Young Scientists at the Fleet Center

Katie went to her first week of Young Scientists class at the Fleet Center in Balboa Park today.  How did I not know about this earlier???  Now she is talking about how she eats with a wedge and is moving her fulcrum around to adjust her catapult (and using the lingo)

She got there a little earlier, so we built towers for the marbels to travel down.  I had a lot of fun with this :)  Katie liked it too.

They started with circle time and a lesson about different forces.  They talked about push and pull, gravity, and magnets.  They all walked around the Science Center to try to find examples of machines and forces.  Then, miss Jamie showed them around the stations. They had several tables set up with different simple machine activities.  This is the stuff I did with 5th graders and they set up very similar projects for 3 to 5 year old and they loved it.

Ms. Jamie showing them the stations

Katie moved the fulcrum around to see if she needed more or less beans to lift her load

making her catapult

testing pulleys

Does one pulley or two pulleys make it easier?

Moving the waterbottle up the inclined plane

different angles

this wedge business was dangerous

After we left the Science Center we ran into this pirate who told us that the Natural History Museum was free today for San Diego residents since it was so hot with the fires.  Okay, twist my arm and I'll check it out :)

Helping the dinosaur eggs hatch

oh no!  its getting her

flapping the sea otter tail

opening jaws

its pirate time

Katie loved this rattle snake

and the garden snake

hi Levi

this pirate gave her booty

He wants to join the elephant herd

 When we were driving home the smoke looked really ominous, but somehow it was beautiful blue skies in Escondido.  Smoke around our house, but nothing overhead, no smell thankfully.  I tried to get it on camera, but it didnt do it justice.

smoke behind our house

from the backyard.  I guess this is from the San Marcos fire

Then I made a recipe that I got from my sister in law Vivien.  It was delicious.  My mom ate all the brussel sprouts, even though she thought she hated them.  

This is the never ending post- I hope you like it Dan!  I think I'm done now.  <3 you