We've been busy making whirligig, helicopter type things this evening (click here, for the printable template from ThinkingFountain.org), to reinforce the concept of how seeds travel on the wind.
We actually started out reading The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony, following the fictitious journey of one lonely dandelion seed. But our dandelions have not gone to seed yet, and we don't usually encourage the children to blow them around the yard, anyway. So, instead we settled with making paper helicopters, weighted down with paper clip "seeds", and compared them to the twirling motion of a couple of maple seeds we found outside the library. 
They flew almost exactly the same. In fact, there was quite a bit of excitement, when the wind picked up, and started to carry the helicopter born paper clips aways, just like real seeds.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
It's a great link and I really loved the experiment - what a great way to demonstrate the whirling action.
ReplyDeleteOur kiddos are already blowing dandelion seeds hither and yon...
ReplyDeleteOf course, our yard is NOT the prize winner of the neighborhood, so I let them go ahead and make their dandelion wishes (and I make a few wishes myself!)...
This is such a neat experiment! I chuckled when you said you discourage the kids from blowing dandilion seeds, Selena is all over that, but the other day she did it against the wind, guess what she got a mouth full of?
ReplyDeleteMy kids love to make those helicopters. Those actually work for us as compared to paper airplanes.....
ReplyDeleteThere's also a type of see that looks like a helicpoter for a tree, but I don't recall the name of the tree. As a kid we used to drop them and watch them twirl to the ground.