Summer Science - Water

It is the first week of summer vacation and we are starting our first summer science theme - water! 

First I taught the kids that water is a liquid.  We poured water into containers of various shapes and sizes.  We noted that a liquid can be sloshed around and takes on the shape of the container it is in. 

See!  Here Rhys is demonstrating that the liquid which was once spread out on the blue plate will now take on the shape of the even flatter counter surface and eventually the equally flat floor surface.  Thank you, Rhys, for being an active contributor during our experiment.

After we understood these two attributes of a liquid we went throughout the entire house looking for liquids to write on our list.  We found milk, syrup, hand soap, shampoo, fabric softener, bubble "juice" or solution, paint, bug spray, and gasoline, among others. 

Sophie chose 5 from our list to practice writing on her own list, so she can keep up her writing skills throughout the summer.

On another day, we did an experiment to change water to a solid.  We filled up 3 cups of water, left one out on the counter, and put the other two in the freezer.  Sophie hypothesized that they would all freeze.  We noted water needed to be really cold to freeze into a solid.  We talked about solids - that they don't slosh around, they are hard, and they don't change shape.

The next day we popped the frozen ice out of their plastic cups and added them to their bath. We talked about how solid water is lighter than liquid water so it floats. We observed that most of the ice was below the water and only a bit stuck out of the water. We noted that the size of the ice got smaller and discussed why this might be. Rhys was troubled when his ice seemed to have disappeared and we talked about how it had become water, that the solid was "all gone."

I didn't take the camera out in the rain but we were lucky enough to have some steady rain and went on a "rain walk." We watched the water in the gutters and followed it to the street drain. We noticed how the water wanted to go down. We had fun splashing in quite a few large puddles! We made it to the green belt in our neighborhood and talked about how full the creek was from all the rain running down into it. We saw the water pour down over the spillway. We threw sticks in and saw how fast and powerful the water moved. On the way back the rain stopped and we tossed pebbles into the stiller areas of water to see the ripples. We did not get into water displacement but simply noted that it made circles. 

We placed a penny on the table and used a medicine dropper to cover the penny with water. We noted that the water was bulging like a dome because water likes to stick to itself (cohesion). I explained that it was as if all the drops were holding hands.  When the water overflowed we discussed that the water became to heavy (that the drops were not able to hold on to each other's hands any longer) and the water fell off the penny. 

We also experimented with capillary action or "wicking" by choosing several household items and seeing which ones "soaked up" water.  We laid out a dozen objects and used the medicine dropper to wet the objects. Sometimes it left a dome shaped drop and other times the water filled up the tiny holes (capillary action) and soaked in. We also talked about how dirt when rained on created mud because it soaked up the water.

It was fun teaching my children about the properties of water and experimenting with them.  It keeps me sane and the kids busy and thinking.  I am looking forward to playing with them while exploring other topics this summer.