May 10, 2010

Rocket Launch

A couple weekends ago, we took the kids to a bottle rocket launch. We made this 2-liter rocket and then had it shot in the air with pressurized air and water. Our parachute never deployed, but now we know better for next time to loosely put the nose cone on the top. We learned about aerodynamics and propulsion. The rocket blasted pretty high, though, and the kids had a fun afternoon.



A video of our launch!

May 4, 2010

Reading Craft

The kids are fans of the Magic Tree House (and Merlin Missions) books by Mary Pope Osborne. The books tell the adventures of siblings Jack and Annie and how their tree house transports them to different places in time. I saw something online a few weeks ago that gave me an idea for an activity.

I put down a piece of old fabric for each of them. Then they used markers to draw something from one of the stories. They each chose to draw whatever spoke to them from the stories. Jack drew the "sword of light." Adeline drew the "hairy eyeball" (yes, a hairy eyeball...I thought it would have been a cat or dolphin from the stories, but she chose the hairy eyeball -- gotta love her).




Then I sewed them, and we stuffed them to make a pillows.
(Thank you to Adeline for taking the below photo.)


The sword of light from Summer of the Sea Serpent
and the hairy eyeball from Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve.

 
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