Asalamualaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu ladies, I hope you are all in the best of health and peaks of emaan, ameen.
In the last few weeks of our earth science studies we have covered volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains, and glaciers today; we still have caves and rivers to go. All of this will be leading up to the kids carrying out their first independent project this year, which I will be sharing soon inshaAllah.
Last week we did volcanoes and of course, that wouldn’t be complete without the infamous volcano experiment! So here was our attempt-let me warn you now, if you’re looking for a Pinterest project that took weeks you won’t find that! Part of my vision for writing this blog was to show real homeschooling..not just the projects that look like they belong in science fairs.
Instead of paper mache, we used simple paper strips to create our volcano which we glued to an empty plastic bottle. We then took it outside, and that’s where the real fun began.
We filled the bottle almost to the top with water, added the usual fairy liquid, red food colouring (to look like real lava!), and some baking soda. Then poured in some vinegar, and watched our volcano erupt like Stromboli!!
Since the kids enjoyed it so much, we decided to make our very own mud ‘crater’ and this time saw the lava ooze instead of exploding. My 3-year-old loved this more than anyone!
Back to glaciers then, our lesson today was a discussion lesson where we watched a few videos and slideshows about what a glacier is, how it is formed, the difference between alpine and continental glaciers and the different ways that glaciers can change the landscape. Like many of our lessons, especially science, my aim is not to give the kids an extensive lesson but rather build their interest through asking them questions and thereby building their foundation-the detail will come in time.
To add a visual element to our lesson I froze some water in different plastic Tupperware to make our glaciers! So so simple, but you will be amazed just how much a visual element adds to a lesson.
Once we finished our discussion we used our homemade glaciers to demonstrate the concepts we had just learnt. So at one point the kids made an ice shelf by putting all the glaciers together and were able to see how melt-water would gather behind it.
They then put two glaciers together and ‘broke’ one off to demonstrate how a glacier breaks off into the sea and becomes an iceberg.
Although it may seem simple, once you have mastered your child’s learning style, it’s the small things you can do to really engage them-it can turn a lesson from good to great!
My kids loved the lesson; perhaps its because they got to do an ice challenge and wet all the floor afterwards!
