Jeff Cox
We Are Water! Plants and animals are mostly made of water. I hold up the large paper mache molecule and ask children what it looks like. They usually guess Mickey Mouse! Water is called the “Mickey Mouse Molecule” because that’s what the molecule looks like. H2O is 2 hydrogen ears and oxygen head.
Water is the universal solvent. It is tasteless, colorless, odorless and unique. It is the only element on the earth found in all three forms – liquid, solid, and gas. Many things dissolves in water and it flows through everything that is alive. It is unique because when it freezes it grows bigger when most things shrink. The most important things we must have to stay alive are oxygen from the air and water to drink.
Water cycles. It evaporates into the air, condenses into clouds and precipitates out as rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog and dew. The sun is the driving force. Teach the water cycle song
This is a good time to talk about temperature and how molecules respond. When they are cold they pack closely and jiggle. When they heat up they start to slide around melting and then begin to move faster when they get hot and jump into the air. Children enjoy acting this out.
Examine pictures of clouds and lightning. Lightening is electrical flashes between the clouds and the earth. Thunder is made when the heat from the electrical flash makes the air expand quickly making the sound of thunder. You can illustrate this by popping a bag of air. The quick expansion of air makes the pop.
Talk about safety. Lightening is dangerous and they should take cover in a safe place like a building or car during a storm. Children know that it is very important for them to drink water and animals and plants are mostly made of water.
Materials: Hand drum, Mickey Mouse Molecule representing water, Hand out of the water cycle, Pictures of water, ice and clouds, water cycle chart, paper bag, misc. materials for doing other water experiments you choose.
Activities: Water cycle song, Act out the effect of temperature on molecules of water. Put a drop of food coloring in a bottle of water and watch the molecules disperse. Dissolve different substances in water ex. salt or sugar. Check buoyancy of different objects in water, a magnet goes through water, light goes through water. Check surface tension by floating a paper clip on the surface of a glass of water. , check the capillary action by putting the tip of a paper towel in a glass of water. Show examples of erosion, evaporation, condensation. Show difference in density of fresh and salt water with an egg. The egg floats in salt water. A straw appears bent in water. Explore the qualities of water through experiments, river books, rain sticks, and crystals.
Ice Halos Joshua Thomas, a photographer in Red River, New Mexico, was lucky enough to catch rainbow-like arcs and pillars of light blazing over a snowy landscape last week. This is caused by the collision of light and ice crystals high in Earth’s atmosphere.
Those frozen specks of water refract light in myriad ways to produce arcs, halos, and pillars of light. Air temperatures and the shape and arrangement of ice crystals fine-tune the phenomena that we see.
In the center of the image is a bright, vertical mass called a sun pillar. Cooler air temperatures boost the brightness of these phenomena. The circle of light ringing the pillar is a 22-degree halo. These halos are fairly common and are so named because they occur at a 22-degree angle from the sun. They’re created hexagonal ice crystals.
The glaring blob of light to the right of the pillar is called a sundog, the result of ice crystals that are only partly aligned with each other. Sundogs are fairly common.
The delicate strands of light winging out from the top of the sun pillar are tangent arcs. They’re formed when tube-shaped hexagonal ice crystals are oriented on their sides. The halos and arcs aren’t a harbinger of dangerous weather events.
“One of the most soothing sounds of nature is the laughter of falling water.”
WATER QUOTES:
When the well is dry we know the worth of water. Benjamin Franklin
The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. American Indian
Water has become a highly precious resource. There are some places where a barrel of water costs more than a barrel of oil. Lord Axworthy
Throughout the history of literature, the guy that poisons the well has been the worst of all villains.
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” Thoreau
The noblest of the elements is water. Pindar
“Water is the only drink for a wise man.” Thoreau
“When you drink the water, remember the spring.” Chinese proverb
“The cycle of life is intricately tied up with the cycle of water.” Jacques Cousteau
Frost Flowers – It is as beautiful as it is rare. A frost flower is created on autumn or early winter mornings when ice in extremely thin layers is pushed out from the stems of plants or occasionally wood. This extrusion creates wonderful patterns that curl and fold into gorgeous frozen petioles giving this phenomenon both its name and its appearance.
Lake Hiller
Blood Falls
