Water Displacement with Pirates

 

We spent a sunny day out at a boat landing in the city to learn about water displacement and buoyancy. Skylar spent the day before creating his own version of a pirate ship to help with the lesson. We ended the class lesson by throwing "cannonballs" at the poor ship, but it held strong and didn't take on any water, or sink.

Venomous Spider Study

 

Reptile Observation (Garter Snakes)

Garter snakes are the "fun" snakes. Although, I do not like to hold them, Skylar has no issues picking them up. There aren't many poisonous snakes within the city, I'm sure they're around, we have been lucky enough not to have any around our property. 

Most garter snakes here in Oregon are Western Terrestrial Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans), Common Garter (Thamnophis sirtalis), Aquatic Gartersnake (Thamnophis atratus), and Northwestern Garter (Thamnophis ordinoides). The skin pattern, characterized by the light color stripes, but not all have the stripe as prominent. 

Garter snakes in Florida are often blue. In Texas there are checkered garter snakes, and mostly active at night. Most garden snakes move around during the day, but when it's too hot they will come out more at night.

Download this sheet here, or right click and save the image above.

Download this sheet and instructions here.

(Source)

Learn more about garter and other snakes here.

Solar Hot Dog/Marshmallow Cooker

We've been experimenting with solar energy lately and learning how it can be beneficial for many things. The temperatures this summer have been incredibly high, with one day being over 119 degrees. We've been using these hot days and full sun to cook some food via solar cooker. Solar panels are nothing new, but solar energy can be harnessed into cooking, as well. The last few months we did a few experiments and tried out different things to cook with solar power. We constructed this solar cooker and began "cooking" different types of foods.

The hot dogs were veggie dogs and they took about four hours to heat up enough to consider them "cooked." 

The marshmallows are Dandies and they took about six hours to cook enough to be creamy on the inside. They were delicious after cooking in almost 120 degree sun most of the day. We will definitely be doing this experiment again.

You can make this same style of solar cooker, here's how:

2 sheets of cardboard (we used plywood instead of cardboard to make it sturdier) 7 1/2" x 30"

2 pieces of posts (we used garden stakes and cut them to length) 2" x 2" x 12"

1 sheets of poster board, or cardboard (we used cardboard) to line the bottom of the cooker

12" of aluminum foil

2 pieces of wood to hold cooking skewer (we used garden stakes and cut them to length) 1" x 1" x 13 1/2"

Wooden dowel, or bamboo rod (we used a marshmallow wood cooking skewer)

Small nails or screws

1. Use a knife and cut a curve in the carboard. If using plywood, cut to length shown above. We had Home Depot cut ours down and then shaped them better at home with our own saw. We sanded down the edges a bit, as not to get splinters or cuts. 

2. Place the connecter stakes between the two ends and secure with small screws. Now you should have what resembles a boat shape.

3. Place your small boat shape over the poster board or cardboard and mark your lines as you rock the shape up and down to mark the top and bottom. Cut out and place inside your cooker for the bottom.

Using a drill, drill out the top of your cooking boards that will hold the cooking rod/skewer. Place them on either side of the cooker and screw into place with the notches facing up.

Glue the aluminum foil to the bottom.

Place the food you're going to cook onto the skewer and place each side into the notches on your cooking boards.

Place cooker in direct and constant sunlight for several hours. Be sure to solar cook foods that if undercooked won't cause illness. 

The sun will cook your food because of the aluminum foil reflecting the heat back onto your foods. Because of the slight curve in the cooker, it concentrates the heat in one place, furthermore helping cook the item. We used a bug net over the top of our food to keep bugs and other insects off what we were cooking. 

Insect Observation ('Greenbottle' Fly)

Along with the observation of the honey bee, we were able to observe a Lucilia 'Greenbottle' fly this week. It flew into our house and was trapped along the windowsill. We normally capture flying insects and spiders in our house and place them back outside, but with this Greenbottle fly we kept it for a few extra moments to be able to observe it's structure and study it. Skylar noted it's wing structure, compound eyes, legs, as well as the thorax and abdomen. It was a good lesson in how flies are able to land and take off quickly and use their eyes to examine their surroundings. These flies are not the greatest flies to have flying around your home, or yard. They mostly, if not entirely, depend on decaying matter, or fecal matter. They are above all the most disgusting of the flies species, but even so, it's nice to be able to study them and learn about their life. Its body is 10–14 mm in length – slightly larger than a house fly – and has brilliant, metallic, blue-green or golden coloration with black markings. These flies live less than a month.

Download this sheet here, or right click and save the image above.

Download this sheet here, or right click and save the image above.

Download this sheet here, or right click and save the image above.

Download this sheet here, or right click and save the image above.

Insect Observation (Honeybees)

Skylar received an insect viewing kit for Easter and caught a honeybee drinking water and observed it for a few minutes before letting it free. The honeybees in our yard are abundant this season, as well as mason bees, and a bumble bees. The honeybee didn't like being captive, so we let it go quickly as not to stress it out more. She was happy to be free and even landed on the lavender before taking flight once more and heading back to her hive. We always have so many pollinators each spring and this year we plan to have milkweed growing in a pot to attract monarch butterflies. 

Download this honeybee information/coloring page here and learn all about honeybees in your own classroom, or during at home studies.

Snow in summer: Sensory Play

Is your child a big fan of snow like mine is?

I remember, when I was a kid, and it would snow, I was always out packing it, rolling it, and laying in it.  I was covered in white wetness before I was forced to come inside to warm up. Apparently, my love of snow was carried over to my child too.  He loves playing in it so much and I literally have to force him to come inside and most of the time it was with tears. During the summer months, it's always a bummer that he can't play the same and enjoy some sensory play during the off months too.  Here's a great way to enjoy the fun of snow, but with less wetness and less tears.

Taking a large tote lid, flipped over, we covered the lid in a mixture of baking soda.  That's it!  Skylar used a lot of his Matchbox cars and some farm equipment items and created a snowy scene.

This is definitely an outside play project.  

Putting the baking soda in a large-holed shaker allows your child to "snow" on his play space.

The more baking soda you use the deeper the "snow" gets.