Ball Lightning

We have been enjoying the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and are reading On The Banks of Plum Creek.

We were interested in the chapter where there was a blizzard going on and balls of fire came rolling down the stovepipe.  We googled it to better understand what caused these "balls of fire" and came across this video:

We also found the following from the website: http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/ballfire.html

Laura described seeing three "balls of fire" while living in their farmhouse near Walnut Grove, Minnesota. (On the Banks of Plum Creek) What Laura was describing is what scientists today call "ball lightning". Nobody knows exactly what they are but there have been many sightings, mostly during thunderstorms. Laura did not say that there was thunder, but ball lightning has been seen without it.

Ball lightning is normally described as being a ball shape, around 0.1 - 0.2m (4 -8 inches) in diameter. Laura's description of "bigger than Ma's big ball of yarn" is consistent with this.

Ball lightnings generally last less than 5 seconds. Laura's account suggests a time of not much more than this.

Ball lightning sometimes is accompanied by a hissing or crackling sound and also sometimes a sulphurous smell. However, Laura neither mentioned a sound nor a smell.

Ball lightnings are often reported to be attracted to metallic objects such as wire fences or telephone lines and they often enter houses through chimneys. When attached to metallic objects, they generally move along those objects. Laura's ball lightnings came into the house through the metal stovepipe and were attracted to Ma's knitting needles.

Ball lightnings decay in one of two ways, either silently or with a bang. Laura's ball lightnings disappeared silently.

Some ball lightnings seem to burn objects but like others that have been reported, Laura's ball lightnings did not.


We learn something new every day!

Dick Proenneke

We have been reading Little House on the Prairie during our Snack/Read Aloud time.

The Ingalls family traveled all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to a homestead near Independence, Kansas.

We have gotten to one of my favorite parts of the book, which is when Pa builds their log cabin.

Undoubtedly at this point in the book after seeing the above picture, one of the kids makes a connection about Lincoln Logs.

I pulled out the Lincoln Logs from our storage room and the kids started building and exploring. 

Here is a picture of the re-creation of Little House on the Prairie in Kansas, near Independence.

Next, I introduced them to a movie about a man named Dick Proenneke.  

He was a man who decided to test himself to see if he could live off the land, all alone in Alaska.  He built a cabin from scratch, using only hand tools--he brought the steel parts of the tools, but even built the handles of the tools with local wood.  We learned that he was a mathematician when he measured and constructed the cabin, as well as a writer because he recorded his life and experiences in journals.

Today we got to see him building his cabin in the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.

The kids were in awe as we watched him chop and saw, carry tree trunks, construct his log cabin, build a fireplace, make furniture...just like Pa in Little House on the Prairie!

To learn more about Dick Proenneke and his adventures in the Alaskan Wilderness:

click these words to learn more about purchasing the documentary

click these words to learn more about his life

click these words to be taken to the National Park website where his cabin is located

click these words to go to a youtube search for various videos about Dick Proenneke

or watch this youtube video below:

Do you think you could do something like Dick Proenneke?

Making Butter

We got to the chapter in Little House in the Big Woods where Ma, Mary, and Laura churn butter.

We predicted how butter was made and then watched a video about making butter the traditional way.

We recorded the ingredients and directions in our Think Books. Then we were ready to begin! We put in a little Taylor Swift (to Shake It Off Up)...

and we were off!

Our muscles got tired, but soon our cream started to thicken.

We had to KEEP shaking!

Getting close!

After a *lot* more shaking, we checked inside our jars.

Once we poured off the liquid, we were ready to spread it on some bread.

Finally it was time to eat it!

We thought it was dee-licious!

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

Today we did our first mini-inquiry of the year! 
Our curiosity was piqued when we learned that what used to be Columbus Day has now been changed to Indigenous Peoples Day.
We started immersing ourselves in the topic by studying a painting.

We shared what we noticed and what we were wondering.

This is what we were wondering:

Next, we talked about how we can use our resources to answer our questions and learn more.  We brainstormed that we can:

• Google it
• ask Siri
• ask Alexa
• read books
• use PebbleGo
• ask an expert
• look it up on Brainpop, Jr
• watch videos

For our first research, we glued in a copy of the painting so we could study it more closely, and then watched a Brainpop, Jr video. 

When we learned something, we wrote down our thinking in our Think Books.

After we investigated for a bit, we gathered together to share our learning. I wrote down what they shared and posted it on our chart.  

We then focused on what mistakes Columbus made and I told them that when I was young I was taught that Columbus discovered America.  (They all gasped.)

We then coalesced our thinking to determine why we will be honoring indigenous people on this day from now on.

Melissa shared that it didn't seem right that we would celebrate someone who did these things, even though he was a brave explorer. Instead, we will honor the history of native people. 

 

We'll be learning more about the relationship between the native people and the settlers during our inquiry on the history of Thanksgiving in November, and learn about the westward expansion when we read Little House on the Prairie later this year.  

Learning is all about connections!

Dick Proenneke

We have been reading Little House on the Prairie during our Snack/Read Aloud time.

The Ingalls family traveled all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to a homestead near Independence, Kansas.

We have gotten to one of my favorite parts of the book, which is when Pa builds their log cabin.

Undoubtedly at this point in the book after seeing the above picture, one of the kids makes a connection about Lincoln Logs.

I pulled out the Lincoln Logs from our storage room and the kids started building and exploring. 

Here is a picture of the re-creation of Little House on the Prairie in Kansas, near Independence.

Next, I introduced them to a movie about a man named Dick Proenneke.  

He was a man who decided to test himself to see if he could live off the land, all alone in Alaska.  He built a cabin from scratch, using only hand tools--he brought the steel parts of the tools, but even built the handles of the tools with local wood.  We learned that he was a mathematician when he measured and constructed the cabin, as well as a writer because he recorded his life and experiences in journals.

Today we got to see him building his cabin in the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.

The kids were in awe as we watched him chop and saw, carry tree trunks, construct his log cabin, build a fireplace, make furniture...just like Pa in Little House on the Prairie!

To learn more about Dick Proenneke and his adventures in the Alaskan Wilderness:

click these words to learn more about purchasing the documentary

click these words to learn more about his life

click these words to be taken to the National Park website where his cabin is located

click these words to go to a youtube search for various videos about Dick Proenneke

or watch this youtube video below:

Do you think you could do something like Dick Proenneke?