Ready, Set, Go Camping Brownie Badge

This badge was formerly known as Outdoor Happenings.  It is mostly a weather themed unit study. 

We read plenty of books to go along with the topics.

First we read God's World of Weather by Heno Head, Jr.  I love these Christian based science books.  No adjustments need to be made when teaching these books. 

We also read/sang What's the Weather Like Today? 

Water Evaporation.  We read Energy From the Sun and learned that the sun is useful for many types of energy.  Including the importance of the energy in the food we eat. 

*I do learn as much as my kids when I homeschool!

The weather was not co-operating for this experiment because there was not a ray of sun in the sky, but instead, I explained that the heat from the sun causes evaporation.  We took two clear plastic cups and put 2 TBS of water in each one.  We put one close to a heat source and one away from a heat source and are observing how quickly evaporation takes place.

Watching Rain and What it Does.  Discussed rain and clouds, then we read Rain and Hail by Franklyn Branley and Little Cloud by Eric Carle. 

The weather did co-operate for this experiment.  We set a clear jar outside as a rain gauge.  We measured 1-1/4 inches of rain!  It'll be interesting to compare this to our actual forecast this evening.

Shayla seems to be a natural meteorologist! 

While the rain let up, we went outside for the rest of the activities!

Which Way Does the Wind Blow?  Read Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros.  Then we made our own weather vane.  (Not real scientific, I know, but hey, we're only talking 2nd grade!)

Seed Race.  We observed our garden and discussed the germination time of seeds planted.  Also, what do seeds need to grow.

Rocks.  We went outside on a rock hunt.  It was a good way to get some exercise and stay fairly dry.  The only rules were - find interesting rocks, look for different types of rocks, and only enough rocks to fill the jar.  (Yeah, you can see that I'm not a good rule enforcer!)

We spent some time observing and identifying the types of rocks we had collected.

Fossils.  We read Fossils Tell of Long Ago by Aliki.  Luckily, one of the rocks I picked up had part of a fossil on it, so I was able to demonstrate a fossil. 

We discussed how we had seen trilobites and the other cool fossils from the Creation Science Center demonstration we went to.

We decided to take a fossil of our dog's pawprint.  She will now be immortal!