Thursday, July 31, 2014

Y for Year


See what we did for other letters in the Alphabet in Simple Science.

Y for Year

Science Notebook Page (Click the picture to print).

     Background
Y was another tough letter!  I ended up with doing Y for Year.  I defined it as the amount of time it takes the earth to go around the sun.  We talked about how even though it looks like the sun goes around the earth, the earth actually goes around the sun (and the earth spins).  We also talked about how a year has twelve months and watched some YouTube videos with songs of the names of the months.

Light Table X-Rays
Materials:
Weight or some sort of anchor
Rope (I used a jump rope)

Procedure:
We started off talking about how the earth goes around the sun.  I explained that gravity is a force that pulls things together and that the gravity between the earth and the sun are what causes the earth to orbit the sun.  I asked him to try to jump as high as he could.  When he was done I asked why he fell back down, which lead us into the discussion of how gravity pulls even when objects are going in other directions.  Then I put some weights in the yard and tied the jump rope to them. I had him pull the rope until it was tight and told him he was the Earth.  The weights were the sun.  The rope was like gravity (although you can't see gravity).  I had him try to run and feel how the rope pulled him back.  Then I had him run in a circle around the "sun" to show how the earth goes around. After a few tried I had him stop and then show me how far he would go if were the earth going around the sun for one year.  He did a wonderful job of going around to the same spot again!  Then he went around a few more times yelling "two years, three years..."
 

Seasons Sorting
 To kind of stick with the year theme and Earth's rotation/revolution, I made a Montessori style seasons sort for Xander to do (Although, distance from the sun does not cause the seasons, it's the tilt.  Common misconception.).  I printed a bunch of cards associated with different seasons and had them put them together.

 I also found this seasons clothing matching activity at Montissori is for Everyone, although he struggle a bit since some of the clothing could fit in more than one season.

Check out my Alphabet in Simple Science Pinterest Board for more ideas!
 

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