"We Can Make the Wind!"

Since our last chat about the weather, the kids have been noticing how different the days have been. Last week we looked a little bit closer at tornadoes, but became more fascinated with the wind. 

"We can make our own wind!"

"Yeah we can use our mouths and like blow!"

"It feels like the wind."

The kids decided they wanted to experiment with different materials we had out to see if we can make our own wind and what exactly would be flying. 

They started out by taping different materials on to strips of paper. 

"Look, it's blowing!"

E sat and tested each hanging strip of paper. Some of the papers had packing peanuts, while others had gems or pipe cleaners taped to them. 

"The gem is hard to blow."

"I think it's easy."
"The feather is really easy!"

"Look, look it's going!"

E blew on the tape containing a pipe cleaner and a packing peanut. He watched as the tape stopped in front of his lips. He drew in a big breath and exhaled between pursed lips. 

"It's moving!"

While creating our own wind inside, the kids noticed something happening outside through the window. 

"It's windy!"
"Let's try outside!"

The small group marched outside with their experimental papers. 

"It's working!"

"It's blowing mine so hard. Look, it's going everywhere!"

"Mines blowing too! It's so windy out here my hair is blowing!"

The wind died down and we headed back inside to continue making our own wind in the classroom. 

"It's kind of hard to blow all the stuff with our mouths. It takes like a lot of times to make things move."

V looked around and saw some straws. 

"We can use these!"

V set down a feather on the table and blew through the straw with force. 

The feather flew across the table. V giggled with excitement and tried again, but this time it blew off the table. 

"It went off the table! It was so strong."

C wanted to test a feather too. He placed the straw between his lips and gave a big exhale that sent the feather across the table. 

Everyone erupted in giggles. 

"Let's do more things!"

V chose different materials for each trial. She began to measure their distance by commenting on where different materials landed. 

"Look, the peanut landed by the feather! The first feather went off the table."

It wasn't until V placed a gem on the table that she ran into a problem. She put the straw between her lips and breathed through it with force. 

"It's not moving! It didn't work."

She blew again. Nothing. 

"This one doesn't work. I'm going to use other stuff."

Why wouldn't the gem work? Is there something stronger we could use to move the gem? Are there other heavy things we could try and move with our wind?

V continued many different materials to blow across the table using her own breath as wind. 

A lot of our learning about weather has been trial and error. By providing different opportunities for the kids to experiment with different materials or fail during experimental trials they are able to come up with their own solutions and begin to problem solve. They become so independent working on the different activities that it's easy to sit back and listen to their conversations revolving around their learning.