Can You Poke a Stick Through A Balloon Without Popping It? Learning About Polymers

During our morning meeting I asked my kiddos what would happen if I poked a bamboo skewer through a balloon.  Of course they said it would pop.  Are you sure? I asked them and then showed them the balloon above. Oohs and Ahhs abounded along with, "Mrs. Malloy, how did you do that?"

So... in my best teacher bribery way I told them that if they worked really hard and productively all day, I would teach them how to do it (of course I planned on teaching them how to anyway since it was in my lesson plan, but they didn't have to know that right?).

When the time for science finally came around, I told them that we were going to practice their skills of observation.  I was going to SHOW them how to do it, but I wasn't going to TELL them how.  I silently demonstrated and then handed out supplies.

Balloons were blown.

And then they attempted to poke.  A few balloons popped, but most of the students were successful on their first try.

And once they tasted success, they had to add a challenge - let's see who can poke the most sticks into the balloon without popping it!

 

Eleven was our class record!

 

 

The trick? Put vegetable oil on the stick to make it a little easier (optional) - then insert the stick at the bottom part (where the balloon is tied) and exit through the strongest part at the other end.

 



We then watched this video to learn about what polymers are:


And finished the lesson by making our own human polymer chains!

 

We will be learning about how scientists use polymers to clean up oil spills using a kit from Steve Spangler soon, but I wanted to give them a brief introduction before.  They loved it!

Why We Shouldn't Waste Water - FREEBIES

We have been working on a unit our unit for Common Core Standard RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
We had previously compared the amount of water and land on the Earth.

Today we learned why we shouldn't waste water even though there is so much of it on the Earth.

I started by asking the kiddos to name all of the ways that they used water.  I had them come up to the SmartBoard to write their answers (for some reason writing on the SmartBoard has been a great motivator).

Here were some of their ideas (please forgive their misspelling - I wanted to get through this part without correcting them).

Then I had them look at the inflatable globe to remind me how much of the Earth was covered with water.  I asked them, "If there is so much water on the Earth, why do we always talk about saving water?" I used the inflatable globe as a discussion monitor.  They couldn't talk unless they were holding the globe which I threw to them if they raised their hand.

 

After we discussed their ideas (which included because water costs so much - in our town it does), I asked them to make a prediction about how much water on the Earth is drinkable. 

 

 

 

They wrote their predictions on index cards.

 



 



Then we talked about how much it really was.  They were surprised to see that we really have a small amount - just a drop really!

 

 

 Then I had them write a paragraph comparing their original prediction to the results from our model.

 

 

 I will be putting this unit together in a complete unit, but, for now, here is the lesson plan from today including how to model the amount of water on the Earth. 



Here is the lesson plan for this activity. 

Rock, Paper, Math

I have a group of wiggly third graders this year - my class is mostly boys with a few girls.  My principal has suggested using some brain breaks.  I would love to implement a few brain breaks that also involve some content review.  That is why I love this video with a version of rock, paper, scizzors that reviews multiplication facts (if you teach younger students I'm sure you could substitute with addition or subtraction instead).



This comes from a book entitled Energizing Brain Breaks.  You can find a few more free videos at the website here.

What brain breaks do you use?