Instead of talking about the 4 seasons of the world (which I feel our children are not quite ready to comprehend yet), we focused our themes on rain and the rainforest this year. Malaysia is one of the wettest countries in the world and we are also blessed with a rich flora and fauna. In April, we did a unit on Good Morning, Sunshine & Good Night, Sleep Tight. In June, we focused on The Rainforest (which opened up a myriad of discoveries for the teachers, children and myself about the wonders of the majestic rainforest - I'll talk about them in a later post).
The above diagram provides a good explanation on the formation of rain. Another website featuring Drippy, the Raindrop, also provides an interesting take on the rain. When we talked about the water cycle, there were many terms -
long words- which were discussed. They are:
- water cycle
- evaporation
- precipitation
- condensation
- transpiration
The words are rather complicated, but we will revise them as part of our Junior Scientist programme. However, nothings beats having the real rain in the school. We cannot bring the children out into the rain. Instead, we replicated the rain in the classroom.
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| A steaming glass of hot water is used. The hot steam will evaporate up. |
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| On top of the glass, place a flat plate full of ice over it. |
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| When the hot steam touches the icy cold plate, the vapour will percipitate and turn to water! |
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| Lift up the plate, and we can see droplets of rain falling down1 |
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| Fascinating! |
For more details, visit this website
http://www.drippytheraindrop.com/
