Hey, where did spring go? I remember years when April took us from light snow falls to warm (meaning 65 -75 degrees) days. My uncle used to remind me each spring that his mother forbade going barefoot until May 1. I bet even she would be barefoot today!
At least this crazy weather helps the children understand weather terms a little better. Since we started this unit, we have experienced or watched others experience everything but a hurricane. The weekend tornado in St. Louis led right in to our study of tornadoes today. Since we talked about hurricanes last week we could compare these two monsters today. They have the similarities of involving high winds and storms but their differences include the calm of the hurricane's eye versus the vacuum action of a tornadoes center.
I have a special connector for two 2 liter bottles that with water added, will make a vortex. We filled one bottle 2/3 full and put on the connector and an empty bottle. I turned the filled bottle up and gave it a twisting motion to begin the spinning. Voila, a tornado appeared in the bottle! At the class' request, I repeated this demonstration several times. After a few pictures of real tornadoes I was sure they knew what one was (even if they often call them tormatoes) so we moved on to safety. You will probably hear about moving away from windows tonight! The children were so excited about the subject they wanted to have a tornado drill. I told them Michi knew they would be excited so she scheduled one for next week. Sometimes it's easy to be a hero.
Plants are our sister unit to weather and today we got down to the business of growing things. First we looked at lima beans very carefully. They noted they were tan and dry looking. We soaked cotton in water, put the lima beans on top and placed them in clear "greenhouse" containers. They are now hanging in our window waiting on Mother Nature to do her thing. Next we recycled strawberry containers and made terrariums planted with thyme and rosemary seeds. Our last planting was bachelor buttons in peat pots. You can probably expect to see a little dirt under their nails for the next month.
Celine A. has asked me to remind everyone that each Tuesday there is a book sale. These are the books collected several weeks ago. The price tag is $1 per book and the money will buy school supplies for children at the Refugee Center. I'm sure she will accept cash donations as well.
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