Science Sunday: Silkworms

We have been leaning about China and some of the fascinating discoveries and inventions that originated from the country.  This week we talked about silkworms and how silk cloth is made.

 

Where Does Silk Come From?

Emily and Aiden looked at a piece of silk and pulled some of the loose threads. 

I asked them where silk came from?  I got an “umm?, umm?” from Aiden and “I don’t know” from Emily.

I showed them these cute little guys and explained that these were silkworms  at different stages of life.  Silk comes from the threads of the silkworms cocoon, which is weaved into cloth.

How In the World Did Someone Discover that Silk Can be Made from Silkworm Cocoons?

We listened the story of Lei Zu and the Silkworms on The Story of the World Volume 1: The Ancient Times Audiobook CD

The story is about Lie Zu who was outside under a mulberry tree enjoying a lovely cup of hot tea when a silkworm cocoon fell in her tea.  It began to unravel in the hot tea.  She pulled the thread and walked around the garden, trailing the tread behind her.  She continued to unravel more of the cocoons and winding them together until she had a piece of thread think enough to weave.  She took them to a dressmaker which created the first silk cloth.

The Life Cycle of a Silkworm

We read Life Cycle of A Silkworm (ugly caterpillars, aren’t they?)

and Emily worked on two worksheets I created, a Silkworm Question Sheet and the Silkworm Life Cycle. 

Click on the images to download

She used the Silkworm Life Cycle Figures for her drawings.

I also printed Silkworm Sequencing Cards (Eggs to Silk) from here and Emily put them in order. 

 

Some interesting facts we learned:

• Other kinds of moths can fly to escape predators.  A domesticated silkworm has no predators, so it does not fly.
• It takes 110 cocoons to make a silk tie and 640 cocoons to make a silk shirt.
• A single thread of silk from a silkworm cocoon can be one mile long. 
• A single thread of silk is stronger than the same size thread of some types of steel.

We finished up by looking at pictures of a Silk factory in Shanghai China.  The kids were very sad to learn that most of the silkworms are killed during the production process.

For more fun with science, check out Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

~Cindy

Science Sunday: Butterflies ~ Identifying, Sketching & a Butterfly House

Our butterfly bush has just been fluttering with activity this week.  There have been so many visitors ~ some looking rather ragged after a long journey.

Identifying:

The kids sat and watched the butterfly bush during lunch ~ I was busy taking pictures.   Whenever we saw a butterfly we couldn’t identify they would grab our butterfly book and see who could find it first. 

  

It is extremely hard to identify butterflies unless you have a book that shows pictures of the butterflies with their wings opened and closed so if anyone sees anything we identified wrong, please let me know.

Sketching:

Another of my many goals this year is to do more nature drawing.  We started this week by sketching some our beautiful visitors. 

Here’s a peak into our sketch books.   Mine is the one with the monarch, next is Aiden’s, and the one with the pretty orange butterfly is Emily’s.

Our Butterfly House:

To keep the butterflies safe from predators and give them a place to rest we made a butterfly house.  We found the idea for the butterfly house in the book Wildlife Gardening by Martyn Cox.

What We Used:

• A washed carton 
• Scissors
• glue or glue gun
• Bark
• Twigs, leaves and shells
• Twine

What We Did:

1. Cut three narrow slits into one side of the carton.
2. Make a viewing door on the opposite side and place the bark inside to provide a place for the butterflies to perch.
3. Thread twine through the top of the carton.
4. Decorate the carton with twigs, leaves and shells.        
5. Hang you butterfly house in a sheltered place.

         

Our family is looking forward to Fall and the cooler temperatures but we are really going to miss the butterflies!

For more fun with science, check out Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

~Cindy

Science Sunday ~ Rocks Week 2

This week we focused on the three types of rocks ~ sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. To demonstrate how these rocks are formed we made edible rocks.  I found the information here.  Warning ~ these contain LOTS of sugar!

We started out talking about sedimentary rocks which are formed when layers of sand, small bits of rock, clay, plants, bones and mud are piled on top of each other and eventually get compressed and harden into rocks.  Sedimentary rocks are often formed in river and lake bottoms.   I asked the kids why water was important?  Emily’s answer ~ The water carries the “stuff” down the river.

To demonstrate how sedimentary rocks are formed we used the following to represent the different layers ~ bread (dirt), graham crackers (sand), crunchy peanut butter (mud with small rocks in it), strawberry jelly (dried leaves and twigs) and grape jelly (bones).  We put a layer of each on our bread

 

and the kids compressed their sedimentary “rocks”.

Next up Igneous rocks which are formed from melted rock.  I asked the kids what would be hot enough to melt rock?  The answer ~ a volcano.

   

To make our edible igneous rocks we used butterscotch and chocolate chips to represent the different kinds of minerals founds in rocks. 

 

Melted them in the microwave to show that once it is heated you can no longer see the individual minerals (chips). 

We put our hot magma on waxed paper and stuck them in the fridge to cool.

 

The last rock we talked about was metamorphic rocks which are formed when rocks and minerals have been heated and compressed, forming a new rock.  The process does not melt the rocks completely like igneous rocks it just transforms them into denser more compact rocks.

For this experiment we used sugar cookie dough and 3 colors of food coloring.  We divided the dough into 3 equal sections and added 5 drops of different food coloring to each section. 

We rolled balls out of each color, and the kids compressed them.

Then we baked them (heat)

and enjoyed our metamorphic “rocks”.

            

For more fun with science, check out Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

~Cindy

Science Sunday: Rocks and Gems

The kids decided they wanted to learn about rocks when they found a Smithsonian Rock and Gem Dig kit at Michaels.  We purchased the kit, took it home and got our materials ready.

The kids geared up

  

and started digging for rocks and gems.

They had fun digging but the rocks and gems were a disappointment because they were teeny tiny. We found a total of 11 gems and rock.  We tried to identify all of them ~ which we did not succeed in doing.  They were so tiny it was hard to see the different colors, etc. in the stones.

We ended by reading Let’s Go Rock Collecting and talking about the different kinds of rocks.

Next Sunday I will post about the experiments we did to demonstrate how sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks are formed.

For more fun with science, check out Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

~Cindy

Science Sunday: Sea Monkeys

I bought some Sea Monkeys for the kids at Christmas and they sat on the shelf, forgotten, until the kids found them and asked me what they were.  That was about 8 weeks ago and I am proud to report that our Sea Monkeys are still alive and reproducing!

We started by getting our water ready and letting it sit for 24 hours~ this was extremely hard for the kids because they wanted to dump the packet of Sea Monkey eggs in right away. 

The next day we opened our package of Sea Monkey eggs and took a closer look. The kids could not believe that this powder could possible contain something living.   

How can they live with out water and survive in this little packet?  Sea Monkeys produce a substance called trehalose, which protects the eggs from extreme temperatures and lack of water.  Once the eggs are coated they are called cysts and they can live for many years like this. 

I added the water and the kids watched and waited.  We soon saw little particles moving in the water ~ baby Sea Monkeys.

I found some really great websites that have information about Sea Monkeys.  My favorite was Sea Monkey Worship ~ lots of great information!  Discover This had an interesting fact page and some  coloring sheets.

Some interesting facts we have learned about Sea Monkeys:

• Sea Monkeys are really brine shrimp.
• They breathe through their feet.
• They are attracted to light so you can teach them tricks with a flashlight.
• Sea Monkeys don’t have brains; they have groupings of nerves called ganglia.
• You can tell if you Sea Monkey is eating by looking at the line that runs down the Sea Monkey’s body; this is the digestive tract. If they are full, the line will be black.  If not ~ feed them!

Here is a sheet I created for Emily to write down some information about the Sea Monkeys and draw them as she observed them.

Click the document above to download.

Our Sea Monkeys at 8 weeks.

We have enjoyed watching the Sea Monkeys and they have been easy to take care of.  You don’t need to clean the tank and they only have to be feed once every 5 days.

For more fun with science, check out Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

~Cindy

Science Sunday: Sand Experiments

What is sand?  Where does it come from?  Do people buy it from Lowe’s and spread it on the ground to make beaches?

To figure out what sand is, the kids grabbed some magnify glasses and took a closer look.  They found small pieces of rock and shell.  The conclusion:  Sand is made from small pieces of rock and shells. 

 Notice another child?  One of our neighbors decided to help with the experiments.

Next we built a “beach” to show how waves move rocks and shells.  We added equal amounts of sand, aquarium gravel, and water (tinted with blue food coloring ~ just to make it pretty.) to a plastic container.    

We took turns rocking the container back and forth to show how waves form and wash through the rocks, distributing the sand and rocks over the entire container.  

The conclusion:  Waves move the sand and rocks.  I explained that water bangs the rocks together, wears the rocks down (erosion), and helps form sand.  Water and wind carries the sand to form beaches and dunes.

Next came the fun part of the experiment ~ we made sand.  To do this the kids added some small rocks, which I washed really well to remove any dirt, and water to a plastic container.  Emily shook the container, shook it some more,

    

and shook it some more.

  

After about 3 minutes we opened the container to see what was happening to the rocks. We discovered brown water.  I poured some of the water into a clear container so they could see what was floating in the water. The girls conclusion:  I didn’t wash all the dirt off the rocks. 

I assured them that I did wash the rocks and had them look in the bottom of the container we used to shake the rocks.  They discovered small pieces on the bottom ~ sand!

 

The Final Conclusion:   I did wash the rocks!  The brown water was caused from tiny rock particles floating in the water.  The girls agreed that the water bounced the rocks together, forming sand.

We ended our experiment by reading Jump into Science Sand.

Wonder where Aiden was during all of this?  I really thought he would enjoy this experiment.  It included jumping around and water, two of his favorite things!  Not this time ~ he worked on his tractor most of the time.  

He did find a dead caterpillar. 

I’ll just consider that his contribution to our science lesson!

~Cindy