Science Club: Things That Fly

This has been a STEM year in Science Club and the kids have had a great time! We began the year with Things That Roll, including Balloon Powered Cars, Marble Powered Cars, and Rubber Band Powered Cars. We also built Pumpkin Racers!

Notes from Building

Photos from the Race

When we returned to school in January from our Winter Break, it was time for Things That Float. We built four entries for the Annual Great Cardboard Boat Regatta!

Notes from Building

Photos from the Race

Our topic for the end of the year is Things That Fly. I've been collecting ideas all year long of possible activities. Here is what I came up with:

giant bubbles

boomerangs

kites

sky lanterns

stomp rockets

puff rockets

paper airplanes


Kids' Paper Airplane Book
by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers

But I thought it would be interesting to see what the children had in mind!

On Thursday we kicked off the topic by talking about hot air balloons and trying to make an air fort out of an old duvet cover. This did not work, but that's okay. That's Science for you! Then I sent them off to brainstorm and write up their wishlist for Things That Fly. Here is what they came up with:

paper airplane

fan-powered paper plane

mechanical plane

all cardboard airplane

cardboard airplane (rubber band powered)

cardboard jet

hand helicopter

pull helicopter

rubber band powered rocket / helicopter

flying bird (sticks, paper & cardboard, fabric, something floppy)

foam airplane that looks like a bird

paraglider

parachute with fabric and string

make a parachute with an animal

hot air balloons for Lego people

make kites

make a cloud

yard rocket

catapult

slingshot

Now I have to sort through all these ideas and decide what we will do for Science Club with our last 5 sessions (May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30). Should be fun!

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Resources for Coordinate Graphing

For years I've been keeping track of the math worksheets I've used and liked from Teachers Pay Teachers, for when students request traditional math practice (sometimes Montessori children really crave a worksheet!!!) or are transitioning to a more traditional school.

If you're looking for summertime math practice, check out my suggestions!

The Algebra resources I have there include
- Order of Operations
- Integers
- Coordinate Graphing
- Distributive Property
- Equations (1-step and 2-step)

I've discovered that our public high school starts everyone at Algebra I, no matter how much Algebra you did in 8th grade. The only question is whether you'll be in traditional Algebra I or in Accelerated Algebra I. I recently spoke with an 8th grader who was frustrated because her school district required Algebra I in grade 8, but now she'll be bored in grade 9 as they go over the material again. So I wouldn't spend overlong on these skills. Just a taste!

Here are some of my very favorite coordinate graphing activities that would work well for a quick introduction or review.

One Quadrant

Coordinate Plane Graphing Picture - The Impossible Triangle
FREE at TpT

Four Quadrants

Coordinate Math Center Game
FREE at TpT
(level 2, card 2; level 4, card 2; level 4, card 3)

Coordinate Plane Riddle
FREE at TpT

For a surprise birthday present this year, a student created this "Mystery Picture" for me to solve. What fun!

The 49th Annual Great Cardboard Boat Regatta

What fun!!!
The day began with completed boats, ready for transport:

"Silverstream"

the lovely mermaid, "Pearl Moon"

"The Most Original Boat Name Ever"

complete with handy-dandy lifeboat!

"The GLZ"

Our four boats turned out to be the only entries in the youth category, so the children competed against each other, racing to complete the course in the fastest time. Congratulations to "The GLZ" for coming in second place and "The Most Original Boat Name Ever" for coming in first place. "The Most Original Boat Name Ever" also won a design award for Best Youth Boat.

The kids had a blast! Here are some of my favorite photos from the race:

2nd place

1st place

Best Youth Boat

the end

Operations with Positive and Negative Numbers

Right now my seventh grade student is working on operations with positive and negative numbers. This math topic is often called "integers" but I think throwing this term around is confusing to children because "integers" just means positive numbers, negative numbers, and zero.

Integer is a straight-up Latin word. In Latin it was an adjective that meant "intact, whole, complete." In other words, whole numbers (see graphic). Fractions and decimals need not apply.

It would be nice if we talked about the term "integers" earlier so it didn't coming zinging out of left field in Algebra. It's like how the equals sign means "is the same as" and not "put the answer here." The way that we introduce math concepts and vocabulary early on a child's school experience should set them up for success later on!

Anyway, if you're just beginning to do positive and negative numbers with your child, I want to pass along what Jamie York says about avoiding using a Number Line. A positive and negative bank account balance is a better real-life example and is more concrete and easy for children to understand. (A number line is helpful for coordinate graphing but I wouldn't use it for this.)

The three operations with positive and negative numbers are adding, multiplying, and dividing. There's really no subtracting, because we teach children to now think of subtracting as adding a negative number. 7 - 5 is rewritten as 7 + (-5).

The scoring in golf is also a great real-life example of this, and I highly recommend the Educational Game: Gnoming A Round for a wonderful introduction to adding positive and negative numbers!

Practicing multiplication and division with positive and negative numbers can be a little more difficult to understand. Here are my recommendations:

First, begin by reviewing fact families.

Fact Families Freebie Multiplication & Division
FREE at TpT

Then, go over the Rules. In my opinion, you should ignore the positive and negative signs, solve the problem as usual, then take the positive and negative signs into account when deciding what the final answer will be.

P x P = P
this one is obvious!

N x N = P
two negatives cancel each other out, like "she doesn't hate blueberries"

P x N = N
N x P = N
is there's cancelling out in this situation? no, so the answer will be negative

Lastly, remind students of the relationship between multiplication and division. This is the reason for practicing fact families first. (I've seen Rules for division, similiar to the Rules for multiplication, but I think there's no need to make it that complicated. There really aren't two sets of rules.)

Dividing Negative Numbers Guided Notes
FREE at TpT

If the problem is 24 ÷ (-8), I just think to myself, what times negative 8 would give me a positive 24?
3 x 8 is 24. 3 x -8 would be -24.
So, for the 24 to be positive, the answer MUST be -3.

I like doing it this way better because it stregthens so many other skills. It reinforces the multiplication Rules, it doesn't muddy the waters with another set of Rules, it reinforces the basic understandings behind fact families... AND it helps you practice solving for a mystery number and reorganizing the problem in a different way, which are important concepts in Algebra.

Dividing Negative Numbers Worksheet
FREE at TpT (you should do Order of Operations first)

Native American Gardening

April 15th is the last frost date for our region, and the perfect day for the Bongos to start their new Measurement block! We are doing two real-life measurement projects outside this Spring while the weather is warm.

The first is a Three Sisters Garden; we will be using Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects and Recipes for Families by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac.

The second is a Cob Bread Oven; we will be using Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Zenzer and Hannah Field.

If you've been keeping up with the color coding we use in our plan books, you'll know that these projects combine three colors! They are Purple for Practical Life, Blue for Mathematics, and Green for Science & Nature.

(Building cardboard boats for the 49th Annual Great Cardboard Boat Regatta on April 20th has been another real-life measurement project for this school year. It takes 30 hours to make a boat, so we began way back in January.)

Here are my notes for this year's garden planning & planting:

volunteer pumpkin seedlings from last year
Jarrahdale
Musquée de Provence

pumpkin (baby plants) - donated by Miss Bridget

corn (baby plants) - donated by Miss Bridget

sugar snap pea (seeds) - donated by Miss Bridget

sunflower (seeds) - donated by Miss Bridget
Ashy Sunflower

order sunflower seeds - direct sow
Elves Blend
Evening Sun
Goldy Honey Bear
Lemon Queen
Rouge Royale
Shock-O-Lat
Sunspot
Vanilla Ice

order bean seeds - direct sow
Lazy Housewife
Marvel of Venice
Rattlesnake
Scarlet Runner

Mon Apr 15

read "Onenha, The Corn" (Tuscarora - Northeast), pp.1-4

brainstorm units of measurement; write each one on a slip of paper

work in small groups to arrange the paper slips into categories

compare how the other group's arrangement is similar to or different from your group's

notice that there are both Imperial and Metric units

choose location for the Three Sisters Garden (our old Mulch Mountain, which has been the Heirloom Pumpkin Patch for the last few years and has volunteer pumpkin plants already sprouting in it)

review how to use a yardstick

work in pairs to measure the garden; sketch it on graph paper

Tue Apr 16

read "The Grasshopper's Song" (Zuni - Southwest), pp.25-27

read "Understanding and Appreciating Other Cultures," pp.21-23

review units of measurement; consider a new way of grouping them

discuss the organization of the metric system (base unit + prefix), look at the prefixes for x10, x100, x1000 (based on Greek words) and ÷10, ÷100, ÷1000 (based on Latin words)

redraw yesterday's garden sketch on a fresh piece of graph paper; add color, title, and key (scale: 1 square = 1 yd / 3 ft / 36 in)

add Garden Map to MLB

rough draft and add list of plants in a Three Sisters Garden to MLB

sketch bee swarm as it arrived at our swarm trap! (on Sunday afternoon a beekeeper from Dayempur Farm put a swarm trap in our bald cypress tree, as he does every year, and we saw bees scouting it during recess... then, when we were outside sketching, the entire swarm arrived and moved into the box while the children watched!)

Wed Apr 17

read A Weed Is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki

look carefully at our baby plants in order to recognize them and then weed out unwanted plants (keep pumpkins in the Three Sisters Garden, keep Joe Pye weed and milkweed in the Pollinator Garden)

do two Soil Science lessons (Four Components of Productive Soil and The Apple Lesson

review the importance of pollinators

rough draft and add Bee Swarm to MLB


I've been teaching these Soil Science lessons since 2011. This is the first time I've reversed the order and done The Apple Lesson second; I liked it a lot better this way. For Four Components of Productive Soil I used a dollar bill and 20 nickels from The Allowance Game. I put the dollar bill in front of a living plant (the baby persimmon tree), and seeing a thriving plant really seemed to help them think about the "recipe" for productive soil. Then we went through the four bags in the usual way. It was a huge hit!

Thu Apr 18

rough draft and add Soil Science to MLB

Mon Apr 22

read "The Farmer Who Wanted to Be a Jaguar" (Lacandon Maya - Middle America), pp.58-60

read page 5 as well as "Useful Plants of Native Origin," pp.7-8

observe and carefully sketch our baby plants in the garden, how have they changed since Wed? (pumpkins getting their first true leaves)

continue weeding our garden beds as needed

begin The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly as our lunchtime read aloud

plant dissection - look at dried white beans and sugar snap peas, compare to ones that have been soaked overnight, open a bean and show the baby plant inside, will there be baby plants in the peas as well? give each child a hand lens and a soaked bean or pea to open

open up the packets for our four kinds of beans from Annie's Heirloom Seeds and compare how each bean is different, put one of each bean into a dish of water to soak overnight so we can look for baby plants inside tomorrow!

introduce our next experiment ("Make a Plant Grow Down Instead of Up" from p.49 of The Curious Kid's Science Book by Asia Citro) and give the children time to think overnight about their ideas

Tue Apr 23

dissect soaked bean seads from yesterday

answer question, which part of the baby plant comes out first? look at pictures in Morning Glories by Sylvia Johnson (pp.6, 8-9, 11)

answer question, how long can seeds sit dormant and still grow? read The Miracle Seed by Martin Lemelman

Wed Apr 24

use Mound Template and a pool noodle (the distance from the center of one mound to the center of the next mound is 4 ft) to figure out how many mounds we can fit in our garden, put a stick in the center of where each mound will go

Thu Apr 25

continue to practice area & perimeter in Morning Math

read Dragonfly's Tale retold by Kristina Rodanas

measure (using Mound Template) and build 12 mounds

make grid on 9x12 inch green construction paper and add 12 mounds to our diagram, add key (C=corn, B=beans, SQ=squash), rough draft and add explanation of mounds to MLB

look at plant parts through microscope

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!