Maps and Scales

Following on from our seerah work on the Isra' and Mi'raaj, I thought now would be a nice time to look at the big atlas (they've only used their junior atlas so far) and introduce them to the concept of scales.

First, we revised which units are used for measuring length/distance and compared them to each other i.e. how many mm in a cm, cm in a m, m in a km. So which unit would be the most sensible for measuring the distance between Makkah and Jerusalem? They chose km. 😁

Then I showed them the atlas and told them we could use it to calculate the actual distance between those two places. Nowadays, we can easily use the internet to find out the answer - but before that technology existed, this is what we would have done instead!

They used the contents page to help them find the right page in the atlas (they knew they needed to look in either Asia or Africa) and then found Makkah and Jerusalem on the map. I asked them to measure the distance - what would they need? A ruler. At first they tried to do it in cm and said "around 6cm", so I told them to use mm - which is another new skill for them today! M said 62mm and F 64mm, so I said we'd go in between and say it's 63mm.

So is the distance between Makkah and Jerusalem 63mm?? M laughed and said her hand was bigger than that! So I pointed out the scale at the bottom of the page and explained this to them: the map was drawn to scale so that every 1cm actually meant 200km in real life!

The next bit of maths I did on the whiteboard and had them help with the arithmetic, but I didn't expect them to follow along with the method... So we calculated that if 1cm = 200km then 1mm = 20km. 1mm x 20 = 20km, so 63mm x 20 = 1260km. So the distance between Makkah and Jerusalem must be around 1260km.

Was it? We typed it into Google to check and found the answer given to be 1486km! Which is pretty close! We'd recently done work on rounding, so I had them round the two answers to the nearest 100km, i.e. 1300km and 1500km, and they agreed these were pretty similar.

Next, I asked them to find the page of the UK so we could calculate some distances between e.g. Birmingham and Ipswich.

M found the page quickly and they enjoyed looking at the map for a few minutes, pointing out familiar places: Birmingham, Ipswich, Felixstowe, Woodbridge, Leicester, Nottingham (where Papa's at work today!), London...

Then they repeated what they did before, in turn, and measured the distance between Birmingham and Ipswich to be 106mm. They both agreed at the same distance this time.

I asked them if Birmingham and Ipswich were further away from each other than Makkah and Jerusalem then, because 106mm was more than 63mm? They both laughed and said no, of course not. 😂 I prompted them by asking if the scale of the maps on both pages was the same or different then and they correctly answered it must be different. 👍

We did some more calculations on the whiteboard (again, not expecting them to follow the method!) and worked out that Ipswich is 265km away from Birmingham. Google came up with 264.2km, which they were very pleased with! 😁😁

Finally, we compared the two distances with each other by rounding... So Makkah to Jerusalem was around 1500km and Birmingham to Ipswich was around 300km... So how many times more is the distance between Makkah and Jerusalem, i.e. how far Prophet Muhammad (SAW) travelled in one night compared to when we go to visit Nani's house? With a bit of prompting (mainly me scaling the numbers down by dividing by 100!) they were happy it was 5 times more.

So if it takes us around 3 hours to get to Nani's house by car, how long would it take us by car to get to Jerusalem from Makkah? F quite quickly understood we needed to multiply 3 hours by 5, so 15 hours. This gave them some kind of tangible idea of how far the Prophet (SAW) travelled and why the disbelievers found it so hard to believe him!

How long did they say it should take? 1 month, i.e. around 30 days by camel. So if we were to travel the distance to Ipswich by camel, as they would have done in those days, how long would it take us? This was a little more difficult but they worked out they would need to divide 30 by 5, since the difference in the journey length was 5 times, i.e. 6 days. Can you imagine taking 6 days to get to Nani's house! But nowadays we can just get in the car and drive in only 2.5-3hrs! 😱

We finished there, but I noticed the two of them poring over the atlas together while I was getting lunch ready, MashaAllah. 😆💕

Everyday Materials

Finally covering the topic of "Materials" formally!

Here are some of the things we've done over the past few weeks:

1) Finding examples of everyday materials.

First, I asked them to explain what I meant by the "material" of something. They came up with "the thing it's made from". Then we brainstormed as many different materials as they could think of onto the whiteboard and when they were done I gave them a spider diagram of common materials to read through.

We went round each room in the house and tried to find 2-3 examples of objects made from each material on the spider diagram. As we went round, we talked about whether all the objects made from the same material were similar or not... And if the same object (e.g. a spoon) could be made from different materials - and why might that be? Why were certain materials chosen for some objects and not others? What made them good for that job?

You can download our worksheet here.

2) Learning new vocabulary to do with properties of materials.

We read through a couple of our science reference books on materials, then on a separate occasion went back to the pages relevant to properties to study them again in more detail: what do each of these words mean? Can you think of any other examples of objects with this property, that you could describe using this word? Can you find examples around the house?

The words we covered (inspired by the NC, but replacing e.g. the words "bendy" and "not bendy" because why not lol) were: hard, soft, rough, smooth, shiny, dull, flexible, inflexible, stretchy, stiff, transparent, opaque, waterproof, absorbent.

Then I gave them the following worksheet to complete by working together:

You can download the worksheet here.

3) Investigation into which material would be the best for a specific job.

I decided to go with the scenario of trying to keep a hot drink from cooling down so fast, as it was an easy one to link to the topic of materials and also introduce the idea of planning an experiment with making it a fair test in mind (the girls are now familiar with making predictions based on scientific knowledge, recording results and comparing them to their prediction, but in the past I've always just done the method myself).

So I wrote up a couple of sheets as an investigation template and we worked through them together.

I think this is also the first time I've introduced a diagram to them too! So I didn't go through it in much detail, just modelled the conventions as we spoke about how the experiment would be set up.

This was also good revision for their work on measuring, since we had to get the thermometers out again, and good practise for reading scales!

The idea of checking the temperature of the hot water for a mug without any material wrapped around it was important too, as it's the first time I've hinted at the need for a control. So this little experiment was really a way for me to slowly introduce and build up a lot of scientific conventions when designing investigations. 😀

Here's how we set everything up before pouring the hot water in. They were in charge of two mugs each and they had a thermometer each. They sensibly said they should wrap the mugs before pouring the water in, because otherwise it might make a mess! And I also told them it would make it fairer, because what if by the time they'd finished wrapping the first mug a few minutes had gone past before they even poured the water into the second mug?! We also spoke about how to measure the water before we started - i.e. they needed to make sure they were measuring the water and not the mug... What did they think I meant by that? They had to make sure the thermometer was touching the water and not leaning against the mug, because otherwise it would be measuring the temperature of the mug! Z was watching as we did it, and kept repeating this fact throughout: "You need to measure the water, don't touch the mug!" 😂

We used my phone as the timer, which is why there are no photos of the experiment in action. 🙈

I had to hold my tongue quite a bit as we did this activity... Lol. Reminding myself they're only 5 and the experiment doesn't need to perfectly fair, so long as they get the gist of things! Reflecting back on how they could improve their experiment as a conclusion can come later, inshaAllah. 😂

You can download the investigation templates here.

Learning about Weight

So we'd already looked at grams in the context of making gingerbread men and kg in the context of their own weight, looked at different objects around the house in order to estimate then weigh them, ordered different objects from heaviest to lightest...

I had this worksheet already photocopied but I'd been putting off giving it to the girls to complete because I thought they would need lots of help and the baby needed a lot of attention at the time. So when I eventually gave them the sheet, I was surprised yet pleased to find out they were able to complete it independently! MashaAllah! 😍😍 I literally gave it to them to read through while I went to do something (maybe change the baby's nappy?) and when I came back they were halfway through. Lol. 😂 Shows I need to challenge them more!!

Why does the day length change?

Following on from our earlier post, we completed the table and wrote up our results - based on knowledge they'd picked up in the meantime from books and discussions...

So even though their predictions were correct - the days, i.e. hours of daylight, became shorter - their reason to do with temperature wasn't correct. So to encourage scientific thinking, we took this experiment further by deciding to measure the temperature over the next week and see if it's also getting colder. (Hopefully there'll be some fluctuation rather than a continuous drop! But if not, it'll just lead to another discussion so it's all good. 😁) I was pleased the girls understood that because they know for definite the days are getting shorter, if the reason for their prediction was correct then the temperature will be colder each day too... If the temperature goes up and the day length doesn't get longer then it means temperature isn't the cause! And when I say understood, I just had to ask, "What should happen to the temperature each day if the day length only gets shorter because it's colder and longer when it's hotter?" and they just went ahead and explained the above to me themselves. 👍 Masha'Allah!

We bought a couple of ethanol thermometers from Amazon for the girls to use. They simply needed to stand in the garden at around the same time each day (depending on our schedule!) and then record it on the poster. Using the thermometers was a good experience too: practising reading scales, an awareness of negative numbers, knowing the bulb end is the part which measures so to make sure to hold it from the middle/other end, that it takes a little time for the red line to move so they need to wait before reading it. I've explained it simply that when it's hot the liquid inside the red line gets bigger and when it's cold the liquid shrink - which they seem happy enough with for now! 👌

So from our results, they came to the conclusion that the temperature getting colder definitely wasn't the reason for the day length decreasing as the season changes from Summer to Winter - because, look! The temperature went up and down each day but the day length was always getting shorter!

Recording the Weather

Linking together our work on measurement from Numeracy and the weather in Science, we talked about different weather types and ways we could measure (i.e. record) them:

We then put this on the wall underneath our Prediction/Results posters so we could use it as a quick reference as and when the weather changed and we felt like measuring it!

The first weather type we ended up doing was rain, which we measured by leaving a couple of measuring cylinders in the garden on a rainy day then bringing them inside at the end of the day to see how much rain had been collected. ☔

Investigating Capacity

I bought a set of plastic measuring beakers (from Amazon) so the girls could get a feel for equivalent volumes in different sized containers. We just used water as the liquid, but I dyed it with some food colouring to make it easier to read the scales on the beakers.

First, I poured 50ml into the smallest (50ml) beaker and asked the girls to tell me how much liquid was inside, i.e. what was the capacity? Then I asked them to find the next largest beaker (100ml) and to tell me what they thought would happen if I poured all the liquid from the current beaker into that one? This seems like a pointless question, but it's easy to forget just how innocent children are when they have no prior experience of something! One of them said nothing would happen, just that it would all fit inside... Which it did! And so I asked them to tell me how many ml of water were inside this beaker. Note that to them it only looked half full as opposed to a full beaker before, so they were surprised to read the scale and see it was 50ml. To be honest, I was surprised they were surprised. 😂

We continued: I asked them to find the next largest beaker in size (250ml) and, again, what they thought would happen if I poured all the liquid in the current beaker into that one. This time, one said that they would end up with less water like last time because it wouldn't be as full... So we poured the water in and read the scale - still 50ml - and I asked if there was less water in the beaker or the same amount? She said less because it was less full, but her sister said no, there was still 50ml so it was the same amount - though she said it in a questioning tone herself. 😂

Again, they found the next beaker (500ml) and again, I asked them what they thought would happen... This time, they recognised that it would still read 50ml but they said it would look like even less because the beaker was bigger! And finally, we repeated the question again for the 1000ml beaker. When we poured the water in they all (including the 2 year old lol) found it hilarious how it was just "a little line at the bottom". 😂

To complete their understanding, I picked up the 50ml beaker again and asked them what they thought would happen when we poured the liquid from our current beaker back into this one... Would it fit? How full would it look? They both said yes, it would fit because that's where all the water started from! One asked if it would look almost empty like the 1000ml did, to which I asked her if that's what she thought would happen and to which she just laughed. Lol. So we poured it back into the 50ml beaker and they all squealed with delight to see it full to the brim. 😂😂

So if you're looking for a quick and easy "magic trick" to amaze your young kids, you know what to do! 😆

Next, I put a few different sized drinking vessels on the table for them to practise etimating with: one of their plastic cups, Papa's mug for tea and Mama's glass for water!

We poured water from the jug into them in turn, estimated what the capacity of each one was and then decided which beaker was the most suitable for measuring the actual capacity: i.e. would it be sensible to use the 50ml beaker? No! Why? Because the water would't fit and just spill over the edge. What about the 1000ml beaker? No, because the water would fit but it wouldn't fill the beaker properly and it's harder to see what the capacity is - brief introduction to accuracy but not the focus for this time so didn't go into it too much! Just that look, the 1000ml beaker doesn't have 50ml on it so we had to guess it was about 50ml in there but the smaller beakers did have 50ml on them so we could just read it easily.

Finally, I let them have some (supervised!) play with the water and beakers, so they could observe what happened to the perceived volume of water when it was poured between the different sized beakers and compare it to the actual reading on the scales!

When we finished and it was time to tidy away, the two-year-old wanted to help by stacking all the beakers up. MashaAllah she independently sorted them into size order first, then put them inside each other starting from the largest. 💕

Making Gingerbread Men

Cross-curricular Literacy and Numeracy skills in a real-life setting. 😜

Continuing with our fairytales theme, it made sense to make some gingerbread men! After re-reading the story, we looked at the recipe together (revising our work on instructions).

INGREDIENTS
For the biscuit:
100g butter (softened)
175g brown sugar
1 medium egg (beaten)
4 tbsp golden syrup
3-5 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
350g plain flour

To decorate:
75g milk chocolate
Smarties, sultanas, sprinkles, etc.

METHOD
1) Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric hand whisk.
2) Beat in the egg, followed by the golden syrup, using the whisk.
3) Mix together the ginger, bicarbonate of soda and flour in a separate bowl.
4) Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture using a wooden spoon, a little at a time, until it begins to form a dough. Once all the flour has been added, work it together with your hands to make a ball.
5) Leave to chill in the fridge for 20min.
6) Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
7) Roll the gingerbread to 1cm thick, cut out shapes and place on the trays.
8) Bake for around 10min until golden brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
9) Decorate using melted chocolate as a "glue".

You can download our recipe sheet here. The ginger in this recipe is quite mild (for Papa's sake!) so you may want to increase accordingly.

Usually, I pre-measure the ingredients so the girls can just concentrate on the baking, but this time they weighed and measured everything themselves - which ties in with their next Numeracy topic on length, weight and capacity. (The cm reference in the recipe was new to them! But a good conversation starter 👌)

How I set up the table ready for them to decorate the gingerbread men:

I demonstrated how to do one: take a gingerbread man from the bowl, dip its feet in the chocolate then in the sprinkles, lay it flat on your plate, take one of the Smarties and dip it in chocolate then stick on the gingerbread man's tummy, repeat for another one of the Smarties, put the finished gingerbread man on the big plate. Then I left them to it - only helping to refill the bowl and change the big plate to an empty one - and mashaAllah they did all 26 without any problems, the 2 year old included! In the past, we've used sultanas for eyes and drawn mouths with icing... But with the baby, this was simplest for today. 😋

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While we were waiting for the gingerbread to cool down before decorating, I decided to use the Smarties as a way of practising the work we'd done so far on tallying and bar charts - simply by having the girls tally the different colours in the packet and draw a graph of the results.

I had them predict which colour they thought would be the most common before they started - which added to the fun as they tallied - and the colouring in at the end was optional, but they both decided they wanted to do it. 😊

You can download our worksheet here. Feel free to edit as you wish - I'll probably use this template myself in different contexts and will change the questions at the bottom to practise different ways of analysing data. 👍