Earth Science: Water and Water Purification Part Two

We started our science instruction on Wednesday by reading The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks  by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.  I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone how great Magic School Bus books are.  We love them around here.

After reading the book we went on a field trip to the Weber Basin Water Conservation District.  Otherwise known as the water treatment plant.  It was awesome!!  We enjoyed the company of other homeschool families and we thoroughly enjoyed learning about how our water is processed and prepared for use.  (Lady Harriet and Eli played at a friend's home since I have a hard time packing our lady--she's heavy.)

 The first building contained all the chemicals.  They make their own chlorine at the plant in that big vat/container/thingy that Miriam is standing by.  I thought that was interesting.

 Our tour guide was very nice, informative, and patient.  All good qualities for a guide of small children to have.

 Here the guide is showing samples of different things that can be in water that you don't want in water that you drink.

 Here he is showing us different germs that live in un-purified water.

 After the chemicals building we went outside where there are large reservoirs of water.  The water closest to the chemicals building had all this gunk floating on it.  The farther you walked the cleaner the water looked because the heavy clumps of mud and gunk sink to the bottom.

 At the end of the reservoirs is a little waterfall.  The highest water is the cleanest.

 Here's an empty reservoir where you can see the mechanism that pushes all the sludge out.  The walls are made of redwood.  According to the guide redwood holds up beautifully and doesn't rust like metal.  Who wood have guessed?  (I realize I'm only amusing to myself.)

 This is the second building.  The top floor contains water being sifted through several layers of sediment to get out more impurities.

 The tour guide, Kevin, by a model of the layers the water sifts through.

 The basement of that building is really cool--literally and figuratively.

 Here is where they add the chlorine and pump all the water used by employees of the plant.

 And here is where they do the last step--add ultraviolet light. Who knew?  Oh wait, my hubby did.  I didn't.  My kids and I thought that part was extra cool as it wasn't in any of the books we had read.

During the summer the plant sends through 40 million gallons a day and it gets used each day.  That's a lot of water!

What a fun field trip!!  I highly recommend that you go to your local water treatment facility and get a tour.  We had a great time!

Earth Science: Water and Water Purification Part One

 Learning about purifying water is a lot more fun than you might think.  We started by reading the material in our actual science book and then we filled out a worksheet about the earth's water resources.

 After that we read a bunch of supplemental books.  How Did That Get to my House?: Water by Nancy R. Masters was probably the most pertinent of the books we read.  It was a really good overview of water, the water cycle, why we need water, and how you access water and clean it.  Excellent book to read if you are studying water.

 Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer was by far my children's favorite.  It showcases six children who live in various places around the world and discusses how each child gets water.  This was perfect for reading around Thanksgiving.  I think access to water is blessing many of us take for granted but not after reading this book.  At least, not until we forget again.  My children loved this book and really came away with a sense of gratitude for water.  I highly recommend.

Why Living Things Need . . . Water by Daniel Nunn was a very basic introduction to why water is important.  It took five minutes to read, it had nice pictures, and my children liked it.

Nature's Cycles: Water by Dana Meachen Rau is another super-simple book. I really liked it though because we have talked about the water cycle numerous times and my younger kids still don't have it down.  This was a good review.

Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean  by Arthur Dorros was perfect for what I needed.  It discusses how snow melts and trickles into brooks that trickle into streams that flow into rivers that wind up in the ocean.  This book provoked a lot of good questions and helped the kids understand sea level and things like that.  

 Later that night, when Dad came home, we pulled out a science kit.  It was only $11 so you can imagine that it wasn't the highest quality.  However, it did a good enough job that I think it was well worth the money.

 First you put your little tubes together filled with carbon, sand, gravel and a little paper filter at the bottom.

 Then you make some dirty water.  I think that was the kids' favorite part.

 Then you pour the dirty water through your filter and see what comes out at the bottom and what gets stuck in the filter.  The box specified that the filter doesn't work well enough to drink the results but that was pretty obvious by the end result (I didn't take a pic of the filtered water--oops).  It was a lot cleaner than it started though.

 We had a lovely time watching the process and it led perfectly into the field trip we went on the next day.  Pics of that soon to follow.  Happy drinking.  :)

Earth Science: Clouds

 We are back to studying the weather.  Not for long though.  We are almost done.

 Studying clouds involved making clouds out of batting and cotton balls.  The kids had a blast.  To reinforce the concepts I put up a chart of different types of clouds on the wall and every day the kids evaluate the clouds outside, find the closest match on the chart, and then write down that day's type of cloud on a "chart" (piece of paper) taped on the wall next to the chart.  This has really helped the kids learn to slow down and think about the types of clouds.

 Even Lady Harriet made clouds!

Awesome.  For some supplemental material we read:

 The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola.  It was the perfect length and mix of text and pics for the elementary level.

Wild About Weather by Ed Brotak pgs. 82- 92.

Miriam's first major sewing project

Miriam made her first quilt.  We've been doing small straight-sewing projects since Miriam turned five but I thought it was time for her to do something a little more complicated.  I only know how to sew in a straight line so I couldn't do anything more complicated.  In lieu of complicated, I opted for more involved.  Something that would take more time and have more steps.  

First I looked up a free pattern on a quilt website so I would know how much fabric we needed.  Then we took a trip to Joann's for the fabric, which Miriam picked entirely on her own.  Then Miriam washed, dried, and ironed the fabric.  I cut it into squares although I let her do three or four.  I was paranoid about wasted material.  I'm working on it.

Then Miriam laid the squares out on the floor and decided how she wanted it to look.  Then she sewed the squares together.  The best part is that Miriam is pretty much an independent sewer at this point, if it is straight line.  She can change the bobbin and thread the machine.  She knows how to backstitch and pin small pieces of material together.  I don't have to watch her anymore.

I did help a little.  Miriam sewed the first two rows together but then she had a hard time managing the amount of fabric hanging around the sewing machine, so I sewed the rest of the rows together.  Also, Cowen was desperate to sew, so he sewed some blocks together as well.

 I'm still a bit of a wimp when it comes to putting a quilt on the frames.  I've put on enough with my Mom that I'm pretty confident I could do it if I had to, but I still prefer to not be the one in charge.  My Mom donated a day to the cause and came to help.  It was a good thing.  I wasn't very patient with teaching Miriam how to tie.  I'm not very patient with many things right now, in fact.  Mom helped Miriam tie a row and helped Cowen tie a row and then my sister Lindsay, Mom, and I finished.

 THANK YOU, MOM!!! (and no, I don't look anything like my mom--I'm still bitter about it)

 There's me--not showing any children how to do anything.

And my mom being patient again.

The next day I sewed the border and voila, Miriam had a quilt.

That's her in the bottom bunk, fast asleep under her new, very warm, and very special quilt.

Great job, Miriam!!!

Christmas Excitement: Cowen

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  It snowed--again--and my kids bundled up from head to toe and went outside and threw themselves (literally) into the snow.  It took Harriet a few minutes to figure it all out, but then she ate snow with the best of them.  

Cowen, my charming green-eyed 7 year old, was fairly easy to shop for, unlike some of the other children.  He has some really obvious likes and dislikes and he gets excited about everything.  He is the personification of the "all-boy" stereotype.  He does not hold still, he does not do gentle, and he adores his mother.  He has a very special place in my heart.    

This first present, the ever popular football, is for Cowen's birthday on March 1. You can't go wrong with sports equipment for little boys.  Especially as Cowen played flag football this year and loved it.

Cowen's Santa present is Snap Circuits Jr.  Timothy and I have been wanting to get him this for a few years but decided he was finally old enough to enjoy it and old enough to do most of it himself.  

 I couldn't resist getting Cowen two books.  The first one, Fencing for Fun!, is out-of-print but we found it used through Abebooks.com.  Cowen is in the Options Day program through Harmony and he is taking fencing.  He's wanted to take fencing since he was about four years old and he loves it.  There weren't many non-fiction books about fencing geared for the elementary crowd but this one is pretty decent.  Cowen will love it.

I've already raved about the book The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution on this blog before.  You can read the full review if you click on the "must-read book" link. Suffice it to say, Cowen is a George Washington super-fan and this is the best George Washington book we've ever read.  It was an obvious choice for Christmas.

This incredibly awesome tiger thing is Cowen's stocking stuffer.  Papo just came out with a new line of fantasy figurines that feature animal fighters.  My hubby has not stopped raving since we first saw them in a Papo catalog.  Cowen's getting the tiger, Timothy's getting the lion, and Eli's getting the rhino.  I, myself, want the big-horn sheep.  So awesome.  I can't wait to see these guys take on our Schleich knights.  Sa-weet.  

LEGO Brickmaster: Star Wars (LEGO Star Wars) is great-grandma's present to Cowen. Cowen loves legos and Star Wars so this should be a winner.

And there you have it--Cowen's presents this year.  He's going to be so excited!!!  I love Christmas.  Just plain LOVE IT!!!!!!!