Science Fun

Holly is really enjoying working our way through her Earth's Encyclopedia book - we are taking it in very small sections and slowly building on it. Today we looked at the earths atmosphere, how it protects us from the sun and how it utilizes what we need from the sun to keep us living. She learned there are five layers in the atmosphere: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and the Exosphere. Along with this reading we came up with some fun little projects to add to it.

First up Holly worked her way through a small science booklet on the sun from an Evan Moore book we own - she read the book, colored it and completed a worksheet based on the booklet. We also compared some space cards we have that showed the solar system (we'll be coming back to later this year), the sun and the atmosphere.

Being a silly girl in this photo!

For Holly's next project she took a piece of artwork she created out of watercolors of the earth and completed the atmosphere around it. She glued it to a larger paper and asked for my help in writing the five layers, which was fine, and then colored them all in. It made a lovely poster for the wall.

And Holly's final project was an experiment called Sunset In A Box. This experiment was to learn why sunsets are pink and orange in color. We took a clear dish and filled it with water, then added a teaspoon of milk to it. With a flashlight and the lights dimmed Holly aimed the light directly down on the pan as if it were mid-day to see the sky is clear in this fashion. Then she brought the flashlight in sideways, as if the sun was setting, which then showed the particles presented a yellowed/pinkish color. That color is due to the dust particles in our atmosphere, the dust particles in our atmosphere can create beautiful sunsets!

It was nice to have Daddy around for this experiment - he enjoys doing as much as he can with us!

This is the book we chose this experiment from - it is wonderful!!