Science Fun!

Since we finished up our, oh so super boring will not use again science textbook for this year, I am doing some fun little mini units on whatever the kids want until this school year ends. (which by the way is 14 days).  Anywho, the kids picked volcanoes for this week.  I think they picked this topic because they have seen the coverage of the Icelandic volcano on the news.  I am absolutely certain that it has nothing to do with the fact that we got a volcano kit for Christmas that has just been sitting on the shelf. 

The first thing I like to do when starting a unit (or mini unit) is make a KWL chart.  K - what do we already know, W -what do you want to know, L - what we learned.  Under the K part, I write whatever the kids say - even if it is an incorrect fact - that will let me know any misconceptions that I might need to clear up.  The W part lets me know what kind of info the kids will find interesting and often times shapes the direction of our unit.  And finally, the L part will be filled out at the end of the unit - hopefully answering the questions under the W part and correcting any misconceptions under the K part.  Here is ours from today.

 So, we began by talking about the layers of the earth.  The kids enjoyed making a little flapbook for their lapbooks.  We talked about each layer and then colored and labeled them in our flapbooks.

Next, we cut open a hard boiled egg to try and get another example of the layers of the earth.  The shell was the crust.  The egg white was the mantle, and the yolk was the inner and outer core.  Can you see it?

And then we peeled and ate the earth.  Gotta love edible examples!

Finally, the boys got to get started on making their volcano molds.  I would like for them to paint them tomorrow and then have them erupt on Wednesday, but something tells me that we won't be waiting until Wednesday.