Wind Part 2

I had meant to do this yesterday, but Ms. Bennet was called to jury duty so I waited until today.  Seeing how much fun the children had Wednesday with the wind experiment, I thought I’d do one last activity to show them how the wind moves in different directions.  For this activity, Ms. Bennet and I used bubbles!  What child doesn’t LOVE bubbles?!

First, we sat the children down on the circle time carpet and blew bubbles for them to observe.    We had them observe the general movements and speed of the bubbles.  They were super excited!  We don’t do bubbles very often – hardly ever – but after seeing how excited they got – maybe we will do them more!

Next, we asked them how they thought the bubble speed and movement would change if we blew them outside?  We got a variety of answers ranging from, “Nothing will change!” to “They will go crazy!”  Then, they all got their coats on and we went out to see if their predictions were correct!

It was a clear, sunny day with a bit of a breeze.  Perfect for what we were going to do!  We had them stand in a line and Ms. Bennet and I blew some bubbles for them to observe.  Of course, the bubble flew up and around and everywhere in the breeze!  Then we let the children run after and try to catch the bubbles for about 15 mins.  They had an awesome time!  Good thing we were outside because this is not a quiet activity!

Lastly, we went inside and talked about how the movement and speed of the bubbles was different outside then it was inside and why.  They all got it!  They understood it was the wind moving the bubbles and making them go in different directions!  I absolutely love it when the children can be so actively involved in their learning!  Good times..

Wind

We are in the final couple weeks of our weather unit and today we talked about wind.  We talked about how you can’t see it but you can feel it.  You see what it does when it moves and bends things.  We went outside and observed what the wind was doing to the objects around us.  Then we talked about how we can make our own wind.  We talked about how fans make wind.  Then we asked if they knew how they could make their own wind.  After lots of guessing, one child finally yelled, “When we blow!”  Bingo!

So next we gathered 10 objects from around the room – things like a feather, a crayon, a block, a piece of yarn, ect. and asked the children to predict what would happen if they blew them.  Would these objects move in the “wind”?  After writing down their predictions, we tested their theories by having them take turns blowing the objects to see what happened!  Most of the predictions were right and the children were super excited!  We posted the chart of predictions and outcomes on the wall for parents and the children to look over.  The rest of the morning they were blowing things to see if the wind could move them!  What fun!