We have been talking about the SUN! We thought about where people get the energy to walk, run, open doors, bounce balls, skip, learn and everything else. We know that our food gives us the energy we need, but where does that come from? Ask your scientist where our food comes from and where it gets the energy to grow.
We also thought about devices which are solar powered (e.g., calculators) and, with the help of some very patient parents, we built 5 different solar powered toys, including a dog that wags its tail, 2 planes, a car that really moves and a boat that propels itself across water!
Finally, we talked about how, even though we need the sun, the sun's ultraviolet rays can burn our skin. Each student was given a UV bead that changes colour when it detects UV rays. Students wore them out to recess and found that they immediately changed colour. It's an interesting experiment to talk about at home. The beads will change colour even when it's cold, and even when it's cloudy, proving that you need sunscreen even on cloudy days. An at-home extension to this experiment would be to put your bead behind glass with sunscreen on it to see how well your sunscreen works. Enjoy!