We are continuing our study of firefighters. In my teacher’s manual (BJU) it gave the instructions for the following experiment – it turned out to be fun and memorable (Abby remembered everything we talked about during the lesson at dinner time).
I had two candles that I put on plates using a little bit of play dough as the base (the lesson called for clay). I only had the trick candles that don’t blow out, but they actually turned out just fine.
I explained to her that only adults use matches/light candles, etc. to make sure she understood that fire wasn’t something to play with.
Then we discussed the three things a fire needs to burn: heat, air and fuel.
Once the large candle was lit, I explained that when firefighters fight fire, they try to take away the things the fire needs. We put a glass over the large candle and watched it go out (lack of air – I told her about how fire extinguishers do this). Then we took the glass off and it relit (thanks to my trick candles!). Next, we talked about taking away heat, and she guessed correctly, that we could do that with water. So a splash of water later and the flame was out (even the trick candle couldn’t handle that one).
The second candle I had cut very short, so that it would only have a short time to burn out. We talked about how the wax was fuel for the fire, and when there was no more fuel the fire would go out. Shortly after it burned out.
Overall a very fun activity. Afterwards we created a sentence story from our experiment and she illustrated it in our journal.
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