Easter Egg Experiment

We used our leftover Easter eggs to create an egg experiment to see if they could survive a drop from the second floor. We were able to wrap them any anything we wanted, or use cushioning of any kind to keep the eggs from breaking. We wrote down our predictions and then after the experiment we got to see if our predictions and conclusions were the same. We numbered the eggs and each person got a certain number of eggs to try and see how well they held up with their chosen materials during the drops. It was a fun experiment and our Easter eggs went to a good cause-Science!

A lot of them were wrapped in duct tape, tissue paper, electrical tape, twine, cardboard, and some newspaper.

And, then some were given parachutes, or even dropped inside a milk gallon filled with water. It was all about keeping the egg from breaking when it hit the ground. Things were getting tricky and competitive. 

A lot of the eggs landed pretty hard on the ground below, but we were surprised at home some of them fell compared to our hypotheses that they would fall in a different way. The parachute egg didn't fall the way we had planned and the parachute never opened, so that egg hit pretty hard on the ground. We just hoped the material it was wrapped in protected it.

The enclosed water egg hit the hardest, but hopes were high that the egg inside was protected by the water that surrounded it.

As we started opening the eggs and seeing which material and egg survived its poor downfall, we were surprised at the ones that hit hard on the ground not bring damaged. 

But, some poor eggs didn't survive their plummet. 

A few of the eggs were wrapped in plastic jello cups and all of those eggs seemed to have survived the drop. We determined that the plastic cup took the main impact with the ground and therefore protecting the eggs inside.

Remember the water enclosed egg, well it survived the drop, as well. The water actually did help keep it safe. Our hypotheses with some matched up, but with others we were surprised and definitely learned that water can be used as an absorbent. 

How our summer went and our first weeks of school

Summer is over here for us in the Red Snail Classroom.  Classes resumed here for us here in the classroom on the 14 of September.  We are on the pacific coast, so our summers are a bit different than those in the south, or even the east coast.  We tend to take our summer a bit later than most, but that hasn't stopped us from learning throughout.  Here's what we've been up to in the classroom lately, through summer and the start of a new school year.

We learned about kinetic and potential energy.  We also touched on different shapes and learned that there are shapes all around us.  You can print out a shapes coloring page here.

Our Kiwi Crate came in for the month of July and this month the theme was bugs and insects.

We created an insect tic-tac-toe board and some flying dragonflies.  

We learned how far a grasshopper can jump.  We placed tape on the floor of Skylar's body length and had him try to jump that distance.  It was hard, but super fun!

We did some gardening the first week and learned what the difference is in leaves of strawberries.  

We learned about color science.  Part of another Kiwi Crate.

  

This is a great project and can be done without a kit.  Use pudding or jello cups and white napkins.  Place food coloring drops in each cup and watch the color rainbows happen.

Kiwi Crate is amazing when it comes to incorporating lessons into our regular studies.

This one above was about counting money and was to raise money, even large amounts.

The lemonade stand sign was Skylar's favorite.

We also made a fish lantern.

He also put together a sail boat to learn about movement.

Skylar had a lot of fun with these past three kits!  

We also experimented with a solar oven over the summer.  Thanks to all of the dry heat here and the sun shining away on us several days in a row, we were able to cook quite a lot of goodies and play with the solar oven to see how long the sun would cook certain items.

We reviewed our four times tables.  This year we will venture into sixes, sevens, eights and nines. 

We also did a little science studies with Styrofoam and corn packing peanuts. 

He wrote down what he thought would happen, what was happening, and what happened in the end.  

This is a great project to do to stuff the great possibilities of corn-made packing peanuts over Styrofoam ones.  

I saw a good marker organization idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago and decided to implement it into the classroom this year.  It's working great so far.

We put a new star in the classroom too and it's a nice nightlight at night too!

As for Skylar's fifth grade, he took his state test and is now a sixth grader.  We are excited to get our school year started and the first few weeks have all gone so great!  Here's to another great year!

Interested in Kiwi Crate?  Snag one below by clicking the image.