Saint Andrews Discovery : Learning about Popcorn!

Popcorn!

This week the children got to venture downstairs with Miss Marion and Miss Ann to do a special, fun lesson all about popcorn and a little about the First Thanksgiving.

The first thing we did was explore a kernel of corn with four of our five senses (this was important because we were later going to explore a popped kernel of corn with our five senses).

We talked about how it looked, felt, and what it was - and how many things corn is in that we eat. We discussed how corn grows and that popping corn is different from the sweet corn on the cob we eat at a picnic.

We had to think about HOW does a small, hard, light corn kernel turn into a larger, fluffy, white piece of popped corn. We learned about a story the Native Americans told their children (ask your child!) and then we learned the REAL secret behind popping corn: a tiny droplet of water inside the little kernel! When heated, it steams up and pushes open the outer kernel shell and the inside (white starch solidifies and) comes out and forms a piece of popcorn we can eat!

We had to demonstrate how this was done and of course, we had to TRY the popcorn ourselves! The children loved this part. We talked about how water, when heated, steams - changing from a liquid a gaseous state and then we popped our corn kernels in the popping machine. Of course, a long time ago, Native Americans and other cultures did not have popcorn machines or microwaves so we discussed some of the ways they popped corn over their fires.

The children LOVED the popcorn (all except our youngest friends who had a slightly different lesson) and we discussed how it smelled, tasted, looked, felt, and sounded when it POPPED!

This was a special FUN lesson for the kids right before Thanksgiving! They enjoyed it.

Just see how much fun they had...

You put the oil IN

And you start to GRIN

Put the corn in the POT

And you watch it get HOT

SIZZLE, SIZZLE, SIZZLE, SIZZLE, SIZZLE,

POP!!!

The children waited to see the STEAM - the water heating into a gas!

Here are some books we looked at and discussed...

And not very scientific but very festive...

Our youngest scientists did not do the popcorn lesson (since popcorn isn't the safest snack at their young age) so we came back to the Discovery Room and talked about turkeys, animals in winter, fall leaves and fall weather. The children were able to put leaves on a fall tree, add feathers to a turkey, and search and bury acorns just like the squirrels are doing to prepare for winter!