Household Happenings: School News for March

ERIC'S NEWS

Eric finished the last of his experiments on air this month.

This simple demonstration shows that when water is heated,

it enters the air as water vapor,

and when water vapor is cooled,

it becomes a liquid.

As the water in the pan is heated, some of it rises into the air. When water rises into the air, it does so as water vapor. This experiment, or test, proves that when water is heated, it will change into water vapor.

Now that we have proved by our experiment that water can enter the air as water vapor, can water also come out of the air?

Place some ice cubes (we used ice packs, you could make your own by freezing water in bottles). As the ice cools the pan, you will notice that drops of water form and begin running down the outside of the pan. This happens because water vapor in the air near the pan is cooled. When water vapor becomes cool, it turns into a liquid again.

Eric did another experiment to prove that air expands.

Put a pan of water with a bottle in it on the stove. Put a balloon over the top of the bottle. Turn on the heat. Watch the balloon on the bottle get bigger. As the water heats, the air in the bottle is expanding and passing into the balloon. The balloon gets bigger because heat causes the air in the bottle to expand. Because the air in the bottle takes up a larger amount of space than before, it fills the balloon. This experiment shows another characteristic of air. When air is heated it expands.

Now we will learn that air can also become smaller.

When air takes up less space, we say it contracts. Use the same bottle with the balloon and fill the pan with ice (or ice packs). The balloon is still big. The air inside the bottle is expanded. The ice cubes will begin to cool the bottle. The balloon gets smaller. That must mean that as air cools, it contracts, or takes up less space. This experiment shows that air sometimes gets smaller, or contracts.

Eric enjoyed his studies on what is air, how air has a gas called nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide and some water vapor. His studies also covered things like...where is air, what are the characteristics of air, and that air has weight, air expands, air contracts and living things need clean air. Overall a very interesting month!

Water Cycle

Eric also enjoyed Social Studies this month. He learnt about the history of geography and how people once thought the earth was flat, how people began to make maps of the world and how people discovered the North & South Poles. He learnt about two kinds of maps (general & special), how to read maps, a compass rose, and to find distances on maps. He also learnt about latitude lines and how they measure distance north and south and how longitude lines measure distance east and west. He also learnt a little about early transportation.

BYRON'S NEWS

You might remember Byron's little experiment he started late in February "Plant A Seed & Help It Grow?" Well, he achieved a certain level of success but the weather turned quite cold, and the poor little plant just stopped growing. Despite this, Byron was able to answer most of the questions for his experiment! He saw the first signs of life and growth after just 5 days. He was very excited!

It's growing!

Here is a timelapse video we found on YouTube

Byron also enjoyed watching these videos as part of his studies on plants and their seeds.

Seed Dispersal

Fun song for learning the parts of a flower!

Byron also enjoyed his social studies this month and learnt about things like how to use water and how to use our land. Some of those things included natural resources, how living things need water, how men build dams, and how animals build dams. He also learnt how we get food from water (eg: fish hatcheries) and how we travel on water (freight & ocean liners). He learnt about forests and wildlife animals and taking care of wildlife animals.

How Beavers Build Dams

Byron especially loved this National Geographic video on Cruise Ships

(This is part 1 in a series of videos. The others can be found easily and watched in YouTube)

ISABELLA'S NEWS

Spelling: Isabella has learnt the letters G, T, P & I and has completed lots of activities to reinforce the letters. She is also reading words using letters already learnt, and listening for letter sounds within words and picking a word out of a sentence that has the letter in it she is learning. She is doing so well!
Math: Isabella is still working on learning her subtraction, and has just started subtracting now using larger numbers.
Animal Science: Isabella loves animal science. She learns about an animal that corresponds with the letters she is learning. This month she learnt about Gary Goldfish, Tiny Tiger, Petey Peacock & Ilex Ibex. Each story incorporates a good character trait to learn and emulate. She also has a CD of songs that help to reinforce the story & good character trait as well as the letter and sound it makes. It is very enjoyable!
Bible: In bible this month she learnt about the story of Mephibosheth, Peter in Prison, Thomas & The Tower of Babel. These stories sometimes correspond with the letters she is learning also.

Isabella excited to be reading simple books

Buz joins in the schoolwork

ALESHA'S NEWS

Alesha has been working on more pre-reading skill activities, math, alphabet & related activities, coloring, Reading Eggs, and her play computer.

SHELLEY'S NEWS

Shelley is 17 months going on 36 months! She says, "School" "School" "School" and hops up on the other kids chairs and grabs their books and flicks through them, grabs pencils and draws on them, and acts like she is a big girl. She loves getting in on the action. I have taken a photo of her enjoying two videos on YouTube which I will include below. When the video is finished she says, "Again!"