Fire Department Field Trip and Great Expectations Science Fair

The fire department field trip was lots of fun, and also very valuable. I'd never considered before how frightening a fire fighter fully dressed in all the gear, oxygen mask and tanks included, crawling around inside a burning house would be to a small child. It was so great that the children all got to see what that looks like, and were reassured to run to them and not away if ever their house was on fire. I'm so glad that our kids are getting some exposure to all of these different facets of our community!
It was also great to meet more homeschool families at the fire station. Our group is growing! :)





The Great Expectations science fair was a very good experience for some of our group. Alice, Boston and Hattie Rose each did a wonderful job presenting their projects to the group.
Alice asked the question, "What kind of cheese do mice like best?" She put her two pet mice in a big bowl with some different varieties of cheese that she'd weighed. She left them in the bowl for 1 hour. Then she came back and weighed each cheese cube. If I remember correctly, she found that they liked colby the best. She was surprised by their choice. She'd guessed that they might like mozzarella the best, since she does. Mozzarella turned out to be their least favorite cheese variety. We all were able to visit with her little pets at the science fair. They were very popular! :)



Boston studied volcanoes, and built a model of a volcano. It was a very impressive model - the largest I've ever seen. It had a magma chamber, into which they put some baking soda. They then added vinegar to make it erupt. It was very exciting!



Hattie Rose wanted to know, "What is static electricity?" She studied atoms, with their neutrons, protons and electrons. She found out that when a balloon is rubbed against something like hair or a wool sweater it gathers electrons from that object. When it has extra electrons in has a negative charge. A negatively charged balloon can do many things. At the science fair, Hattie touched a negatively charged balloon to a neutral fluorescent light bulb. When the electrons rushed into the bulb, it flashed. She also attracted a neutral piece of cereal to the negatively charged balloon. The cereal was able to stick to the balloon until some of the electrons from the balloon went into the cereal, then they pushed away from each other. The flashing light bulb was very surprising to all of us!