Homeschool Creations

Sunday, August 15, 2010

House of Cards ~ Science Sunday

Apparently, I’m picking some real winners of experiments to try with the kids. I figured building a house of cards wouldn’t be that difficult.

I was wrong.

We were able to make a few ‘teepees’ out of the cards, but before we could get much farther, they would all collapse…however, it drove home the entire point of the experiment overall, so in that sense it worked out perfectly!

Question of the Week… What will happen if a key card is removed from the card house?

Items we used for this experiment:

~ deck of cards

~ brainpower and patience {the latter sadly lacking in our house}

Predictions and Experiment…

Each of the kids made a prediction about what would happen…which wasn’t too difficult, considering we couldn’t even get a card house built! Their prediction was that it would fall ~ and that it did!

Before we started the experiment, we talked about force {pushing or pulling on an object}. We tried putting our fists together in front of us and seeing what would happen when the force from one arm was more than the force from the other. I also demonstrated force by having Zachary try to stand up from his chair while I pushed down on his shoulder.

The kids each took about 7-10 cards and tried to build a card house with it {two teepees on the bottom, a card laying on top of them and another teepee on top}.

house of cards

Mommy tried rather unsuccessfully to build just one. Every time I tried to build the second part of the house, the first one would fall. Zachary was the only one who managed to get two standing up together.

house of cards building

Eventually we tried creating different styles of card houses and Laurianna was able to make one that was a little more square in style {notice the tongue concentration with both her and Zachary ~ grins}.

IMG_6723

The Nutshell Reason…

Force {push or a pull} can put an object in motion or change speed or direction of a moving objects. Objects also put force against each other and can balance if the forces are equal. Obviously the stronger force wins and will push the other object in the direction that it is going.

After the Experiment…

Once we finished our experiment and talking about why things were happening the way they were {force, balance, etc…} the kids answered a few questions on their observation sheet from the book and illustrated what happened during our experiment.

How to Do Science Experiments with Children Resource: How to Do Science Experiments with Children is available from Amazon and you can also check it out {and do some of the experiments} using Google Docs! The experiments use easy-to-find objects and also include record sheets for kids to fill out with their predictions and experiment results. Each experiment also includes teaching tips and explanations…which are rather handy! :) Don't forget to check out some other great science ideas at Science Sunday hosted by Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.

 Jolanthe Signature affiliate button

Labels:

10 Comments:

  • My stepson is a card house building pro! I don't know how he does it. He also makes them so that they support things such as shoes and even a stack of 13 school books! I'll have to see if I can find the picture.

    By Blogger shang09, At August 15, 2010 at 7:54 AM  

  • What a wonderfully fun way to teach physics! I will have to bookmark this one for when we get back to physics. Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea.

    By Blogger Phyllis, At August 15, 2010 at 9:36 AM  

  • Thank you for sharing your "failed experiment". It is so easy to share our successes, but to still learn from and share our "failures" is a true gift. I loved that you found a lesson within your experiment and shared it with your children and us.

    By Blogger Katie, At August 15, 2010 at 11:24 AM  

  • Love the arm full of Silly Bands in the first picture. We have the craze here, too. Who says homeschooled kids are sheltered??

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At August 15, 2010 at 3:24 PM  

  • I hadn't noticed all the silly bandz until I saw Kris' comment. nice.

    We tried building a house of cards for our Sunday School class to illustrate about needing a firm foundation. If you think it's hard to build, try it on a soft surface. We ended up discovering that the method Laurianna used was most reliable.

    By Blogger Ticia, At August 15, 2010 at 4:01 PM  

  • I wrote a thank you post for my top 5 referring sites and you were my #1! Thank you so much for what you do. It's through your Preschool Corner link up that I have made some wonderful friends and I thank you!
    http://monkeyseedo-terra.blogspot.com/2010/08/thank-you.html

    By Blogger Unknown, At August 15, 2010 at 10:58 PM  

  • Wow, it's been a while since I attempted a house of cards. Didn't even think of it as a science experiment. cool.

    By Blogger kewkew, At August 16, 2010 at 1:35 AM  

  • I hadn't noticed all the silly bandz until I saw Kris' comment. nice.

    We tried building a house of cards for our Sunday School class to illustrate about needing a firm foundation. If you think it's hard to build, try it on a soft surface. We ended up discovering that the method Laurianna used was most reliable.

    By Anonymous Ticia, At December 15, 2010 at 12:58 PM  

  • Thank you for sharing your "failed experiment". It is so easy to share our successes, but to still learn from and share our "failures" is a true gift. I loved that you found a lesson within your experiment and shared it with your children and us.

    By Anonymous Katie, At December 15, 2010 at 12:58 PM  

  • My stepson is a card house building pro! I don't know how he does it. He also makes them so that they support things such as shoes and even a stack of 13 school books! I'll have to see if I can find the picture.

    By Anonymous shang09, At December 15, 2010 at 12:58 PM  

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have a question and would like a reply, feel free to ask. I do my best to reply personally to you, but please be sure that there is an email linked to your comment or your profile! :)

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home