We've been talking about the Pilgrims, coming to new, unknown land on the Mayflower, and their life in early America. We read some books which described the journey to America, being sick and crowded on the Mayflower, then shared our ideas about the trip. We compared sailing on the Mayflower to travel on a modern day cruise-type ship and how both were powered. The kids came up with some questions and we decided to make and sail our own "Mayflowers" (styrofoam, straws, paper) on the "Atlantic Ocean" (Murphy and Tommy's pool!).
The kids created their ships out of styrofoam (the ship), straws (the mast), and sails (paper). They took turns "sailing" on the Atlantic Ocean. The ships were powered by wind, strong, gusty winds which capsized the ships and gentle breezes which moved the ships along.
The height of the mast varied from ship to ship and the kids observed how each ship sailed as a result. The ships with taller masts tipped over easily and were sent back to the shipyard for adjustment.....the child pulled off the mast, cut some off, and had me hot glue it to the ship! They also observed the size of the sail. The ships with bigger sails caught the "wind" and moved better than the ships with smaller sails. They were able to figure out why the Mayflower had so many sails!
The kids also noticed what happened when the ship had no sail....it didn't move well!
Leaning way over so her wind can move her ship along.
Discovering that without a sail, his ship doesn't move very far. The kids enjoyed experimenting to see how ships use the power of wind. We had no sailors overboard in this activity!
No comments:
Post a Comment