We stayed home with colds today. Well, the girls & I did. The boys were still full of energy. I was determined not to lose another complete day of school as we did on Tuesday. The boys & I managed to finish our science module and even had fun doing it. Win-win. They always love hands on learning and we inserted as much as possible into our reading today.
First we read about proteins, bad fats, good fats, calories and energy. Then we learned what that means in our every day lives. The boys selected cans from the pantry and we talked about the nutrition labels. They learned their importance and how to accurately read and understand them. The second time around they went back to the pantry to select two new cans. They had to guess which can had the most or least of specific categories without looking at the labels. It was neat seeing how close they were in their guesses.
We then went on to learn about different vitamins. They have been taking extra Vitamin C lately and were curious about it. This experiment caught their attention. To illustrate the "powers" of Vitamin C we did these two experiments. First we cut up and apple. On one slice we poured lemon juice which was our Vitamin C. The other apple we left alone.
Here is Bugsy writing up the labels.
Next we sliced up part of a banana. On 3 slices we sprinkled a crushed Vitamin C tablet. The other slices were left plain. We then waited to see what would happen to both our apples and our bananas.
We noticed that right away the apple with no lemon juice started to turn brown. We learned that it is because of the oxygen. The lemon juice is an antioxidant. It stops the oxidation process and helps to keep the cell walls from breaking down.
The bananas did the same thing. It was neat to see that the Vitamin C in both experiments, though in different forms, worked the same.
Our next experiment will be to test foods for Vitamin C. We will do that one as soon as I buy some Iodine. We're all looking forward to it. =) What experiments have you enjoyed and learned from lately?
First they took the book "Mudpies to Magnets" and picked an experiment. This book is fun b/c it is geared towards younger children. The big kids love it as well.
Boo packs potting soil around their can helping to make their volcano.
The kids added some grass to make it look more like a mountain.
They added the ingredients & then the volcano erupted!
It settled down again. Look at that mudslide!
The kids took turns making the volcano erupt. Here it goes again!
This time it really oozed!
To follow up on the bird unit we had been studying earlier the kids made a birdhouse. It was easy as they used a recycled milk jug. After cutting a hole in the side for the birds they lined it with pine needles & grass. We'll let you know if we get any residents.
Another view. Should we hang out a "Vacancy" sign? I'm thinking of painting it with the kids to make it look a little more fun.