Historic Flooding Leads to Learning

Recently here in Georgia we experienced historic flooding. You may have seen this on the news. We received around 20 inches of rain in a few days times. Many of the lakes and rivers near us flooded. They washed away roads, bridges and homes. Thankfully our home received no damage but many of our friends weren’t as lucky. Our county was declared a disaster area and those who had damage to their homes are now able to get help in putting their lives back together.

The rain and flooding caused many widespread problems in our communities. As a result of the water damage many schools were closed for the week, businesses were shut down and we were on a water boil order because our water wasn’t safe to drink. Unfortunately we found this out too late and both babies ended up sick from contaminants in the water. They are on the mend however, and things are slowly getting back to normal here in Georiga.

The floods brought up many questions from my children. We decided to abandon our plans for the week and study instead about rain. We learned many things including the basics about the water cycle, why it rains and what happens after it rains (be it too little, just enough or too much). We did many hands-on activities to help us learn about rain. I wanted to share an experiment we did to learn how clouds form. It was something that interested all the kids and I was able to tailor it to fit all learning levels!

First filled the bottle about 1/3 of the way full with warm water. Next tape the piece of black construction paper to the back of the bottle. This will allow you to see your cloud easier.

Light a match and drop it in the bottle.

Immediately place the ziploc baggie full of ice over the mouth of the bottle and hold in place.

Watch as your cloud forms!

So what’s going on? Clouds form as warm water evaporates into the air. As it does it forms drops of water onto pieces of dust that are in the air (the match smoke provides the dust in our experiment). As the water droplets combine on the dust they form clouds in the sky.

My children used the scientific method to determine what they thought was going to happen against what actually happened. We continued to learn about clouds- which clouds actually bring rain, how the rain affects not only our community but the world at large, and how too much rain is harmful but so is not enough rain. We did several art projects and writing projects as well. I will be posting these on my personal blog this coming week for you to see at Pass The Flu Bug Please. I tried my hardest to incorporate the lesson into all subjects.

I love that we can take time to learn about something that might not have been on our agenda but that was our lives at that moment. It’s one of the wonderful things about homeschooling… the ability to teach what is relevant in our lives at that particular moment.

To learn more about Michelle, her family and their homeschooling journey, check her out at Pass The Flu Bug Please.

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