Category: Home School

For science today we got to simulate the orbits of planets. To do this the book had suggested swinging a Styrofoam ball on a string in a circle or to roll marbles around in cups. I decided that we would roll marbles around in bowls, because they are bigger than cups and we could get a bigger orbit. The kids had a LOT of fun with this simulation. I got out a pile of bowls of different sizes and the jar of marbles of various sizes, and they got to play around with different combinations to see if they all went the same speed or if one size of marble was faster or slower than another. Of course, seven kids rolling glass marbles around in metal bowls….it got REALLY loud in our house this morning.

Dinah was using a white marble, so it looked more like a flash in the bowl.

For science this morning the kids got to get hands on and make their own planets. I bought some modeling clay for them to use. I asked them to NOT mix the colors. They could put a color on top of another but I didn’t want them mixing them up to make new (yucky) colors.

Adam had a blast making his planet, which was just a whole bunch of balls of clay stuck together in a blob.

Dinah used the science book as a guide to lay her planets out in the proper order and she even made initials for each one out of the clay.

For science today, we made telescopes. They didn’t work very well, but it was fun trying….then the kids used them as swords (after I insisted that they take out and turn in the lenses).

        

Kyle happened to be working from home, so of course he played with the lenses too.