Adding Wind to the Weather

From DIY.org

Wind Engineer
 

Wind Engineers have changed the world, first with great sailing ships and now with renewable energy. By experimenting with fluid dynamics and aerodynamics, Wind Engineers have invented ways of harnessing a powerful force, through sails, kites, and turbines.

Since the wind is really part of the weather, the little voyagers will be working on this badge, along with the meteorologist badge mentioned last week. They can't wait to make pinwheels and fly kites!

There are some great kite-themed books out there to set the stage for this badge, and we plan to read several of them:

 From Amazon.com

The wind is blowing. It is a good day for kites! The whole family makes a trip to the local craft store for paper, glue, and paint. Everyone has a job: Ma-Ma joins sticks together. Ba-Ba glues paper. Mei-Mei cuts whiskers while Jie-Jie paints a laughing mouth. Dragon eyes are added and then everyone attaches the final touch . . . a noisemaker! Now their dragon kite is ready to fly.

Kite Flying celebrates the Chinese tradition of kite making and kite flying and lovingly depicts a family bonded by this ancient and modern pleasure.

From Amazon.com

Curious George loves a good windy day. There are many things he can practice flying—like a kite. Now if only he doesn’t get too carried away! This early reader explores the concepts of flight and experimentation.

From Amazon.com

Ten-year-old Ben Franklin finds working in his father's candle shop boring -- he'd much rather be doing experiments. He can't wait to try out his latest idea. With nothing but a simple kite, can Ben get across the pond -- without swimming a single stroke?

This book from Amazon.com is a MathStart book, and teaches symmetry. We might have to use this for one of the little voyagers group math lessons! Here is the blurb, to see more go to the link; it includes activities like making paper snowflakes:

When Bob and Hannah split something, the two pieces had better be symmetrical--exactly the same. But to fly their kite, they'll have to learn something new--cooperation!

From Amazon.com

And finally, a book with step-by-step instructions for making kites! Since our little voyagers vary in ages from 3 to almost 8, this looks like the perfect book. The reviews are very positive.

That's it for now; gotta fly!

It's Raining M&M's!

It's been raining here the last couple of days and the kids are beginning to go a bit stir crazy, so I decided to pull out the big guns..That's right CANDY! 

Instead of them each working on their individual math lessons, we did a group lesson in M&M math.

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What you will need:

Paper (we used legal size, you can tape two pieces of regular paper together)

M&M's (one pack per child)

Markers, crayons or colored pencils in: Red, orange, brown, blue. yellow,and green

Black Marker or pen

Cup

Ruler

or...you can use our printables (coming soon) and a pack of M&M's

First have your child trace the cup one circle for each color M&M (you can do this for them if they are on the younger side)

Next have your child print or trace the name of each color above it's corresponding circle.

Under each circle have them draw a line (they will be writing the amount of the color here)

Next give the instruction "You may eat the m&m's after we finish our math game. 

DO NOT EAT THEM BEFORE!" This may need to be repeated.

Have them open their pack of M&M,s and empty it in front of them, ask them to look carefully and estimate how many they have. Write that number on the top of the paper. They can also estimate how many they have of each color.

Now have them start sorting by color.

When they have all been sorted have them count each color and write the numeral on the line below.

If they estimated each color, have them see how close they were.

Next we will graph them (The graph was made ahead of time using the ruler, each square is 3/4 of an inch and numbered up to 19) Have them color a circle for each M&M at the bottom of its row.

Then have them place the M&M's inside the graph and mark where they ended. They can use this graph to check there counting from the previous sorting and counting exercise.

Ask the questions: Which has the most? Which has the least? Are there any that are equal? Older children can also be asked if there are any that are half the amount of another color. Have them note their answers on the graph. For young children, you can lead them and just have them make a mark with the color that is the most or least. 

We stopped there half way through they M&M Math Book....they did so well that we decided they could go ahead and eat them! We will follow up on our next rainy day with the remainder of the book Multiplication and Division..we will see how our 3, 5 and 7 year-old handle that.

P.S. Spiderman woke up today asking to do math, more specifically, M&M math. He took our math seriously and the M&M's were an added bonus.

CREDITS: Photos and text by Mama Voyager