Happy Groundhog's Day-February 2nd

Happy Groundhogs Day on Saturday!

As we approach Groundhogs Day, I began to think why do we focus so much on the tradition of pulling a groundhog out of his warm burrow only to see if he sees his shadow? Poor little guy!

Of course you know the tradition-if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks. But do we really believe groundhogs can predict the weather?

Of course not! But traditions are important. Groundhogs Day, while a tradition in the United States,  stems from similar beliefs associated to Candlemas Day and the days of early Christians in Europe. On Candlemas Day, the custom was to have clergy bless candles and distribute them to people and it marked a milestone in the winter months. And so the weather on that day was very important. Here is the old English song that describes the day:

According to an old English song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

As I was researching for this post, I found myself thinking about what it must have been like to live without accurate weather predictions and forecasts. I don’t know about you, but the weather report is the first thing I turn on in the morning. I can only imagine during the time when the tradition of Candlemas was important, people must have been trying to find something that would give them hope as they looked forward to winter changing into spring. How many of you are hoping it is cloudy on Saturday?

Of course the tradition of Groundhog’s Day can also be connected to science! I know on Friday or Monday teachers will be engaging children in conversations about the day and will even be cutting out pictures of groundhogs, but I encourage teachers to add in something different this year! Have some fun with shadows!

Shadows in Ancient Times!

Love the shadow created by my outdoor candle holder!

Did you know that early mathematicians and scientists used shadows to learn more about the world? Eratosthenes, the famous mathematician, used shadows to find the circumference of the Earth. Ancient Egyptians believed the shadow was part of a human’s soul. They also used shadows to keep time. Shadow puppets were created 2000 years ago when a minister thought of the idea of using shadow puppets to cheer up the Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty when he lost his desire to lead.

Changing Shadows!

Here is a fun activity to do with your children that shows how the relationship between the sun and the earth can change shadows.

Go out in the early morning and on a driveway or a parking lot, have the children stand so their shadow is created behind them (let them figure it out!). Have someone trace his or her shadow and mark the time. The children can even measure the length of their shadow.

In a couple of hours, have the children go outside again and repeat the process. They should try to stand in the same spot. Again, have them measure the length of their shadow.

Do this one more time and then compare the measurements. As the students compare the measurements over the day, ask them if they notice any changes? They should see the shadows get longer as the day goes on. Here is the reason why-this might be a little complicated for little ones, but older students should get it. It all has to do with the  relationship between the sun and the Earth. As the Earth rotates on its axis, the light reaches us at different angles. This makes shadows become longer as the day goes on.

You can plan on shadows being a family activity on Saturday here in the Flannagan household! Here is hoping for some sunshine! 

graphics from scrappin doodle.

Science and the Snow Day!

Today I had to take a break from thinking about shadows. Why-SNOW! Excitement raced through our house last night as the fluffy, white stuff came down! This morning my son Hugh could not wait to get outside. As I walked out to take pictures of him riding his bike, I could not help but remember my own childhood and the time we had over  4 feet of snow. For three days we were out of school and enjoyed sledding, building a snowman, and having good old snowball fights with my brother!

Making snow angels!

Riding bikes can be fun in the snow-but you need your helmet Hugh!

  

Science and Snow Days!

As a science teacher, snow offers a great opportunity to make observations and do some experiments!  Snow is matter. It is matter that is in a solid form. How does it become a solid? It freezes! Water is a great substance! 

If we add a little heat to frozen water, guess what, it will melt! From a science perspective, it is simply changing states!! How do we get it back to a frozen state once it melts to the liquid state water?? We have to cool it to the point it freezes again. Science is so cool!

So here are some fun things to do today before the snow melts!

See, Think, Wonder

See, Think, Wonder is this great strategy that is quick and easy to use. Best part of this strategy is it gives parents a tool to have a conversation with your child without worrying about correct answers to their questions. Here is how it works!

Go outside and have your child just make observations. What do they see?  If they are like my children, they will say snow is white, looks fluffy, all over the place, and even they may say it might look like it is cold. Although we can’t really tell temperature from how it looks, let them get their hands in it to feel how cold!

Then ask them what does the snow make them think about.  Here are the responses I got: they thought about winter and how quiet it was when it was falling from the sky last night!

Lastly, ask them what do they wonder when they look at snow! This is the best part of the strategy! My children wondered how long it will last. Woo hoo! Here is a great question that we can explore a little further!

So to explore, have your kids make two snowballs.  Bring them in and put in the freezer until you are ready.

Our snowball!

First, have your kids take out the snowball and  explore the question how long will it take the snow to melt.  Put it in a container and time it.  While this is not an experiment, it is a great activity to learn more about melting snow.

How long will it take to melt?

It took an hour for our snowball to melt (we keep our house pretty warm-guess that explains our heating bill!).

To do an experiment, ask your children what they could change about the setup of the activity (this is what scientist call the independent variable). For example, Beth and Hugh said what would happen if we put the heater in front of it? Would it melt faster.  Great! So that is become our independent variable- what we changed. Then I ask them what would we observe or measure to see if putting it in front of the heater made it melt faster. "Duh mom-thought you were the science teacher" they said! "We will measure the time again. If it does not take as long, then the heat melted it faster!"

Great ideas guys! So we tried it. We put the heater snowball in front of the heater and guess what-it melted faster!

Snowball in front of our heater.

Try changing the size of the snowballs to see if it makes a difference on how long it takes to melt. Add food coloring to see if color makes a difference on melting time. Just think of different properties you can change.

If you are looking for a great literature tie into snow, here is a great story about a young boy who also learns heat make snow melt! Check it out here.

Designing opportunities for students to do real experiments begins when you simply get your kids asking questions! Go outside today and enjoy the time with your children! But do a little science along the way!

Gotta go have a good old Flannagan Snowball fight!

Fun with Shadows!

Who doesn't love shadows!

I remember as a kid playing with my shadow. And who can forget Peter Pan! Why, he even lost his shadow and ended up having Wendy sew it back on! For the next few posts, I am going to share some of my favorite science activities and experiments to do with shadows. 

To start off, tell your children they have to help out Punxsutawney Phil Sowerby. He is the groundhog who lives up in Punxsutawney, PA. Each year, the members of the town disturb his winter slumber to have him predict the ending of winter. Poor Phil! Here is a copy of the letter: 

Help Phil Sleep Longer! by Jenny Sue

After reading the letter, create a Need to Know Board-here is what it looks like:

Need to Know Board by Jenny Sue

After you have the children fill out the need to know board, take them outside and have them do a fun race with their shadow. Check out the free download here.

Have fun this week with Shadows! Go Science!

Science for a New Year!

I love Science!

Science is part of my DNA. I was blessed by God to have a grandfather who loved science and shared that love with me. Any of you remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? Well I do! I remember being in awe over the pictures of the animals and all the really neat things about how they lived, what they ate, and the relationships between them.

Along the way, I was fortunate to have teachers who inspired and nurtured my love of science. In seventh grade it was a single drop of water that confirmed I was to do something in the field of science. And in 10th grade it was a cow's eye that sparked my desire to be a science teacher. Of course with parents as educators, teaching seemed to be in my blood.

As much as I love science, I know there are other parents and teachers who can’t stand it!  While I find joy in observing a wiggly decomposer (a worm) as one of my student's described them, there are many teachers and parents who don't like or don't know how to get excited about it. I am saddened to learn that some schools have even taken science out of the curriculum in elementary school.  But I am here to say-NO Longer!

Did you know children are scientists in the making? I like to call them budding scientists. You see God gives every child the foundational blocks to become great scientists. He gives them the ability to ask questions!

From the moment children begin to speak, the questions come. Did you know, according to research done by Rolf Smith, children ask over 125 questions a day! 125!!! Yep, no wonder as parents and teachers we are tired! But we should find joy in their questions. By asking those questions, they are simply trying to figure out how and why the world works. There is however, a second side to Mr. Smith’s research. You know how many questions adults ask a day? Only 6. In fact, there are some 119 questions per day that never get asked. Is it because we don't think they matter? Or we think people won't care? What really worries me the most is why, over the years, as children get older, do they stop asking questions?

I am sure many of you can weigh in with reasons why kids stop asking questions, but what I have learned is this-it is never too late to get people asking questions!  All you need is to present a child or even an adult with something weird, unusual, or even something that goes counter to what they believe, and the questions will come.

So my blog this year will be about questions. Hopefully, the questions I ask and answer will help to make making science fun again. It if is fun for you, then it will be fun for your kids! And of course, I will give you the standards so you can align them to what you need to teach! If you are willing to forgive the fact I am not the best writer in the world (lots of prayers are going up about this writing thing!), then visit my blog for ideas! Are you ready?

Two years ago when I started doing early childhood workshops, I found it hard to find books to align with some of the activities I had developed. This prompted  the idea of writing a book to fill the gaps. I am proud to say there is now a book about how to use a magnifying lens! My friend Heather Newton and I worked on this for several months and then we were lucky enough to find a publisher who liked the idea! Some of you may laugh at the fact the main character is named Jenny Sue, but there is a reason for this! My mother, who's name is May Sue, grew up in Wakefield, Virginia. My great grandfather Pop Bell lived with them and used to tell my mother these great stories about a girl name Ginny Sue who lived in the woods and swung on a bullis vine.  Ginny Sue went everywhere and was so smart! She could do anything! When my mother found out she did not exist (this was after my  mom climbed up on the roof while they were fixing it to call for Ginny Sue to come out and play), she swore if she had a little girl she would name her Ginny Sue. So change the spelling a little and you have the story of how I got my name. But the use of Jenny Sue as the main character was not about the story of how I got my name, but more about what Jenny Sue represents. Girls can do science. They can become electrical engineers! The world can be their oyster, but they need to hear this is possible and to meet other women who look like them! So enjoy our little story!

In case you want to order your very own copy, you can find it here http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61862-659-2

Everyone Loves Science! So this week I have the honor of working with 25 teachers from Panama! Yes-I said Panama! My fist international trip. What an experience. I missed my connecting flight, waiting 5 hours to catch another flight, and made it without the luggage! Hope it arrives today. But the important stuff made it here last week-my science supplies. Hopefully this week teachers will get excited about conducting science experiments with their learners. Although I don't know the curriculum they teach here, conducting activities and designing experiments is something everyone loves-or at least I love it!

What to do with the pumpkin?

Don't know about you, but carving up a pumpkin is something I love to do with the kids each year! But even more than carving a pumpkin, I love to see what happens after a pumpkin begins to rot! I know this may seem strange, but science is all around us and sometimes you have to just go with it in order to foster curiosity! So, instead of throwing it out this year, turn it into a learning experience with your children!

This is a great blog that discusses how one mom and her son try to answer the question "What happens to a rotting pumpkin?"

What I love about the idea is how she went with her son's question and worked with him to find the answer. Instead of just having her son observe the pumpkin, she created a simple, inexpensive journal in which he could not only draw a picture of what he saw, but she could write for him to document his ideas! If scientists do this in their world, shouldn't kids? Yes, they should! Imagine if you used a camera to document the decay. You could create a photo story of the event or even print the pictures out and tape them into your child's journal so they have real pictures that show the decay.

My teacher friends know I am always on the look out for activities that can be tweaked to make simple experiments for our young scientists. So how could you turn this activity into a simple experiment? It begins with thinking about what we could change about the pumpkin. Well, think about this-what about the physical properties of the pumpkin could we change that might make a difference on decomposition? What about size? Does a bigger pumpkin decompose the same way as a smaller one? Does it decay in the same rate? What about changing the type of fruit we use-so instead of using a pumpkin, because we know what a pumpkin does, how about an apple? Will an apple decompose the same way as a pumpkin? Simple experiments always involve changing one thing and then making observations or collecting data to see if that change made a difference or not.

So don't throw out the pumpkins just yet!

Eggs Amazing!

So how do you start the year off? Easy-just give kids some eggs and watch them get curious!

Now I know what you are thinking, how can a simple egg get kids excited about learning science. Really it is not a simple egg but what you do to an egg that will have them wanting to know more.

Here is how you start-take a raw egg and add enough vinegar to completely cover the egg. Let it sit for 24-48 hours.


Here is what the egg looks like after 2 hours-

As you watch the egg you will see little bubbles coming off the egg. The acid in the vinegar is breaking down the calcium carbonate of the eggshell.

After 48 hours, the shell of the egg is gone and the egg is actually bigger! This happens because once the shell is off, all you have is the membrane of the egg. In the membrane are tiny holes which allow the vinegar to flow into the egg-which is why the egg swells.

Here is what the egg looks like:





So here is the lesson: Begin by telling your students that scientists love to ask questions about the world and do experiments to test out their ideas. Today they are going to become a scientist!

Give the students a plain egg to observe (make sure your students are not allergic to eggs!) Have them generate as many words to describe what they see, what the egg feels like, and if the egg has any smell. Be sure and tell the children to be careful with the egg.

You can use this chart to help your scientists generate observations:

Observation Chart

Then give them the egg that has been in vinegar! The will be amazed. They can again make observations and generate words to describe the egg. Then you can tell them what you did. You can also ask the students what they are curious about. Get ready though-when you ask them this question, the questions will start flying!


To generate an experiment, ask the students what they could change about the liquid. They could change the brand of vinegar to see if it makes a difference. Or they could change the thickness of the liquid. This is what I lead or guide my students to pick. This is a picture of the egg in Kayro Syrup. It is the same egg after it has been in vinegar but you put it in the same amount of syrup. This is a great time to talk to the students about how scientists keep everything the same-we use the same egg, same amount of vinegar, same cup. Again let it sit for 48 hours and then make observations. This time the egg will shrink! Why? Because a thick liquid does not take up as much space as the vinegar.



Allow your students to observe what happens and discuss with their fellow scientists. To connect to literature, read the book An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston. This is a great book that gives a scientists description of eggs around the world. When you read this book your children will learn all sorts of new words!

If you want to read about how this lesson was used in a Kindergarten classroom, check out this article.

Come back soon and I will post a picture of the egg after it has been in the syrup!

Senses Garden

Besides being cheap when it comes to doing science,I also like to think of ideas that help connect the curriculum and kids to the real world!

In Pre-K and K here in Virginia, teachers have to teach children about the senses. Senses are really important to scientists. They help us collect information which can be used to help us answer our questions. Typically I have created center activities in which children learn about each sense and the body parts that are associated with either sight, smell, taste, hearing, or feeling. But when I was at my mother-in-laws last week, my kids gave me a great idea!

As we were watering her flowers, my daughter Beth noticed grandma has a rosemary plant. Both of us were excited as we love the smell! This is where the idea came from!Why not create a sense garden in that spot of the school yard that needs a little bit of freshening up! So what could you plant?

For sense of Sight: plant various plants that will showcase color throughout the spring or even in the fall-roses, tulips, maybe even plant a flowering bush!

For Smell-this is my favorite-plant basil, thyme, rosemary!

For Texture-Lamb's Ear for the softness of its leaves, Coreopsis for its feathery leaves, or a Sedum such as Hen and Chicks for their spiky leaves.

For Sound-if you can, add a small pond with running water or a small outdoor fountain! Or use some wind chimes. You can also put up a bird feeder to draw birds to your garden.

For Taste-be sure to get approval-but you could plant some berry bushes!

So how do you connect a garden to the curriculum-easy-have children go out and explore the plants and work with you to generate words that describe the plants.This is a great way to build vocabulary.

Writing-you can work with children to write what they hear when they go out into the garden or to write sentences that describe what the garden looks like to someone who is not there.

Measurement-a sense garden is great opportunity to measure how plants change over time-students use non-standard or standard units of measurements to measure plants.

How to build a raised garden-found this at home depot-http://www.homedepotgardenclub.com/us/en/landscaping/projects/how-to-build-a-raised-garden-bed?contentid=1142

or here is another idea-simply plant the plants in containers! My mother-in-law took an area by her pool and dug up the grass, put down weed blocker paper, covered the paper with rocks,and then planted her herbs and other items in containers! This way you could move the garden if you needed to! Much cheaper as well-with containers you don't have to buy all the other materials to make a raised garden bed!

Go Science!

New Spin on an Old Idea

I love being cheap! Especially when it comes to teaching and teaching science! As I sit through various trainings, I love to take an idea and figure out how to do the same thing for less. Here is an example of one of my favorite activities to do with preschoolers.

The gist of the activity deals with how do you form various colors from the three main primary colors. You can find everything for this activity at Wal-Mart!

In the cooking section, go and get 3 condiment bottles-you can find them for about 99cents! Then go to the beauty section and find clear hair gel. Next, go to the paper/plastic section and find zip-lock sandwich baggies. Lastly, go to the baking section and find the food coloring.

In the clear condiment bottles, put some hair gel in all three bottles. Then add the food coloring and shake really hard! This will mix up the color throughout the gel. Once you are done-you will have three bottles with your three primary colors.
The next step involves squeezing some out into your plastic bag. Let's say we want to make green-put a dab of blue hair gel and the yellow hair gel, seal the bag, and then using your finger, move the gels together. Eureka! You have just made green. I know it is hard to tell from my photos-but trust me-the kids love this! Great activity for motor skills!

I Teach K Conference!

Last week I had the honor of presenting at the I Teach K conference in Las Vegas-what an experience! I love getting K teachers excited about science.

So I know you must be looking at the picture and thinking to yourself-what were they doing? Well...we were doing science. See sometimes things are not always what they seem. The teachers began this activity by first making observations of their object (they were told not to look throught their object). They listed the color of their object, the shape of their object,and even listed words that described the texture of the object. The teachers were then asked to indicate what they thought the object would do-duh!!! they are glasses! Well, not ordinary glasses. These glasses have light refracting lenses in them so when you look at a light source, you will see the colors in the spectrum. While the teachers got excited about this activity, remember the goal of science is to get students working and thinking like a scientist. So how do we turn this simple activity into an experiment-easy-just change the type of light you look at-natural versus man-made! Or you can change the shape of the light source. Just don't look at the sun! Not good for your eyes!

Where you can find these glasses:

www.rainbowsymphony.com/rainbow-fireworks-glasses.html

www.stevespanglerscience.com

www.teachersource.com