The Crow and the Pitcher and Science

One of my favorite things to do as a teacher is to incorporate literature into a lesson. We did this whenever we could in math, science or social studies when I was in the regular classroom. This week's lesson included the book "The Crow and the Pitcher" originally written by Aesop and interpreted by Stephanie Gwyn Brown.
While reading the book, the students predict how to solve "Crow's" problem. He is dying of thirst and finds a pitcher of water with the neck too narrow, the water too low, and his beak not long enough to reach! Students draw and write about solutions to Crow's problem and we share. Then, Crow decides to give up "in despair". As we turn the page, an idea comes into Crow's bird brain and he decides to pick up pebbles to drop into the pitcher and raise the water level. So, we try Crow's solution with our own pebbles and pitchers and found out that it works.
As it turns out, Crow's hard work paid off and the moral of the story is revealed:

NECESSITY + PERSERVERANCE = INVENTION!

Christina asked if she could write that in her journal:
Way to go Christina!!!





We discussed "displacement" of water then moved on to our own scientific design.


The students were assigned to build a parachute which would slow down the fall of a plastic figure. They could only use one or all of the following: one piece of notebook paper, one plastic sandwich bag, and/or one paper lunch bag, one meter of string.


We had some designs that worked well and others not so good! We talked about the forces involved in parachuting: acceleration, air resistance, gravity - and labeled diagrams in our journals.