Explosive Volcano Unit!

We spent most of this week learning about volcanoes! We have explored volcanoes in the past when we did a unit on dinosaurs, but M is older now and was interested in learning about the parts of a volcano and understanding what causes a volcano to erupt.

Chemistry and Construction

Week 5 of Kindergarten

Planning

This was a busy week for house construction, so we took it easy with planned "school" days and focused on learning through experience. We still had two co-op days, which were based on physical science and chemistry this week.

Starry Night, Solar System, and Pizza Fractions

Week 4 of Kindergarten

Planning

I'm continuing to use the same work plan to keep M on track throughout the week, but I plan to print a new version for next week. I may change the format to use push pins or stickers instead of the paper clips because the clips tend to slide on the laminated paper.

We continued with "Young Chefs" camp, and I added a few new materials to M's shelves. M also received the second kit from the Magic School Bus Young Scientist's Club. I have several of these kits that I modified and used with my high school science classes when I was teaching, and I was excited when a friend passed along a great deal on the annual membership for this club. I put away the first kit (on volcanoes) for next week to prepare for our science camp, so we jumped ahead to this month's kit - The Secrets of Space (affiliate link). I really like getting the monthly kits because it has a wide range of activities, most of the materials are included, and it helps me narrow down which science theme to pursue that month.

States of Matter - Liquids

Physical Science - States of Matter

Liquids

The Physical Science album is a precursor to the other 3-6 Science albums. I'm using the KHT Montessori albums, which I love! We started with the 3 States of Matter - solid, liquid and gas. This was not entirely new since we had played with water and done several experiments in the past with ice, water and steam.

We had some friends over to join us for our work period. I started by introducing the definition of "matter" as anything you could touch or that takes up space. I asked the kids for examples of things they could touch (the couch, the floor, a book) and we talked about how all of those things are made of matter. I showed them the matter tray with a container of water for liquid, air for gas, and a rock for solid. I passed the containers around so they could see the differences. Then we listened to this States of Matter song on YouTube.

Next, we talked about a couple of the properties of liquids. Liquids don't have a definite shape, and will take the shape of the container they are poured into. Liquids are a type of matter, so they do take up space. Liquids also have a definite volume. You can measure the volume of a liquid, and that volume will stay constant if you transfer the liquid to a new container.

I set up a water station at the table (with lots of towels - this would be better outside if it hadn't been so cold that day!). I had a large bucket of water in the middle of the table, and several trays around the table where kids could sit and experiment with pouring water into different shapes and sizes of containers.

We were so involved in the activities that I didn't get any pictures (how did that happen??). Here are a few examples of things you could do:

Measure the volume of a liquid, then pour into a different container.
See how the shape changes, but volume stays the same.

Pour liquids into containers with very different sizes or shapes.

Play with different sized/shaped containers in the pool or bathtub.

Use a water table to fill lots of containers with water. Practice pouring the liquid from
one container to another to see how liquids flow and take the shape of their container.

See more Science activities here.