The Curious Corner explores
Making Wind
Summary
In this experience, children will experiment with different wind makers and objects to test simple scientific concepts. In this activity children will have the opportunity to test observations and form generalisations.
Rationale
Learning to reason and think logically are the outcomes of observing, experimenting and achieving. Children’s capabilities increase as they learn from their mistakes, challenge what they know and generate new understandings.
Key Concepts
Weight, strength, test
Key Language
Strong, light, heavy, week
What would happen if…
Materials
Straws (one for each participant), hand fan, mechanical fan, cardboard, foot powered pump, vacuum cleaner (reverse cycle) Objects of differing weights some that will move by wind power and some that won’t: feathers, balls of paper, tissue, streamers, toy cars, balls and books
Note: You will be racing the objects so it is a good idea to have two of some objects for a direct comparison.
Step 1: Targeted Group Reading
Gather children together for story time and show the children the covers of the following recommend books and tell them the titles.
‘What the Sky Knows’ Nikki Bourke
‘Up in the Tree’ Margaret Atwood
The Flying Orchestra’ Clare McFadden
Or other books from your collections that suit the theme of sky/wind. Ask children to look at the covers and think about the titles to try and guess what the books may be about. Lead the discussion to the sky and ask children to think about what they know of the sky, discuss weather and weather related phenomena such as sun, rain, rainbows.
Tell the children that all of the stories have wind in them and when we tell the stories they can make the sound of the wind.
Questions to ask:-
What does strong wind sound like?
What does gentle wind sound like?
And a light breeze?
Practice making wind sounds. You could even take them outside to feel the wind and notice how it makes things move.
Now that you have set up the reading experience through this preparatory discussion you can begin to read the stories.
Step 2: Introduce the activity
Show the children the various apparatus (wind makers) you have collected that will enable them to make wind. Explain that they are going to use these wind makers to try and move the objects they have collected.
Explain that they are going to test which objects they can move with each of the wind makers and before each test they are going to guess whether the object will move.
The aim is for children to be able, through testing and observation.
- To recognise the relationship between the strength of the wind and the weight of the object
- To make generalisations based on prior knowledge and observations about if each object will move.
Step 3: What does wind feel like?
Let the children play with the wind makers.
Questions to ask:-
What does the wind feel like against your hands and face?
Can you describe/tell me how strong the wind feels? Is it strong or is it week?
What about the wind from the hand fan and the desk fan…which one is stronger?
Then after asking the children to wave the pieces of cardboard slowly.
Questions to ask:-
What sort of wind does this produce?
If you wave it faster what sort of wind does this produce?
Step 4: Wind and Objects
Put your collected objects that you will be moving on the table. Let the children examine the objects ask them to notice how heavy the objects are. Ask them to pick up the objects and compare the weight.
Questions to ask:-
Which is heaviest, which object is lightest?
Guess which object you think would be easiest to move with the wind?
Why did they chose the object they did?
Step 5: The Wind maker Test
- Mark a start and a finish line on the table with coloured chalk or masking tape
- Choose two wind makers to test and two children to control them.
- Explain that they are going to test which wind maker will make the ball of paper cross the line first
- Ask each of the children to put their hand in front of each of the wind makers to test how strong they are.
- Ask each of the children to guess which one will move the paper ball across the line first.
- On the count of three ask the children to start making wind.
- Observe which wind maker moves the ball fastest.
- Does this match the guesses that the children made?
- Choose two more objects and two more children and repeat the test.
Step 6: Conclusive Conversation
Once the children have had a turn of the wind maker test conclude the activity with a discussion about what they observed and found out during this test. Then finish of with a conclusive statement based on the conversations with the children. For example “So what we found was that…”. You may even wish to make a record of these findings using a pictorial chart for the children to refer to.
Last updated: 16th July 2013
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