Mrs. Stevens' Is Bringing the Energy into Classroom 7

Mrs. Stevens’ Energy Explorations

Initial Interest

            During the first week of the semester, I noticed that the children had a lot of interest in Superheroes. They were building a boat out of blocks. The children were then talking about adding “batteries” so the boat would run. I kept listening to their words and “power” and “batteries” kept being repeated. This sparked some interest into Energy. I wondered what the children knew about energy as a whole and the many different paths that Energy would take us. This was the birth of our exploration path!

The Investigation Begins!

          We started the investigation as a whole class with a book on Energy and where it comes from. From there, I started our small group investigation with a Wind Energy exploration. I had the children blow through straws to see if they could move various objects of different weights. They did notice right away that the lighter objects were easier to move. From there, we moved on to blowing pom poms along a taped pathway. Again, strengthening our Wind energy exploration. The children discovered that it was much harder to control the pom pom than they thought! Our next exploration was blowing “sail cars”. I attached cardboard sails to the backs of some cars and had the children try moving them with their “wind energy” just like a sailboat moves through the water. They had a lot of fun with this exploration and again discovered that it takes much stronger “wind” to move the heavier vehicles. I then added in an art aspect and asked the children to draw what they thought wind looked like. I received many different depictions of the children’s views of wind. I then added music and images of tornadoes and hurricanes and asked the children to again paint wind. This initiated some questions about tornadoes. How they are formed, how they get so strong, and so this spawned another thread on tornadoes. We then explored painting using straws so the children could physically see what wind does. The children put a few drops of watercolor on their paper and blew it with the straws. The instant gratification was really shown by their faces as they saw the paint moving as they blew it with the straw. During these explorations, I noticed the children were developing and learning several different areas of developmental domains. They were using social-emotional skills by interacting with peers, and by participating cooperatively in a group setting. They were also using physical skills by demonstrating fine-motor strength and coordination by holding the straws as they blew into them. The children were showing skills in art with their paintings of wind and tornadoes. 

Future Explorations

            The future of these explorations is endless, as we will be exploring wind energy, solar energy, water energy as well as going into weather systems. These explorations will incorporate several curriculum areas. We will be using Art to draw and paint storms, clouds, and other various weather systems. We will be using Language to communicate with each other, follow instructions, and talk about things we learn and discover. We will be utilizing cognitive skills to connect our experiences to each other. We will be using Math to explore spatial relationships and to explore patterns. We will use Social Studies to demonstrate our knowledge about the Earth and other geographical knowledge. We will be using Science and Technology to show our knowledge of the Earth’s environments and of the physical properties of objects and materials. We will use technology to perform these explorations and tasks. I hope to see the children maintain their intense interest in these ideas we’ve discovered and see where they lead us!

            This next week we will be exploring more with Art and will be painting using “clouds”. The children will be using cotton balls and clothespins to paint. The future of these investigations relies on the children’s thoughts, ideas, and questions. I do feel strongly that we are on a truly exciting path and cannot wait to see where the children take this further.