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Have you ever wondered how such heavy objects such as boats or jet skis can float in the water? How no water gets inside? Or how people can sit inside a boat and it not be too heavy? Well, the Laduybugs spent the morning exploring this concept by using materials such as popsicle sticks and aluminum foil to create boats that would be able to float in water! Each child was given as many popsicle sticks as they wanted, and a few pieces of aluminum foil to start and very quickly they all started to brainstorm what made a boat strong enough and safe enough to be in the water. "I need glue to put the sticks together to make a floor for my boat" "I'm putting these things on the side like bumpers to keep the water out" "Look, my boat has ears like Shrek" "I'm going to make this nice and strong here so it doesn't break" "I'm going to make mine into a jet ski!" Once the boats and jet skis were ready to go, we moved on to the fun part... the children got to put their boat to the test by adding rocks inside to see if it was strong enough to stay afloat! We started with smaller, lighter weighted rocks and slowly added more and more to see how far we could push it. By the end, some children had their whole pile of rocks safely inside without the boat sinking! "This rock is nice and light, so it will float" "I think it will sink because that rock is SOOOO heavy" "Let's see if this boat works, I put stuff under this one to make a floor" "Isn't that cool? I used up ALL my rocks and it still floats" As we tested the boats in the water, we discussed what worked and what didn't work with some of the designs and brainstormed what we thought made a good boat and from our experiment we came up with the following:
1. Boats work better when they have a strong structure for the floor, it helps keep the heavy objects secure 2. Boats need to have high enough sides so that water doesn't pour over into the boat causing it to flood 3. Absolutely NO holes will be able to be along the bottom of the boat near the water, or else it fills with water and sinks 4. With a good structure, boats can hold a lot of weight. Some of the boats we tested had SO many rocks on it and it didn't. What a great activity to kick off the summer season... Who else is ready to test this theory on a real boat this summer? We sure are! - Amberly
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Over the past few weeks, the Ladybugs have been captivated by the ants that are scurrying around!  It all started when one child pointed to a box labeled, “Ant Works, a space-age habitat for ants” that was stored in one of our cupboards. He asked if we could bring it outside and search for ants and so we did! Once we went outside, everyone wanted to join in! The Ladybugs worked together as they searched for the ants, safely captured them and monitored their health. One child noticed that one of the ants in our enclosure had a broken leg... He exclaimed, “We need to rescue it!”. Any injured ants were immediately released back into the wild. Another day, we brought out our new bug kits, so that each child had the opportunity to work independently if they wanted to. Some of the children decided to create a bug-friendly habitat inside their bug kits. “I’m going to get more grass” One child exclaimed, “Look! There’s a magnify glass!” when she realized that a magnifying glass was connected to each bug kit. She then used that magnifying glass to closely study the ant that she found! “I see an ant! It’s so brownish!” Another child used a small net and scooped up a big pile of grass. He said, “I’m going to sort through this to find an ant”. To learn more, we looked at some insect books and made some notes and drawings! “I know how worms hide!” “Ants go underground” “I know what that is! A butterfly!” “How do you spell 'ant village'?” “I have room to write what I see” ‘I’m going to find these!” Afterwards, we decided to walk to a neighborhood park and look for insects along the way! Before we left, one of our entomologists exclaimed... “I’ve got my suitcase! It comes in handy. I have extra paper if people run out”. He sure was right! Someone lost their pencil a few minutes into our walk and needed a replacement ASAP! On our journey, we ended up finding one red ant, one black ant, one beetle and an ant hill! We also saw some flowers and one child shouted, "The bees will fly from flower to flower!". Once the grasshoppers, caterpillars and ladybugs start populating the school yard, I know that these Kinders are going to be in a buggy paradise! - Vita |
Kindercare Leader
Vita
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March 2024
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