Today, we focused our study of seasons on Spring. We read Spring by Patricia Whitehouse ...
... and then it's spring by Julie Fogliano (a CUTE book!) ...
... and the second half of our The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Spring into Summer! by Tish Rabe.
Then, after doing some work in our Evan-Moore Science workbook (I LOVE this resource!) ...
... we moved on to start today's pocket for our Seasons Book, our Spring Pocket!
I didn't want to do the same construction paper tree that we had done for Fall and Winter, so instead, I found a neat project here for our pocket: http://www.gettingmessywithmsjessi.com/2012/04/earth-day-craft-2.html. It uses simple toilet paper tubes, scissors, paint, and paper to make a beautiful floral picture!
First, cut even slits down on one end of your toilet paper tube. Fold back and make into petals. Do each tube differently to get different flowers, like below.
Then, add paint to your petals.
Press down onto your paper.
And remove! Continue with your other flowers, using different colors.
The result is very pretty! If you want, you can go back and add green stems once your petals have dried.
We also completed this sentence for our Spring Pocket.
Here's our Spring Pocket, ready to be added to our Seasons Book!
In Geography this week, we've been talking about polar regions. Today, we talked about how people and polar animals keep warm in the Arctic and Antarctic.
We conducted a couple of experiments to better understand how polar animals keep from freezing. For the first one, we used a bit of vegetable oil and water. At the sink, we rubbed some oil on our hands until they were slick. (I explained that polar animals have oils on their fur to keep them from freezing when they are in the cold Arctic/Antarctic water.)
Next, we turned the water on and watched it roll off of her oiled hands, the way it would the back of a polar animal.
For our second experiment, we first filled a Ziploc bag with ice and held it against our hands. BRR ... COLD!!!
Then, we took a second Ziploc bag and filled it with air, quickly sealing it shut to trap the air. (This will represent the layer of fat that polar animals have under their skins to keep them warm.)
Then, we again placed the bag of ice on our hands, this time, with the air bag ("layer of fat") between them. We felt no cold!
This is how polar animals keep warm!
We finished up the day by completing our FIAR study of Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, but that will be a separate post. Watch for it tonight.