Adventures in Mommydom

Hands on learning for active learners

Science Sunday: Elephants

By 19 Comments

 

We’ve been marching through our study of land animals, and have reached the chapter on Ungulates.  Last week we learned how ungulates are categorized.

elephant unit study

This week we learned about elephants.  We started off with their size.  Elephants are HUGE!

learning about elephants

comparing ourselves to animals

First we measured ourselves to get a general idea of size.

 

measuring elephants

Then we measured each of the elephants.  The range in size from only somewhat huge (Asian elephants at 7 feet) all the way up to ginormous (African elephants at 14 feet).

 

how many people does it take to be as tall as an elephant

Then we figured out how many of us it takes to be an elephant.  We figured out one of the boys and me is taller than an Asian elephant.  All three kids are as tall as an African elephant.

 

We read some more about elephants, and learned how they take baths.  They spray dirt or water on themselves using their trunk.  Of course we had to try, but we don’t have trunks, so it took some creativity……..

elephant trunk experiment

Who doesn’t love a good experiment with a straw?  My kids certainly did, they spent 15 minutes after we were done trying it some more.

 

how do elephants take a bath

So, we spent the next few minutes trying to give their toy a bath like elephants do.  We discovered it was a lot of fun, but it took some concentration.

 

Next we had to try and move things like elephants do with our own trunks.  At the very end of their trunks are two finger-like extensions, they use to pick things up.  To simulate this we grabbed some tongs and some small toys.

using tongs to simulate an elephant trunk

Then we spent the next several minutes seeing how quickly we could pick up things with the tongs.  It was a difficult experiment, but one the kids really enjoyed.

 

For more Land Animal ideas check out my pinterest board or my posts

land animals

 

 

Let’s see what others did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously.  Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

Over at Buggy and Buddy she made a great craft and science experiment: Chromatography butterflies.

Gift of Curiosity had a great post about magnets, I really loved the challenge to remove a paper clip using the magnet.  Reminds me of our how to get a popcorn kernel out of the ear challenge.

Over at All Things Beautiful, she shared a blast from the past (when her daughter was in elementary school) to help us learn how the earth, sun, and moon interact.

 

And another post from All Things Beautiful, this one tells us about the job of zookeepers.  If you haven’t read the posts in this series, you NEED to now.  I think I’ve found our summer project.

 

My last one, for whatever reason the picture is not showing up on my pin, and pinterest is mad at me, so you’ll have to take my word and  go visit the awesome post on skeletal system from Weiser Adademy.

 

Photobucket

 

<div align="center"><a href="https://adventuresinmommydom.org/category/science-sunday/" title="Science Sunday"><img src="https://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Comments

  2. Yipidee dipidee! I’m actually DOING some science to link up! I feel warm and fuzzy inside!!
    Your Land Animal Studies are making me want to redo that particular book!

    Reply

    • We are really loving this one a lot. Of course I think I’ve said that about every single Apologia book we’ve done. I can’t quite decide if Land Animals or Swimming Creatures is my favorite.

    • How funny! We did an activity like this when we studied whales last year, and that one was insane because the blue whale went all the way out into the street and was much longer than our tape measure.

  7. I always love reading what you do for activities. They are always wonderful and such great ideas! Loved how you measured you and your kids to see how many of you it takes to see how large an elephant is. I can’t wait to do this with the kids when get study Land Animals! I need to start blogging about our science lessons again.

    Reply

    • Yes, please do! I love to see how others are using Apologia as well because it’s such a great curriculum.

Trackbacks

  1. […] we start reading the lesson.  I get 2 paragraphs in and inspiration hits!  Elephants are huge, let’s go measure them.  So we read the rest of the short section and traipse outside with […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *