Not So Windy City

BLOWING IN THE WIND:  Today the wind was front and center for us. We started the day getting the kids' homework done. That involved taking the anemometers they made in last week's class and using them to make some observations

As you can probably tell from the non-plussed look on CJ's face, our morning wind experiment didn't go too well because there was no wind. BUMMER. We obviously shouldn't have waited until today to do the science homework due today. :/ Lesson learned.

In science class, the kids had big fun making a couple of other wind-related tools. First up was a pinwheel. It took some nimble fingers to get finished, but all the kids managed to complete the project and were quite thrilled with their pinwheels.

Next up, a weather vane. The students did a good job of listening to the instructions and completed their weather vanes in short order. Then we headed out side in hopes of catching some wind that would make the dozen or so weather vanes all point in the same direction. Mercifully, a small gust kicked up just long enough for the arrows to all point southwest.

BIRTHDAY BOY: Today, we observed the birth of Galileo Galilei by watching a BrainPOP video about the Italian scientist.

After the video, I asked CJ and Annabelle to write a bit about what they learned.

CJ wrote:

   Galileo was a great scientist. Instead of religion, Galileo did experiments. Galileo was born in Tialy, Pisa, 1564. Galileo believed that the sun was in the middle of the solar system. And he was right.

   Galileo went to court and he was forced to say that the Earth was in the middle of the solar system and was put under house arrest.Galileo died in 1642, and most of his theories were right.d

Annabelle wrote: 

   During his life, Galileo was a great astronomer. He tuaght us that we actually revolved around the sun and that Jupiter has more than 4 moons! He also said that (stuff) balls of different mass fall at the same rate!

   Galileo was put under house arrest just for his ideas! He had to stay in his house forever! After he died, Galileo's ideas were proved right!

My favorite this about Galileo is that he's a father of scientific method. How fortunate (and radical at the time) that he pioneered the idea that science should be based on observation and experiments (rather than say,  Aristotelian teachings).

BATTLE ART: Annabelle had art class this morning and she chose to make a dagger and a shield. Love it. Girl Power! 

AND BY THE WAY: When we were leaving Shoreline, we saw a string of helicopters flying overhead. I'd never seen a helicopter convoy before. After we got home, I learned from Twitter it was a fleet (flock?) of Blackhawks. Click on this link to see a cool photo of the swarm of them, posted by the Museum of Flight: http://twitpic.com/8kewlc

FLY BY: Tonight, after dinner, we checked out the live stream on NASA.gov's USTREAM feature. It showed a live view from the ISS of our Big Blue Marble. And thanks to a Twitter-based text alert, I knew that the ISS would be flying over Seattle, rising from the southwest, at 7 p.m. We had some rare clear skies and so of course we had to take advantage of the opportunity.

And so, we were at the top of the lot waiting to watch a bright white dot transverse the sky and at about 7:02.

It was an exceptionally bright appearance, and flew right over our heads. Unfortunately it disappeared in the clouds over Queen Anne hill.

SPA DAY: We all enjoyed watching the Westminster Kenned Club dog show last night - except maybe Kirby. She was mouthy and growly during the show and today she was looking a little rough (ruff?) around the edges. I told the kids I thought Kirby needed a little primping. And so, for the first time ever the kids participated in bathing her. CJ tried to talk his way out of it by noting the dog shampoo said, "Keep out of the reach of children." Sorry, bub, you're not getting off that easy. I told him that mostly meant he shouldn't drink or bathe in it.

So the kids soaped her up and rinsed her down and Kirby had a little  more spring in her step this evening. ;)

LEFTOVERS: Yesterday was busy, so I forgot to report a couple things. First, while CJ was in acting class, Annabelle and I played a couple of games. First up was Candyland, which I basically despise because there is no skill involved. It's all luck/about what card you draw. You might as well just have a coin toss at the beginning, head or tails, win or lose.


Next up was Scrabble Word Play Poker. A lot more challenging and with infinitely more educational value. Not only did Annabelle have to make up words out of the seven letter cards she held, once she made the word there was math involved to calculate her word score (adding for the letters and some multiplication for cards with double or triple letter or word scores).

While we were playing, a couple passersby stopped to ask us about the game.

Also from yesterday, while we were in the post-presentation workshop room following the Mars presentation, there was a box of geometric shapes. CJ was very into it, and was happy with this construct, of which he took a photo: