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
