Tops, Tops and More Tops!

2nd grade has moved onto motion - although we came to the conclusion that motion still needs balance!  All of the classes are absolutely enthralled with the disks and shafts that they used to design their own top!  I order them from www.deltaeducation.com but have told the kids they can easily make the tops from objects at home!

We watched the classic 1969 film short called Tops by Charles and Ray Eames that totally captivated the classes!  Lots of ohhs and ahhs!  Here is the link to watch the seven minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-VFMymEiE

Even a top with a shorter shaft spins fast!

Some of us start our top with our fingers, while others
have better success spinning the top with our hands.

 

 After creating tops that spun for a long time and tops that spun fast, we investigated spinning designs!

"You can't see the design when it spins so fast."

It's a spiral!

Finally we experimented with creating tops with three different types of disks - plastic cup tops, cds and cardboard - and three different shafts - crayon, pencil and marker.  We looked at our evidence and chose the combination of shaft and disk that made the best top!

Look at the trail the top with the marker left on my paper!

This top spun on it's side!

The pencil and the plastic lid is hard to spin!

I wonder if two disks together will spin better?

What Objects Sink? What Objects Float?

Pre-K have been investigating if an object sinks or if it floats! We were surprised that aluminum foil floats and the shell sinks.

The tin floats if it's empty but sinks if I fill it with water!

Annie, the turtle, can sink AND float!

All the keys sink!

How Solid is Your Tower?

First grade has been learning about properties of solids.  Some solids are flexible or rigid, smooth or rough, opaque or transparent, hard or soft. During this investigation, we were engineers!  As engineers, we needed to know the properties of the solids we were using to build a stable tower.

We measured how tall our tower was.

Sometimes the towers toppled over...so we tried a different way to use our materials to make a stronger tower!

Kindergarten Sinks Wood!

We have been busy learning amazing things about our wood samples!  We discovered that wood floats in an earlier investigation.  Now we are going to try to sink wood!

We were working with two types of wood: pine wood and plywood.  After some trial and error, we attached paperclips to the wood with a rubber band to see what would happen.  

Sometimes the paperclips fall off!

The pine wood needed more paperclips than the plywood
 to make the wood sink.

"I did it!"

Look!  The paperclip is sticking to the wood with no rubber band!

It still isn't sinking!

We came to the conclusion that the pine wood needed more paper clips because it was a lighter wood than the plywood!

The wood can stand right up in the water!