sizing up and sizing down, part 2

Above are some of the "sizing up and down" strips that the kids in our Science Fridays co-op created. Zoo Boy's is on the bottom, J's is above. All the kids had a total blast with this homework assignment, and all had a different approach.

The kids share the details about their strips with one another. Zoo Boy had made sure to include all the various size categories on his, along with the name of the size category, using the game cards from last week's game as a reference. J just drew from his own ideas of what is larger and smaller than himself and put them in the right locations on the strip. Some of the other kids also drew, some cut pictures from magazines, and one took photos of the objects she wanted to include.

Here's a couple more of the strips. One of the "little" kids in our group just ordered things from biggest to smallest -- she said that comparing to their own size was "too grown up" for them. I loved that perspective!! Our group is geared at our kids that are ages 8 and up, but thanks to flexible thinking on the kids' parts, the 5 and 6 year old are finding ways to participate right along with them.

After sharing their strips, the kids listened to a story called "What is Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?" which is all about sizing down, down, down to the microscopic realms.

Then they viewed a computer simulation of sizing both up and down, from the universe down to the pieces of a quark. They participated in a discussion about what is the biggest thing and what is the smallest thing, and whether or not that can actually be defined. The kids were all really into it.

Then with our remaining time, they all sat down and made covers for their binders.

Zoo Boy was disappointed that there wasn't any homework this week, but I assured him that we'd read a science story before heading to co-op next Friday.