Masters of Disasters: Hurricanes and Tornadoes

Last week we talked about the sun, this week we talked about water.  Where do we find water?  Where does it come from?  Where is it going?  The kids had a good theoretical grasp of the water cycle, so it was time to to get practical!

Water evaporates, but it needs energy to change phase.  You can feel this if you spread a thin layer of water (or alcohol) on your forearm.  You caan feel the liquid absorb heat from your arm so that it can jump to it's vapor phase!

Next up we made a cloud from water vapor: you take an empty soda bottle and add a little hot (not boiling) water.  A few drops of alcohol will make this more dramatic.

Light, then blow out a match and put this in the bottle.  You won't be able to see the smoke, but it's there, and it's critical - water needs something to condense on.  Seal it up and squeeze the bottle a few times. Cloud!

We also made rain ( hold a pot of ice water over a pot of boiling water), and lightning (balloon rubbed against wool in a dark room - for added pizazz, catch the spark with a florescent bulb!).

 We looked at cold air falling and hot air rising by using a smoking match in front of an open freezer and over a hot stove.

Then we talked about what happens when there is a lot of hot air rising and a lot of cold air falling at the same time.  I had enough kids that I had them demonstrate it by having half the kids go up the stairs while the other half were going down the stairs.

Nature handles this the same way we handle traffic- everyone goes to one side.  It doesn't matter if it all goes left or all goes right, all that matters is that it all goes the same way!  In a natural 3 dimensional system, this means spinning- this is why hurricanes and tornadoes spin!

We looked at hurricanes by using spinning water in a big pot.  We dropped in a paperclip on a thread to see where the strongest and fastest current was (near the edges) and we talked about the storm front and the eye.

We also looked at how the wind raised higher waves in shallower water by blowing through straws across a baking pan filled with varying amounts of water.



The favorite was an example of hot air rising: tea bag rockets!

3rd Grade Religious Ed:Spiritual Works of Mercy

Class 18 was a continuation of the Works of Mercy, but this time with the Spiritual Works.  I was absent for this class, but I planned it and the Emperor did it for me. But we're short on photos. :)

We started with a discussion of the Divine Mercy Image and the Year of Mercy.

The image shows Jesus pouring his mercy on us: the red rays symbolize his sacrifice, the blood He shed for us, and the blue rays symbolize the healing waters of baptism and grace.

This all ties back in to the kerygma!  Jesus died and rose and invites us into his new life!

Because we had done the Holy Door craft last time, we had a short video of Pope Francis opening the Holy Door in Rome.  We also had a 60 second Lego explanation of the Year of Mercy. Pretty fun!

The book theme this week was "Jesus Gives Us the Holy Spirit, " so we talked about the Holy Spirit
and the Trinity.  I'm always surprised at how few kids seem to understand that the Holy Spirit is God.

After Jesus was raised he took his glorified body back to heaven, but He promised to send us a helper: the Holy Spirit. How does He help us?  He helps us to be who God created us to be, to be holy! He speaks in our hearts and helps us act in ways that show God's love.

We call some of those ways of showing God's love the Works of Mercy.  Last time we had looked at the some of the ways we show God's love using our bodies (the Corporal Works), but we can also show God's love using our hearts (the Spiritual Works).

For the Spiritual Works, we colored and made these mini books by Look to Him and be Radiant.

Then we had the kids come up with and act out scenarios for each Spiritual Work. I had a nice list, also from Look to Him and be Radiant, in case we couldn't come up with anything.

I have to admit that I completely underestimated the time this would take, and we didn't get through all the works, but they did get to take home their mini books and the list.

Class 19 Was "We are Part of the Kingdom."  I had planned to connect the Gospel (the Prodigal Son) to the theme of mercy, specifically asking who showed mercy in that parable, have we been shown mercy in our lives, and how do we show mercy.  That would bring us back to the Works of Mercy, and I thought we could finish up the Spiritual Works.

We also were going to talk about the Communion of Saints with a special focus on Our Lady of Guadalupe... and this was where I got pneumonia, so I wasn't actually at this class either. :(

Wordless Wednesday: Azalea Walk

Masters of Disasters: Big Changes

This series is focused on the forces that shape and change our planet.  I'm using it for 8-12 year olds, but I've done it with kids as young as 5-6.

Our planet is always undergoing changes, but when big changes happen quickly, we call them disasters: hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like.


One big force driving changes on our planet is the sun!


Yes, I realize there is a more accurate song, but I find that with young kids, it's better to use this song, and then explain that the gas on the sun is so hot that it's actually a new form of matter called plasma (because it's electrons are stripped away).

 Understanding exactly how the sun is affecting the earth is one od those things where a demonstration is worth 1000 lectures.

I like to take the globe into a dark place and use an incandescent bulb to represent the sun.  My globe has a conveniently accurate tilt, so it's easy to walk it around the "sun" and see how the parts of the earth receive more or less light at different points in the earth's orbit.

If you use an incandescent bulb, you can also show how distance and angle affect the heat each part receives (I have them put their hand on the globe).

 Now a question:  you can see how the sun gives heat and light to the earth, but what effect does that really have?  Could that light actually move anything on the earth?

Most kids don't think so, until I show them my radiometer. It was a cloudy day, so I had to take it outside to get it really moving.

The sun is really adding energy and moving things around on our planet!

Next question: what color is the sun?

We looked with a spectrometer!  Mine is store bought, but they are easy to make. You can see all the colors the sun is giving off!

We also looked at the light through prisms and water filled jars.

The jars help you see how light is bent and scattered as it passes through the atmosphere.  Air molecules scatter more blue light (which is why the sky is blue).  Water and dust tend to scatter the light evenly, so they look white.

This is why when you look straight up, the sky looks a darker blue: you are looking straight through the atmosphere.  When you look on the horizon, it usually looks paler because you are looking at the atmosphere at an angle and are seeing more of the low hanging water and dust.  Our summers are so humid that the sky looks nearly white at the horizon! You can see a little of this by looking through the jar straight on, and then at an angle.
Next up: wind!

What makes the wind?  One small part is the rotation of the earth.  I had the kids spin around with outstretched arms to feel the breeze.

Most of our wind is from the sun heating the atmosphere.   

How much the sun will heat things up depends on many factors, including the color of the earth beneath the air.    I used my scanning thermometer to look at the temperature of the black driveway and the light sidewalk: a 10 degree difference!

As the air warms, it expands, and as it cools, it shrinks. I like to have the kids model this by having them move slowly close together, then faster, bumping off of each other and taking up more space.

You can see this by blowing bubbles on a cold day.  Bubbles blown with your warm breath will rise, and bubbles made by the breeze from swinging your arms tend to fall.  This works best on a cold day without a lot of wind!

Marching Through Time

 This is the encampment of all the historical reenactors, lined up chronologically.

We had a lot of fun with the Romans- they let us do a little sword fighting!

 And we had a great time with the War of the Roses camp.  They let us try on armor!

 Leena and Zorg squired for Mxyl with impressive results!

We like armor!


We had a lovely time chatting with all the reenactors.



We also enjoyed watching these Hessians drilling and firing on the parade ground.



In the distance, you can see the historic house (Marrietta House).  This was the first year we toured the actual house, and we were very impressed!

We loved the 12 foot ceilings and the quirky layout of the building (added on rooms for a family with 11 children!).

I think what impressed the kids the most was that the original family had 9 children, but only 4 survived past the age of 5- tragically, a common story in those days.

I know that without modern  medicine, only 3 of my own children would likely have survived to that age, and that is not factoring in any epidemics!  Modern medicine, one of those things I thank God for!

Poem of the Week: Psalm 23

Psalm 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd;
 there is nothing I shall want.
 2 Fresh and green are the pastures
 where he gives me repose.
 Near restful waters he leads me;
 3 he revives my soul.

He guides me along the right path,

 for the sake of his name.
 4 Though I should walk in the valley of the shadow of death,
 no evil would I fear, for you are with me.
 Your crook and your staff will give me comfort.

5 You have prepared a table before me

 in the sight of my foes.
 My head you have anointed with oil;
 my cup is overflowing.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

 all the days of my life.
 In the LORD’s own house shall I dwell
 for length of days unending.

Seven Quick Takes: Disasters, Near Disasters, and Other Awesome Things

 1. I don't usually go political on this blog, but this campaign season has been... unusual. I keep wanting to tell Mxyl (my oldest and a first time voter): I'm sorry!  I'm so, so sorry! No, I'm much sorrier than that!

But there is a solution!  Zoom Times is proud to offer it's first ever candidate endorsement!

Rick Astley! A candidate who will never give you up, let you down, run around, hurt you, say goodbye, make you cry, tell a lie, or hurt you.

2. It's been an incredible week around here.  Leena was confirmed!

It was wonderful! She was thrilled!

The bishop was fantastic!

His homily was the kerygma! He didn't use the word, but it was a very well done encapsulation of our Faith and why it matters.

It looked bigger in real life!

3. In less fun news, Oob asked why there was a bump on the water heater.

The bump turned out to be a large bulge with an ever widening crack at the seam.

Clearly there was no time to panic, but I tell you we made time to panic!

And to pray!


Oob decided he wanted to be a journalist, so he wrote down the whole thrilling experience here.


4. Here's a happy picture.  No, I'm not being sarcastic.


You wouldn't think having your car totaled could be a happy thing, but it was because:

A The kid driving was completely unharmed, in fact no one was injured at all.
B The kid avoided getting squashed by a truck (the actual cause of the accident was a truck cutting in).
C The kid avoided hitting any other cars (on the Capitol beltway during rush hour!), he just skimmed the jersey wall.
D This car had a number of expensive repairs looming!
E All of the above.

5. How about an easier quick take?

I now have  7 sweet little bird houses hanging from the roses in front of my house!

The kids have been sporadically painting these for a while, and I suddenly realized I could make it look like I totally meant to do that!

6.  In other warm weather news, we've been spending more time outside which has meant more hiking, tree climbing, fort building, and obstacle courses, sometimes all at the same time.

And gardening!




 7. Speaking of having a lot of energy, I found Oob's to do list.
It just said: TUESDAY! THINGS TO DO!

Have a great weekend!  More fun with Kelly!

Awesome History Middle Ages: King Arthur - Alfred the Great

 This was actually 2 classes, I'm trying to catch up!

The first class covered Clovis, King Arthur, Monastic life, and Christian Africa.

Our active activity was a treasure hunt: The Quest for the Grail!  This was an actual treasure hunt with clues leading to the fancy cup.

 The art activity was calligraphy.  We cut nibs from goose feathers, and used watercolor ink.

We learned that pen knives really are the best tools for turning feathers into pens!

We also learned that cutting a perfect nib that will stand up to lots of writing is pretty difficult.  

Fortunately, cutting a simple nib for mucking about is easy!

 The snack was an Ethiopian spiced honey bread called ambasha. It was very similar to this ambasha recipe, except it had about 1/4 cup of honey also (you would add it along with the water).

Traditional ambasha is flatter than mine came out, but it was seriously delicious!  We ate ours with butter and honey and drank diluted honey as "mead."

That was A Child's History of the World chapters 42-44.

The following week got simplified due to illness.

We did chapters 46-48: Arabic technology, Charlemagne, and Alfred the Great.

Our active activity was Prisoner's Base (for all of Charlemagne's battles).

Our art activity was supposed to be making metal lanterns like we did here.  We were feeling pretty under the weather, so I still have a bunch of ice filled cans in my freezer!

We kept the snack, of course!  We had "Alfred's  Cakes" for the cakes King Alfred burned. With unintentional historical accuracy, I  lost track of time and burned them a bit on the bottom! We also had Brie cheese, reputed to be Charlemagne's favorite.

At this point  I'm 3 classes behind in blogging these classes, so I'll  keep doing double until I catch up...