Tornadoes & Hurricanes

Tuesday and Wednesday we studied tornadoes and hurricanes. We read books about them, wrote research reports about them, and watched some video about them. We even acted out the parts of a hurricane--the eye, eye wall, and spiral bands-- as a class. The children were very fascinated by the storm chaser segment of one video we watched so we set-up a dramatic play storm chaser center the next day. Other centers included wind painting, building hurricane- proof houses, tornadoes in a jar, and wild weather collages.

Thunder Cake

On Monday we read the book Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. The story is about a little girl who is scared of thunderstorms. Her grandmother, Babushka, helps her not be afraid of a storm by baking thunder cake with her. At the end of the book, there is a recipe for Thunder Cake. We had it for snack on Monday and it was delicious! Here is the recipe...

My Grandma's Thunder Cake

Cream together, one at a time

1 cup shortening

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, separated (blend yolks in. Beat whites until stiff and then fold in.)

1 cup cold water

1/3 cup pureed tomatoes

Sift together

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup dry cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Mix dry mixture into creamy mixture.

Bake in two greased and floured 8 1/2 inch round pans at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

Frost with chocolate butter frosting. Top with strawberries.

Lightning & Thunder

Week two of Weather Camp started off great! We spent the day learning more about thunder and lightning. Take a look!...

At the this center they explored magnets and the question: How are magnets and lightning alike? Answer: Lighting happens when a opposites attract...a positive and negative ions are attract to one another. Magnets also use this principle.

At the art center they enjoyed making clay robots with lightning rods (aka paper clips). We used our robots for an experiment during project work.

Annelyse is working hard at the writing center. She chose a stormy picture to write about.

During project work the kids rotated through 4 static electricity experiments. At this center they are rubbing plastic combs with wool and then using the charged combs to pick-up puffed rice.

This center is similar to the last one except they are are rubbing plastic utensils and picking up ground pepper.

McKenna and Megan are vigorously rubbing their balloons to create static. They then touched to the balloon to their clay robots to try and hear a small spark. This center was the hardest to do.

The final center involved more balloon rubbing. They tried to generate sparks between two balloons. Mostly, they just stuck together.

Family Field Trip

On Saturday, a couple of families were able to go to BYU to see the offical Provo weather station. David James, who teaches at both BYU and Pleasant Grove Junior High, oversees the weather station. He was kind enough to take time out of his Saturday to teach us about the instruments they use at the station. Now when we see the Provo weather report, we know where it came from. Thank you Mr. James!

A Visit from a Meteorologist

Hillari Garner, an atmospheric scientist from Meteorological Solutions Inc., came to our camp today! She explained her job to the class and did several fun "thunderstorm experiments" with us. She was so kind to come all the way from Salt Lake! I have included a link to her company's website if you are interested. Thank you Hillari!

In this picture, Hillari is showing the class a picture of some solar panels her company uses.

Hillari formed a cloud in a bottle and then demonstrated the effects of high and low pressure by squeezing the bottle.

In this picture, the kids are imitating thunder by blowing air in a paper bag and popping it.

Six kids volunteered to demonstrate static electricity by rubbing ballons on their hair. She explained how positive ions attract negative ions and cause lightning to strike.

She used blue ice in a tub of warm water to demonstrate hot and cold fronts.





Miss Carrie played "Sno Shack" with the kids at recess. They really enjoyed shaving their own ice to make snocones.



The microscope center is always popular. The kids started out looking at ice cubes and frost in the microscope, but soon enjoyed finding other things to see close-up.

Snow painting was also a hit. For our snow paint recipe we mixed a 1/2 cup flour , 1/2 cup salt, and 1/2 cup water. The paintings sparkle when they dry!




Cutting snowflakes was also a popular math center. Some of the kids enjoyed finding shapes and lines of symmetry in their snowflakes.

The Seasons of Weather Camp

During our first week of Weather Camp, each day was themed around a different season. Monday was Spring. We learned about the water cycle, how clouds form, and why it rains. Tuesday was Summer. We learned about the sun, shadows, and heat. Wednesday was Fall. We talked about changes in weather, wind, and air pressure. Friday will be Winter. We will learn about snow and ice.




In this picture, we are building a class anemometer. Anemometers measure wind speed. Since there was no wind on Wednesday, we had to cheat and use a fan!



Each child made a sun dial wristwatch on Tuesday. They learned how to tell time using shadows.

The drama center is a popular place to be. They pretend to be meterologists for CBS (Canyon Brook School) News. :)


For our science center on Wednesday, everyone made their own wind direction recorder. This instrument can help them know if the wind is blowing north, east, south, or west.

On "Fall Day" some of the children enjoyed making crayon rubbings of leaves and classifying them.

In this picture, we are learning how to use a sundial. We were all impressed by its accuracy!

On "Summer Day" we spent some time outside tracing and measuring our shadows. We watched how our shadows changed throughout the day.

For a science experiment on heat, we put M&M's on a black piece of paper and a white piece of paper. We watched to see which melted more quickly. Most of us found that the M&M on black paper melted more quickly because the black paper absorbed more heat than the white paper.



Another fun art center this week was making sun catchers. We cut shapes out of card stock and used a push pin to make small holes in the paper.

On "Spring Day" we made posters explaining the water cycle. Everyone did a wonderful job of being creative with their posters. Some of the posters were even 3-D!

On Monday we experimented with making clouds in a glass jar. See the "Cloud Making" weather link if you would like to try this at home!

Bird Camp Day 8

Wednesday was a very exciting day at camp. We went on a field trip to the Riverwoods Animal Hospital in Provo. Heather, a nurse at the animal hospital, showed us many things at the hospital. We even got to meet some of the animal residents of the hospital which include an Australian Umbrella Cockatoo, a South African Tortise, and a Blue-Gold Macaw Parrot from the Rainforest. The children especially enjoyed holding the Cockatoo, who liked to dance and say hi.

Many of the children also enjoyed playing animal hospital during centers on Wednesday.

Bird Camp Day 7

Our science experiment on Tuesday was "Which beak is best?" We used several "beak-like" tools to crack nuts, eat seeds, suck nectar, and scoop Swedish Fish. The experiment helped us understand why birds have different beaks.
Some children have really enjoyed the writing center. They like to write stories and contribute to our class ABC book.

We got out our bird puppets and enjoyed some very entertaining puppetry.
Since we are learning about bird sounds, we decided to have a music center for the kids to experiment with sounds. We even had a few children write their own bird songs!


The bug center was very popular today. The children enjoyed collecting "rolly-pollies" and other bugs birds like to eat.

We were so fortunate to have Jim Biser, an ornithologist, come and teach both classes about identifying birds by sound. He taught them how to listen for robins, magpies, starlings, and other birds common to our area.