This week in science we learned about friction and inertia.  First, Gavin walked as fast as he could across the living room with a rolled up sock in his hand, arm stretched out to the side at shoulder height (it was a clean sock!). I put a bowl on the floor and he had to try to drop the sock into the bowl without stopping.  He found that he had to drop the sock a little bit before he reached the bowl and we talked about how an object in motion stays in motion until it meets something that will stop it.

Then he spun a top and noticed that the more force he used when spinning the top, the longer it would spin, but it always stopped, even when it didn't hit anything.  This led to a discussion about friction.  

Then we tried it on the carpet and noticed it took more force to spin and it didn't spin for as long as it did on the wood floor.

We did the same thing with big and small marbles.  Gavin rolled them on the wood floor and noticed that the   big marble rolled farther and went straighter than the smaller marble.  We talked about how mass affects friction.  Then we tried it again on the carpet.

We finished up Australia but using Play-Doh and toothpicks to make echidnas.  Just in case you don't know what they are (because I'm not sure I've ever heard of them before), they are kind of a cross between a porcupine and an ant eater and are native to Australia.  Here is a picture:

First we rolled the body.

Then added a head and pointy nose, then put toothpicks in his back.

Both the boys really enjoyed putting the toothpicks in his back.

I'm not sure they really look like echidnas, but the boys enjoyed making them!  Gavin named his "Mr. Spiny", Austin names his "Grandpa"!

Then Austin decorated a bag for his Valentine's Day party at school next week.

Gavin made out Valentines to everyone he knows.

Austin got his Valentines ready for giving to his classmates.  He signed them "UA".  I tried to get him to at least write AU but he insisted it was UA.

And Adelaide has been her sweet self.

We read this book in history.  It follows a few families that settle on the frontier and follows the growth of a town around them.

We read these books in science.

And, Gavin is participating in the homeschool Science Fair in March, so we read a couple books about his topic.  He is learning about flight because he wants to experiment to see what style paper airplane will fly the farthest.

We will read a couple more books about flight and then start experimenting!