Coin Float with our 5D Reading Buddies

In honor of Columbus Day, we took a break from reading with our 5D Reading Buddies to do some science!

Each partnership had to make a boat out of one piece of aluminum foil. They had two minutes to talk about their plan for their boat and five minutes to construct. Some made their boats small and round with high walls around the sides, while others made big boats with short walls and a flat bottom. They were welcome to test their boat to make sure it floated before their five minutes was up! 

Finally, it was time to test out our creations on the "open seas" with their crew and cargo (quarters and dimes!) Our 5th grade friends helped us practice counting by 10s and 25s as we added our coins. 

We discovered that the larger ships with flat surfaces held the most coins, while smaller, rounder ships seemed to tip more easily and take on more water or sink. It was a lot of fun to test out our ships and see if we could have made it to the new world! 

Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue in 1492!

At the end of the week, we took a bit of time to learn about Christopher Columbus and his discovery of a trade route to the Americas. We learned that the names of his three main ships were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, and he sailed to the Americas from Spain in 1492 (We did the math and figured out he made his journey 523 years ago!) . He was trying to find a new trade route to Asia to prove that the world was in fact round, not flat! He originally thought he had landed in India, but later discovered he was actually in the "New World".

We talked about what we would name our ship if we were to go exploring, and then we made some mini models of the ships Columbus sailed on! 

Next week, we are going to work with our reading buddies on creating some mini working ships out of some special materials. We are excited to experiment with them after we enjoy our long Columbus Day Weekend :)