June 28, "What is Liquid?"

This was the introductory class for the new form of matter - liquid.

First we reviewed what we knew about solids: they are like statues and have shape. Their shape does not change. Then I told the children that we will learn a new word today: "liquid". Everyone got very excited because this is a really fresh word but no one knew what it is. So we looked at 3 liquids I brought in for the class: milk, oil, syrup. We figured that they all have different smell and color.

We then discovered that water is liquid too and it comes in many form: tap water, rain, ocean, lake. We learned/refreshed the nursery song “Rain, Rain, Go Away!”

Rain rain go away

Come again some other day

Little children want to play

Rain rain go away

 

and went on to explore the properties of water.

As we read the book "I get wet" by Vicki Cobb http://books.google.com/books?id=Vg4aD9Zcpo8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, we figured out that water makes us wet as well as cools us down and makes us clean. Then we got different shapes and filled them with water. As it turned out, water did not have a shape of its own! It merely had the shape of the container it was in.

We then figured out that besides getting us wet, water can make stuff stick. Our hairs, if we wet them, get stuck to each other. The hairs on the paintbrush, when wet, get stuck to each other.

Next class we will continue to explore the properties of water!