My 3 year old is obsessed with The Magic School Bus series of books. At first I wasn’t too sure of these books but, wow, are these books effective. My son knows more than me about A LOT of topics thanks to this series. So I am not embarrassed to admit that I sourced this idea from The Magic School Bus Inside the Hurricane. The activity is so simple, I had to share it with you.
Materials:
- Piece of paper
- Scissors
- Needle & Thread (or tape)
- Lamp
Approach:
- Draw a spiral on the paper
- Cut out the spiral (older children can do these first two steps on their own)
- Put the needle & thread through the top of the spiral (make sure a knot is tied at the end). I actually ended up taping the thread to the spiral.
- Hold the spiral by the thread above the warm/hot light bulb
- Watch the hot air rise and make the paper spiral spin
Questions:
- Ask your children to postulate on why the spiral spins?
- What does the light bulb do to the air?
- What happens to the warm air? Where does it go?
- What does this activity do to the spiral?
Thanks for visiting!
Marnie
Wow, that is so cool. I love simple experiments, mainly because it helps me explain it easily to my kids
I love those books and the show too. Thanks for sharing!
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Hi there Tulip! Yes, simple = good for the VERY reason you mention!
~ Marnie
I’ve always been fascinated by this experiment!
This is perfect timing – we’ve been talking about hot air balloons lately. I’m putting this on our summer science list. Thanks!
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Oh, that makes me so happy. Thank you for your comment. So easy! Your son will get a lot out of it!
Howdy! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering
which blog platform are you using for this website?
I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform.
I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
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