Science: (first circle)

Need for lesson – A handful of objects to be dropped onto the ground such as paper clips inside a container. Large marbles, small marbles, cookie sheets or trays, and play dough.

Science 69
Boys and girls I have some objects inside this container. I am going to stand up and throw everything in this container up into the air. I wonder how many of them will land on the ceiling and how many will land on the floor. What do you think? (toss them) Let’s count how many landed on the ceiling and how many on the ground. Why did they all fall to the ground? Because of gravity. Gravity is a force of attraction between two objects. Gravity acts like a magnet – pulling objects together. The Earth has gravity. Gravity holds everything close to this planet. Trees, water, animals, buildings, and the air we breathe is all held to the Earth because of gravity. All of the planets, stars, and moons of the universe have gravity. Gravity is affected by the size and proximity, or closeness of objects. The Earth and Moon have a stronger pull on each other because of their closeness to each other. The earth has a stronger pull than the Moon because Earth is bigger.
On my mat I have two cookie sheets. We have large and small marbles. The marbles have a different weight. I am going to pass around one of each so you can feel the weight of them. If I hold one large marble over this cookie sheet and the smaller one over this cookie sheet and drop them at the same time, do you think one will land before the other? Also listen carefully to see if they make a different sound when they land.
So even though these marbles have a different weight, and were dropped from the same height, they fell at the same speed. Gravity works the same on all objects unless wind gets in the way. What about how they hit, or impact on the ground, because one is heavier do you think that will be different? Let’s roll out some play dough onto the cookie sheet and drop them again and find out. Looking at the marks they made in the play dough what do we discover? Although the marbles of different weights fall or are pulled down because of gravity, they land at the same time. How they land is different though. The heavier marble has a greater impact or stronger landing than the lighter marble.
We are going to leave these trays and marbles on the mat for you to try dropping the marbles onto.

Gravity Lesson

Second Circle:

Need for lesson – The book Fireflies, Fireflies, Light My Way or any other firefly book/activity you would like. Depending on where you live, there may be another insect you would like to highlight today.

Art:

Animal Wheel – This idea is from The Mailbox Magazine. The animals in the wheel are from the story so you could gather some picture of the animals and make a similar activity. Children paint a paper plate black or dark blue that has a 2×2 window cut out of it. When the paint dries, children dab glow-in-the dark fabric paint all over the plate. The animal pictures are glued onto another paper plate and put together using a brad. I like the idea of glow-in-the dark fabric paint to make the fireflies with.

Firefly Story and Art

Firefly Story Art

Firefly Tweezing – This is another firefly story idea. I decided to make a work to go with it. I put some grass into a jar and small fireflies for the children to tweeze out of the jar.