments

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Introduction and Summary
The Science Book of Water by Neil Ardley is a book of experiments that help students understand some of the different properties of water, such as buoyancy, density, displacement, surface tension, evaporation, etc.  Ardley starts the book explaining what water is and how it is essential to life.  The experiments can be easily done in the classroom or at home because most households will have the supplies needed. Also, most of the experiments can be done in four to six simple steps. One experiment called “Floating and Sinking” shows how objects, such as marbles and modeling clay, will sink to the bottom of a bucket. However, if the modeling clay is shaped in the form of a boat, it will float because of the water it displaces. There are twelve other experiments in this book.

Curriculum Connections:

The Science Book of Water would be an excellent book for students in grades 2-4.  The experiments are perfect for teachers to use in order to get students engaged by making predictions about what will happen in the experiment.  Since the experiments are simple in nature and number of steps, students will be able to see how properties of water work thus improve their skills of observation.  Prior to each experiment, I would explain the design of the experiment and have the class make predictions about what would happen.  Then I would perform the experiment, or have the class perform it.  Once the experiment is done, I would have the class explain what they observed.  (VA SOL 2.1a,g,l; 3.1b,g; 4.1a,e,l)

Additional Resource:

Water and plants.  This site has hydroponic experiments for children in the classroom.

Water Vocabulary.  This site lists elementary school terms for water.

Water Play? A Lesson a Day!  This site has 31 water experiments for children.  Just scroll down to “Water Play? a Lesson a Day!”

Water Videos.  This site has 7 video experiments involving water’s skin and surface tension.

Book: The Science Book of Water
Author: Neil Ardley
Photographer: Clive Streeter
Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company
Publication Date: 1991
Pages: 29 pages
Grade Range: 2-4
ISBN: 0-15-200575-7