Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Spinning Light


Spinning Light
Week of 5/19/14
Catie Stone & Charlene Hughes

            The children have been exploring the Lazy Susan and how objects move when they spin it. I wanted the children to explore how they could balance or keep the different materials from falling off of the Lazy Susan when it was spun. This week we used light spheres on the Lazy Susan where the children were excited about watching the lights spin on the Lazy Susan. I wanted to see how the children would keep the lights from falling off while the Lazy Susan was spinning.
            Ali had first placed one light sphere on the Lazy Susan and then spun it. The light fell off. Ali had laughed and retrieved the light and placed two more lights on the Lazy Susan. He had one light in the middle and the other two closer to the edge. Ali spun the Lazy Susan and two lights fall off, the one in the middle had stayed. “Ali, why didn’t that light fall off?” I had asked. Ali then placed the two lights that had fallen next to the light that was still in the middle of the Lazy Susan. Jad had been spinning the Lazy Susan repeatedly with the several lights on it. Each time he had spun it, all of the lights would fall off. Abby had placed a few lights in a plastic container and was shaking it. Jad had watched Abby and then found a container and placed the lights that were on the Lazy Susan inside the container. Jad then placed the container in the center of the Lazy Susan with the lights inside. Jad spun it and the lights did not move. I think Jad had been getting frustrated when the lights repeatedly fell off the Lazy Susan. He seemed to have been inspired by what he saw Abby do and it worked!

            We have been exploring the Lazy Susan and how to balance objects while they are spinning on it. What if it was the objects themselves spinning? How would they keep the objects from falling? What will they do to balance a spinning object on a stationary surface?