Re-Charging the Batteries

Today's Molecular Monday topic was you guessed it batteries. Before we got science-y we did some word work. I noticed over the course of the last two weeks that Isaac reads every word on the dictionary page rather than using the guide words. We look up any work we come across that he doesn't know and then I pick one to be a bonus word in his writing prompt that week. He gets a .30 bonus on his allowance if he properly uses his bonus word. Anyway, this morning I gave him his first ever dictionary scavenger hunt hoping it would be a fun way to improve his dictionary speed.

He did well, but I printed it off the computer and two of the words there were questions about weren't in his dictionary. We looked those up in mine later. After that he wrote a story about going into space and what he'd pack, how he'd prepare and where he'd go. It turned out lovely, maybe my favorite of the summer. He had an eclectic packing list as expected, but his preparations were fairly logical. Then he took his rocket ship for a tour of extreme weather in space (mainly Mars and Jupiter). He even got his bonus word in there (it was scavenge).

Then after lunch it was science time! We read about Volta, discussed the evolution of batteries and made a lemon battery.

It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. You feel a litte tingle so you've produced a current, but that's it. Mike and I looked, but couldn't find his voltage meter last night (which would have read .01). Apparently, it take 5 lemons to light an led bulb and would take 5,000 lemons to power a flashlight. The last picture is an illustration from The New Ways Things Work. It's a farmer harvesting giant lemons on mammoth back he has a zinc spear and the mammoth has a copper spear and when they use them on the lemon they get a shock. It's a wonderful book and we read the actual information below the humorous picture to end the experiment.

After that experiment Isaac filled out his physical activity pyramid with his exercise plan for the summer. Then we did a heart rate experiment. Which taught Isaac (after several tries) how to take a pulse. It taught me that Isaac is woefully out of shape! One minute of running in place and he was acting as if he'd run the Boston Marathon. After jumping jacks and incorrectly executed push-up he was acting faint. It was one minute each with rest in between. Daily laps around the yard from now on. Here he is contemplating his exercise program while munching a carrot stick.

To wrap up our day he's reading. I messed up. I requested all 15 of the summer reading list books at once because they all had between 60-200 holds on them already. Well, they started to come in 3-4 at a time. I just let him have them all regardless off due dates. Oopsie. Clearly, he should have only been able to read the ones due back soonest before I gave him the next group. So, with two he hadn't read due back Tuesday with no renewals I gave him a "Two Books in Two Days Challenge". I told him if he could read the two books between Sunday morning and Tuesday morning when we go back to the library he gets a $10 bonus on allowance and a whole day off from chores. He's well over halfway there. Go Isaac go!