This is where our Learn from Home adventure begins: a STEM activity from Tyler, a clock based solo card game from Carra, and a classic party art game brought to you by Jen. Tune in tomorrow for new choices from new teachers to keep your learning from home fresh.
Sink or Swim @ Home
Introduction:
This is a fun experiment to do with your kids at home to allow them to make predictions or hypothesize about whether household items will sink or float when placed in a container of water.
Location:
-Kitchen
-Bathroom
-Outside with a bucket
Materials:
A bucket to fill with water
A water source such as sink, hose, or bath tub
A paper and writing utensil to record results
Towel for clean up
Household items to experiment with
Metal spoon, plastic spoon, stone, woodchip, coffee mug (upside down and right side up), beverage can (full vs. empty), canned soup, various building blocks (lego, wood, magnatile, etc.), rubber eraser, coins of different denominations, cellphone… brother... (just kidding), etc.
Instructions:
- You should begin the activity by explaining the difference between sinking and floating. They may think that is a funny question and insist they know what differentiates the two. Then you can ask them to state some examples of things that they think float and sink. Ask them if they think they know why some things float and some things sink. They might suggest something to do with the weight of the item.
- Go around your house and collect about 10 different items varying in material, size, and shape. See the list above for some ideas.
- Once a collection of items is gathered take a piece of paper and create 4 columns as followed: Item Name, Sink, Float, Observations.
Your child can then label the items in order independently or with support from you.
- Once a vessel is decided whether it be sink, bath tub, or bucket of water fill it up with enough water to give an item space to fall. Then one by one place, do not drop an item into the water and observe the results. If an item falls to the bottom it sink, if it stays on top of the water it floats. Do any stay in the middle of the vessel? Record results on the chart and write any observations that may have surprised you.
Talk with your child about what they observed. Did any results surprise them?
Dry all items and dispose of the water appropriately
Clock Solitaire
Grade Level: K-3
Individual or multiple people: Individual
Theme/Purpose: continuing to work with numbers, relating it to telling time and following a pattern.
Materials: 1 full deck of cards, Jokers not needed for this activity.
Location: Table or floor, big enough space for cards to be spread out in a clock formation.
Rules & Resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfhxZtZfV4o
Exquisite Corpse / The Monster Mashup
This is a drawing activity for all ages. You will need two or more players and will require a piece of paper for each player and drawing tools.
You take a sheet of paper and fold it in thirds. The top is going to be the head/neck of the creature/person you design, the middle the torso/arms/wings, etc, and the bottom the legs/feet/ tentacles/ etc.
One person draws the top section and then folds it back so it is not visible to the next person who draws the middle (without seeing the top third), then folds that back and passes it to someone else to draw the bottom. It helps if each person draws guidelines in the next section so each part of the body connects. At the end you unfold the paper section by section to see the hilarious drawing you have made.
Finally you can have each participate select one of the final products to add color, details, and maybe a fun name for your monstrous creation!
SPOOOOOOOOKY
